a sea of stuff

Life stories

2012-01-30T03:35:00.000-08:00

'In order to give meaning to our experience, we must organize it, frame it, or give pattern to it.

To understand an aspect of our experience, we must be able to frame it within a pattern of experience that is known to us; we must be able to identify aspects of lived experience within the context of known patterns of experience.'

(A Proposal for a Re-authoring therapy: Rose’s Revisioning of her Life and a Commentary

David Epston, Michael White and Kevin Murray)

...and National Storytelling Week is 28th Jan - 4th Feb.

Being fearless

2012-01-29T09:03:00.000-08:00

I made these drawings a couple of years ago, but I found them again and it's like finding a page from a diary that meant something to me...they remind me to remind myself...try to be fearless, and keep your promises, especially the ones you make to yourself.

day four

2012-01-17T14:22:00.000-08:00

I tidied my room

I washed my sheets

I went for a long walk and found some feathers

I ate some noodles

day three in drawings

2012-01-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

I helped kids paint peppers in an art class

I looked in some charity shops

I bought supplies

I tried to fix my bike

...the end.

another day in drawings

2012-01-15T09:50:00.000-08:00

I drank a cup of tea and read a book

I helped my friend Beks to take pictures of her hair clips in my hair on the beach

I went to work and swept the floor

I ate some almonds and an apple

I cut my finger on a broken coffee cup while painting these pictures.

...the end.

a day in drawings

2012-01-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

I washed my hair

I ate my lunch while I did some work

I posted a letter

I went to my lectures

...the end.

To look at, I mean - not to read (though that's true too)

2012-01-12T01:45:00.000-08:00

happy new year

2011-12-31T09:48:00.000-08:00

Happy new year - hopefully your 2012 will be full of good things and little miracles!

Christmas Sale at Grand Parade

2011-12-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

You still need Christmas cards and wrapping paper! Don't you know there are only 17 days left until Christmas? 

Luckily the students on the MA Sequential Design and Illustration at Brighton University will be selling everything you could possibly need on their stall, at Grand Parade, Tuesday, 13th December. There will be hand-made cards, gift wrap and lots of other printed paper treats. You can also get a fancy vintage styling session for a measly £2! PLUS you will be helping us to raise money for our show in September 2012 - so everyone is a winner. 

Paper wings & old camera film

2011-11-25T10:02:00.000-08:00

If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be? I would definitely be a bird.

Last year I made a paper bird as part of my MA summer project, and I wrote all the things I loved on its feathers - like paper, apples, etc. Recently I found a roll of very old camera film that needed using up. Again the film has been over-exposed, but has turned it into even more of a rainbow bird.

I also took some photographs of a page from one of my sketchbooks - although she is crying, to me the girl looks happier now - maybe it's the effect of the colours again.

Filters and floods

2011-11-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

My first attempt at using a Diana camera was a bit ham-fisted.

That's my brother! With his super fancy digital SLR

I loaded the film wrong and probably over-exposed it too, though the colours in the pictures were beautiful. Good collage material. Here are some illustrations from the photos I salvaged.

I cut some of the photographs up and arranged them in slide pockets.

Then I scanned the pockets and messed around with them from there.

I got the slide-pocket idea from a textiles project designed for A-level students. I think it's a really good way to generate a lot of imagery from one source.

These house ones make me think of electrical storms....maybe the hurricane in 'The Wizard of Oz'.

Or a real-life hurricane - maybe that's what it would feel like to have your home wrecked by bad weather, with bits of the house fragmented everywhere.

I've been thinking about this a bit recently anyway - my Granddad's house was ruined by floods in Towyn in the 90's, and I've been writing about it for my MA project.

Arts and Crafts

2011-11-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

I just want to share something a bit different; it's a project by ceramicist Beccy Ridsdel, entitled 'Art/Craft'. Click on the photo for a full overview on Beccy's website. It's basically taking the mick out of the perceived gap between 'high art' and craft.

I think it's so clever, articulate, and funny, too - I wonder quite a bit about the differences between calling someone an artist or a craftsperson, and this sums up the conundrum really neatly. Plus I like the way it has a bit of a story behind it, and the mental image of a beardy ceramic-surgeon looking utterly puzzled over his findings...

The best sketchbook in the world...Ever

2011-11-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

I've finally found it. The best format for spilling ideas I could ever imagine - today I got a concertina sketchbook from the art shop at university!
I've never seen one in a shop before...I had imagined such things, and considered making one, but like many crazy ideas, it never happened...and suddenly, today, there it was. Perfect. A bargain at 6 quid.

