Degree Show preview

After spending most of last week setting up and preparing my Illustration Degree Show ready for assessment yesterday, last Friday was the preview of my Fine Art Degree Show, The Unreal God And Aspects of His Non-Existent Universe, as part of the University of Lincoln Degree Show thisisit08.
I made a comic style comments book to go in it, and left to get ready and pick my children up from school, and as such I was running slightly late to meet the curator. But nevertheless, she had some positive comments to make about my installation, especially how it worked juxtaposed next to my colleagues' installation in the adjacent room.
I received positive comments from people who actually went in and "read" the comic itself, and all my worries that people wouldn't be able to see it the way I intended have been allayed by the response I've received so far!
So I will share some pictures here, and then I will share my Illustration Show as well - I have pictures of how it is currently, awaiting assessment.

Excitement!

[8 May 2008]
I have finally printed the actual comic! I'm so happy to have that finished! I was going to print several copies, but now time is running out I'm just glad to have one finished comic to go in the installation to make it complete!

Everything else is back on track, but I still have a lot to do and today I had to clear out my Illustration studio. It feels sad to know I'll be leaving soon, but at the same time I'm getting quite excited and will be glad to graduate.
Just to backtrack a bit here's what else I've been up to:







[2 May 2008]
I've finally started to set up my space now, although this was hindered slightly by the fact that Channel Four were filming an advert for the University in the gallery for a while, and the place was awash with media people and equipment!
Now that I don't seem to have any other unnecessary distractions I feel quite excited at the prospect of my show - positive comments from people have helped!
I wasted a day attempting to print my comic onto newsprint through a laserjet printer and have since considered other options, but at least my comic is finished ready for printing, so that's satisfying!
Yesterday I foolishly thought that helping to self publish the Illustration catalogue would only take up a small amount of time.... but I have finished my dolls (whoops - shouldn't mention illustration work here!!) and am addicted to photoshopping a storyboard for a potential Brothers Quay style animation.
The dolls I have been making are to illustrate Black Jack Davey, a folk rock song by Steeleye Span... that's another story, but once I've set up my Fine Art show, I will also be exhibiting my Illustration work a week later!!
As a joint honours student I had the choice to exhibit at one show or the other, or both; the other joint students are doing both shows as well, so we're in it together. I know how Clark Kent feels now......!
The bad news is that A-ha themselves will not be able to attend my Degree Show, as they will be busy preparing for a gig at the Royal Albert Hall - I sent an invite to Morten's management via Facebook, but they declined. I'm sure they would've accepted if it wasn't for such bad timing ;-)





[25 April 2008]
I'm getting really stressed out about the space for my installation, as I had tried to plan it so it would be straightforward, but the disappointment of having not secured the space I ideally had in mind is causing far more potential problems than I had hoped for.
I've been thinking about how to print my comic book and have decided that screen printing it is going to be too much kerfuffle and it'll be easier to just print it on newsprint through the printer in the faculty of Illustration.
I've been working hard to get my Illustration work finished so that I can concentrate on setting up my Fine Art show. Being a joint honours student has its benefits and its drawbacks.
But most of my drawbacks last week were caused by my boiler packing in.
I wasted so much time waiting for the gas man to come and fix it, plus the stress of not having heating or hot water for myself and my children for a whole week, that I haven't even begun to think about the logistics of building a room for my installation, so the repercussions of that are manifold.

[3 April 2008]
Today the spaces we have been allocated for the degree show have been announced on the noticeboard. I haven't succeeded in securing the space I ideally wanted, and have spent some time today trying to figure out how I can set up my installation in a room that will require a lot more work.... hmph!
I've collected my sketchbook so I can carry on with my comic book work, and I've been trying to figure out the best option for my webcast, and it's all very slow, and not only that, I had to go to the local gallery to go and watch some performance art by some colleagues, which was all very interesting, but I'd rather hide away and get on with work. I'm avoiding University tomorrow for this reason, that every time I go there, there is some distraction, however I'll have to go out in the afternoon to avoid the disturbances of the gas man.
I went to see my son play in the school band this evening. I rather enjoyed it actually, made a nice change, as I generally don't have a social life anymore....!

This is the working front cover for the comic book.
An opportunity has arisen for a potential exhibition as a separate body of work, so I've been busy making a proposal for the interest of Magne Furuholmen and Paul Stolper gallery.

Several pages for the comic book have been created, but are in the process of being adjusted to fit an evolving storyboard.
I will upload images when they've been converted to jpegs, but because they're still in the process of editing, they remain as photoshop files which I'm working on. It means that I can't really upload any images of the work in progress.

Also, the last tutorial I had has made everything feel completely futile for me right now. I'm on my Easter break. I'm getting work ready for Art Practice And Professional Context submission - more faffing about instead of doing actual work.

I got more useful advice speaking to an illustration tutor about the way the comic book will look; currently it looks a lot like a graphic novel. I wouldn't mind, but it needs to look like a comic, so I need to source some appropriate paper to print onto.

I have re-instated my a-n blog in the Degrees Unedited section. I copied the best bits of this blog over ;-)
I'm in the process of working out how to set up this webcast. It seems fairly straightforward.

my a-n blog

I have subscribed to a_n the artist's newsletter, and as such, I planned to upload a blog on their page.
This I did, but because I have already got this one, I temporarily posted a link to this one, until I had time to make another one for that.
I have been sent an email telling me that they have unpublished it, because they don't allow links to existing blogs.
This is a damn cheek, considering that I have to pay to subscribe to a_n, yet I can post links and whatever else I like on here totally free, so I'm not impressed with that elitism there....

Mini Curatorial project

I am conducting a mini curatorial project to see how my final show will work. It's not easy considering that I have a lot of work to do for my comic book and I'm still not getting enough time to spend actually making it...

Friday 15th Feb

Yesterday I dreamed myself alive again..... typical.



The question is: is this guy Steve