Don't roll your eyes! There are so many great things about this. A concertina means you don't have to wait for one page to dry before you start a new one, so you can work really quickly. It makes drawing more fluid, because each page flows from one to the next, so everything connects up better...it's the perfect way to make a never-ending story, a full-on, rolling, stream of consciousness picture...argh I'm going into colossal geek-meltdown, but I don't care, stuff like this makes me so happy!

I've spent the whole afternoon filling it up. It's not finished yet but here are a few quick pics (taken by my housemate Amyas, on his super-clever iphone that makes montage photos...the fun never ends!).

The only thing that could trump this would be a massive roll of blank wallpaper - that's going to be my next purchase.
What can I say, I'm a cheap date.

The full length feature film spectacle! Look how long my arms are

Apple Pip George

2011-11-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

I'm currently doing an MA in Illustration. This week we completed a group project, and invent a modern-day cautionary tale. It was silly and lots of fun - my group made up a story about a little boy who ignores his Grandad's advice to 'never eat apple pips or you will turn into a tree!'. We wrote a very quick story, divided it up between us and made 2 illustrations each per section. We used the same image of the little boy in each illustration to keep it consistent.
My first picture introduces George, and my second shows him ignoring his Grandad. The story ends with him trying to prove his Grandad wrong, by putting apple pips in his food, and turning him into a tree. The illustrations by other members of the group, not shown here (though I'll try and get their permission!) were really lovely...though unfortunately our presentation was a bit of a technical disaster!

Sketchbook (mermaid)

2011-10-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

Do something

2011-10-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of a book work in progress called 'Do Something'. It's based on two lines I used to scribble in my notebook to keep me working - 'Don't just sit there because you are bored, do something to make life sing'.

I started making it after I finished university in 2006 and it was never finished, so it's become my current project. These photographs were taken on my mobile phone so are pretty poor quality and the colours are not very clear. You can just about tell I've printed on magenta cartridge paper, which is a bit too much for every page, but I think bright pink definitely does work as an addition to some of the drawings! I'll post up pictures of the finished book soon, I hope.

Switches

2011-09-28T00:52:00.000-07:00

Some sticker designs I've been making recently. Click on the switch for something else.

The oldest story

2011-09-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

These pictures were inspired by a story from the Mabinogion - 'Math, son of Mathonwy'. They were proposed as artwork for the bar and brasserie of a North Wales hotel I used to work in a few years ago. Here's an abridged version of the story - as you can imagine, it all makes perfect sense, in the way that folklore soap operas do!

Math, Lord over Gwynedd, and Gwydion, son of Don, were both powerful magicians - but Gwydion tried to steal Math's lady, Goewin, for his brother Gilfaethwy. As punishment, Math turned the brothers into animals and sent them into exile.

After three years Math let them return, making them human again. He asked Gwydion to choose a wife - good of him, under the circumstances. Gwydion asked for Aranrhod, Math's niece - but through magic, they discovered she was not a 'maid' (ahem), and had a son, Dylan Eil Ton. She was sent away from court, but gave Gwydion a secret gift as she went, which he stored in a chest at the foot of his bed. One day it turned into a baby boy.

I don't know what kind of gift that was...

Gwydion went to find Aranrhod to bring her their child, but she was not pleased. She cursed the baby, saying that it would not have a name unless it was she who named him.

So the boy went nameless, until Gwydion played an elaborate trick on Aranrhod in order to gain a name for his son.

He built a ship from seaweed....

'...and where he saw dulse and sea-girdle he made a ship by magic;

and out of the seaweed and dulse he made cordwain, much of it...'

'....and he put colours on them so that no-one had ever seen leather more lovely than that'.

Gwydion and his son boarded the ship and used it as a place to make beautiful shoes. Aranrhod became curious and wanted a pair for herself. Yes, that's right, she's a woman, and she was won over by the prospect of new shoes...

Anyway, she saw how quickly and cleverly the boy made the shoes, and not recognising him, commented on how deft the 'fair one's' hands were. So the boy got his name - 'Lleu Llaw Gyffes', or 'Fair one, deft hands'.

After that, the work 'vanished into dulse and seaweed'.

What an amazing, crazy and illogical story - the best kind! But I chose it because of the traditional element - and also, the story is local to the situation of the hotel. The text contains a lot of strong imagery, referring to the sea, seaweed, boats, cordwain, water and finally the colours. As the hotel was on a quay, that formed much of its identity - so I thought it would be quite fitting.

I made all these images really quickly, so now I've noticed how I exhausted just a few pieces of text, and I can see lots of things I would like to add or change, or ways that I could have gone into more detail, or drawn out parts of the story more effectively...but I do like it overall. It's one of many, many things I'd love to spend more time with, if time wasn't an issue (or if I was a powerful magician, like Math, and could control it....).

Small shakeys

2011-09-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

Some 'stings' made for the showreel of exhibition 'The Day The Rain Turned To Paint', at the Zion Centre in Manchester, a few years ago. Organized together with the energetic, dynamic and colourful Manchester artist Anna Smith, it gathered work by local artists, performers, filmmakers and photographers.

Blue Hearts

2011-09-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

Here's another one - I made it during my second year at Man Met. I don't know what's happened to the sound on it, how unprofessional.

Hearts

2011-09-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

I made this animation about three years ago. It was made without access to a lightbox, line tester etc - I just used my scanner and laptop. It's all scanned images or pics drawn on photoshop, so it's a wee bit clunky...but I sort of quite like it. I can't remember why I did it, or why it is about hearts. I think it was just an experiment.

I draw hearts quite a lot, usually subconsciously, when I'm doodling - their shape is very satisfying. They take on different meanings whether you draw them softly, or raggedly, or scrawly...or at least, that's what I think.

From my archives...Nic and Jo's Wedding Invitations

2011-09-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

Invitation designs for my friends' wedding last year. Another set of images I didn't want to gather dust on my computer hard-drive...and the next few posts on this blog will be dedicated to an archeological dig of my portfolio.

Apple strudel and arts and crafts

2011-09-04T10:02:00.000-07:00

Last night I met the lovely Emma Gatrill, a Brighton based musician (she sings, plays the harp and the clarinet, and probably many other things - all at once! Well, maybe...), and we had a spontaneous arts and crafts session in my bedroom, making a CD case and pocket for a demo of her album - here are the results. Not shown here is the back, onto which I attached a handmade, turquoise envelope with a secure flap to contain the CD. The drawing on the front is one I did a while ago, but spookily it looks a little like Emma.

Have a listen to a preview of Emma's album here.

Photographed by Amyas.

Cutting out and sticking things in good company is fun enough by itself, so what on earth could make the evening any better, I hear you ask (yes, you're asking, I know you are)? I'll tell you what - an Austrian feast, cooked up by my housemate and his girlfriend. Seven of us sitting round our stout little coffee table, chowing down on wiener schnitzel, potato salad, and home-made apple strudel with ice cream, plus quite a lot of wine, and then some coffee. Yes please!

Magpie Walk

2011-08-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

This is the first drawing I made for this story. I quite like but it needs developing....

A few months ago, at the end of May, I walked home up the big hill after work. It was summer, but it didn't feel warm at all - the air was thick and spongey with clouds and it was threatening to rain.
I don't know why I felt so tired. The clouds seemed to be pressing down on my shoulders and wrapping themselves around my ankles, making each step slow and heavy. I could have fallen asleep on my feet, if only there had been some way to drift home.
I was alone and I wished somebody was with me to pull me up that hill.
It started to rain. Not heavy, fast rain, but the fine rain that makes lace in your hair and your clothes.
The only way I could keep walking was to imagine a giant arm wrapped around my shoulder, somebody gently coaxing me forward. I imagined strings around my feet, and birds tugging at them as we inched upwards. It made me feel better. As I became more tired, the arm around my shoulder turned into a huge wing, like a soft, fluttering umbrella.
Finally I reached my front door. A magpie was hopping around on the pavement. I fished around in my bag for my keys, and noticed that the rain had soaked my left side, but my right side had stayed dry. So I said 'hello' to the Magpie (it's bad luck not to); and then I said 'thank you', too, and went inside.

The Sketchbook Project

2011-08-18T01:51:00.000-07:00

A long, long time ago (well, it feels that way - but really it was just last year) I took part in the Sketchbook Project coordinated by Art-house Co-op. You sign up to take part, pick a theme (I picked Jackets, Blankets and Sheets), they send you a sketchbook and you have to fill it. Simple. I'd completely forgotten I'd done it, so it was nice surprise to get an e-mail telling me that my sketchbook has been digitized and is now online. You can see it here! And maybe sign up to take part in the next one while you're at it.

Salford Degree Show and more

2011-06-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

I've been at Salford University this week for the Graphic Design BA (Hons) degree show. Graduating students are exhibiting their work at The Hive from Wednesday June 15th, with a special industry afternoon/evening on Thursday 16th June. Anybody in Manchester should go along and see fantastic work on display from Lottie Pencheon, David Ryan Robinson and too many others to mention. Expect giant cats, plastic aeroplanes, a huge array of hand-made books and zines and creatures galore. Not to mention quality graphic design and moving image work.

Also happening in Manchester now at Mr Thomas' Chophouse is Unleashed: The Best in the North. This is a great opportunity to see and buy artwork from some of the best undergraduate illustration students in the Northwest, including loads from Salford.
This post is linked up to the eyeballs, so there's no excuse not to go and have a good pint and admire some splendid pics at the same time.

WRAP!

2011-06-03T07:20:00.000-07:00

I've got some work featured in issue two of the fantastic Wrap magazine. Go and buy it now! Not only is it a splendid mag with tons of fantastic artwork from contributors such as Gemma Correll and Carnovsky, but if you buy a copy online before the 10th of June you save 50% delivery - and you can actually USE IT AS WRAPPING PAPER WHEN YOU'VE FINISHED....I need not say any more.

Artwork by Gemma Correll

a, b, c, d...LMNOP, M.O.S.T.Y.N

2011-06-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

More of my cards are now for sale at LMNOP shop on Montpelier Place, just off Western Road, in Brighton, and also at the Mostyn Gallery in Llandudno, North Wales. 

Into The Woods

2011-05-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

Throughout June I'm going to be selling some of my work and invigilating at pop-up shop Into The Woods on Grantham Road. The shop is curated by Mia Underwood, and has some magic stuff by lots of local artists and illustrators including Emily Warren and Lizzie Thomas. Come and say hello to me and to all the creatures and things in the shop!

Alternative Press!

2011-05-27T02:08:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I'll be at the International Alternative Press Festival with Adam Moore and Jaime Carl Huxtable - Sarah Julia Clark will also be there selling her handmade lovelies. Check the link for directions and times etc. Come join in the paper/card/zine joy!

Cards for sale....

2011-04-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that there are lots of birthdays around this time of year. And now is also a very good time to start writing to relatives/friends etc in far off lands to try and wangle a free holiday...letter writing doesn't have to be a lost art! So with that I am pleased to tell you that some of my pictures are now being sold as cards at the Kemptown Bookshop in Brighton (they come with an envelope and everything). Here's a few that are on offer, and hopefully there will be more to come soon (The first version of Start to Happen is on sale as a card there too). 

New things start to happen...

2011-04-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

These are my collages for the Spontaneous Structures exhibition. The title of the exhibition made me think of natural occurrences in cities, and how nature has its own agenda - plants growing on top of skyscrapers or bursting through train tracks and concrete.

Spontaneous Structures

2011-04-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

This week I have been mostly in London, taking part in an exhibition called Spontaneous Structures, which was organised and curated by the highly imaginative Miss Anne-Laure Franchette. The opening night on Thursday was packed and busy and lots of fun! Some photos are up now on the Meanwhile Space facebook page.
The exhibition is in a temporary space in Whitechapel, thanks to the organisation Meanwhile Space, and it is a stone's throw from the Whitechapel Art Gallery. It's on until Sunday, April 24th, 6pm so catch it while you can.

photos on flickr

2011-04-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

Recent work...

First post since last year!

2011-04-07T02:26:00.000-07:00

Very bad, very very bad...I need somebody behind me, hitting me with a stick to make sure I update my blog more often. So much has happened since September. I'm no longer at Kingston - I switched to Brighton University, which turned out to be A Very Good Thing. I'm on the MA Sequential Design and Illustration. 

I'll go into more detail soon, but for now here's a nice bit of news - a couple of years back I did some stop frame animation for Jo Lane's lovely film 'Time Goes Nowhere'. The film can now be seen on BBC Film Network. Go have a look - it is a really unusual and heartfelt film.  

Today I'm going to Crawley to do a workshop on words and colour with a local Age Concern community group. The workshop is for Wordfest, a great literature festival organised by Jo Harrison. Also check out the Cover Versions section of the site - I've done an alternative book cover for Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and there are plenty of inspiring book covers to peruse.  

2010-08-30T10:07:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of the mural I painted in the bathroom at Plas Gwynfa nursing home in Towyn, North Wales. Hopefully the residents are enjoying them!

2010-08-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

2010-08-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

The bathroom is window-less so it very much needed some life injected into it.
Nursing homes can be so depressing. This is something I'd definitely like to see change over the next few years. It's easily forgotten that being in that home is, for the residents, another part of their life - it shouldn't just be seen as the last leg.
I've now got three more bathrooms to go at this home and I'm dreaming up ideas at the moment.

2010-08-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

Things are moving along! I'm going to Kingston University in September to study an MA Illustration and Animation. My studio space is up for grabs. Follow the link if you are an artist based in North Wales and are interested.

Fox and Bird Concertina Book

2010-07-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

These pics are in sequence...it's a concertina pop-up book I made. More adventures of Fox and Bird...or indeed other animals!..to come.

2010-07-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Fox and Bird

2010-07-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

Things on my kitchen table

2010-04-14T01:20:00.000-07:00

pearls

2010-01-24T14:52:00.000-08:00

I had some mussels in a restaurant not very long ago and I found a pearl in one of them. So now I keep thinking about pearls....

many seaweeds

2010-01-24T14:48:00.000-08:00

red seaweed on the step

2010-01-24T14:46:00.000-08:00

A rainbow in Stoke

2010-01-24T14:36:00.000-08:00

The New Year!

2010-01-02T02:13:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year, and this is my first post since April, so I will try to make it informative! One resolution is definitely to update my news more often, to keep track of what I'm doing and working on.

I kept myself busy in 2009 with the residency at the nursing home in Rhyl, and feel I am now very close to finishing the work. I mainly did mural painting the last few months of being there. I'm now waiting for some prints to be made up, and then I think it'll be the rainbow I hoped it would be.

It's definitely triggered an interest in art therapy/occupational therapy for me, and I'd like to continue with this somehow. Although I didn't get to do as many workshop activities as perhaps I'd have liked to, working there has been consistently interesting and at times very rewarding.

In the next few months, apart from looking for another residency-type project, I'm going to be concentrating on book-making. The Lancashire Zine Fair is taking place at the end of January, which has been a good incentive for me to get print-happy.

All the info is here -

http://www.zinefair.com/

Aside from that, I have two drawings on display at Oriel Ynys Mon, as part of the Kyffin Williams Drawing Prize. January is the final month of the exhibition.

http://www.kyffinwilliams.info/eng/e-exhibition.html

I'll leave it at that for now. But I resolve to update more often! No really, I do!

2010-01-02T02:04:00.000-08:00

2009-04-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

2009-04-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

2009-04-01T04:18:00.000-07:00

One of the ladies from the home...when she was young.

2009-04-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

Postcard design for the lovely 'It's Nick's Birthday' from Zoomcitta...melancholy merriment

The Pavillion

2009-01-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

This is some work that I have been doing for an artist residency with a care home in Rhyl. The residents are elderly people with advanced dementia and the idea is to provide them with artwork which is visually rich and imaginative but also familiar to them.

seaweed

2009-01-19T08:42:00.000-08:00

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2008-12-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

Starlings at Point of Ayr

2008-12-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

2008-12-09T11:34:00.000-08:00

Post it stuff

2008-11-25T09:21:00.002-08:00

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2008-10-08T07:51:00.000-07:00

In Her Dreams

2008-10-02T04:32:00.000-07:00

These are images and pieces I made for a story I wrote in my final year at uni, called 'In Her Dreams'. I might post the story at some point.

2008-10-02T04:31:00.000-07:00

2008-10-02T04:27:00.000-07:00

2008-10-02T04:25:00.000-07:00

2008-10-02T04:22:00.000-07:00

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2008-10-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

Making and animating a cardboard pizza, for some film-credits I designed for Zoomcitta.

2008-10-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

2008-10-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

Details of two little cardboard house boxes I made for a group exhibition called 'Cabinet De Curiousities'. It was part of Fringe Arts Bath and was curated by Anne-Laure Franchette and Jan Evans. I didn't get to go to the exhibition but it sounded magic!

2008-10-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

2008-10-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

Photographs of a hand-made card. It is for sale at Anne-Laure's shop in Manchester, which opened last weekend! It is called the Silverwood Shop and sells new and vintage arts, crafts and clothes.

2008-10-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

2008-10-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

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Pages and details from various sketchbooks.

2008-10-01T07:12:00.001-07:00

These are photographs of a puppet and a set I made while in the second year at uni. You can click on the image to see her close up. There wasn't a really concise narrative, I was just playing with lighting and atmosphere - I was trying to make something quite spooky, and also looking for a way of defining the way I worked. I was also just getting interested in animation. I set myself a title for this project, 'Ladies and Gentlemen', and spun a yarn from there. I think this character is quite mysterious. I'm unsure myself whether she's a sad little creature or a man-eater.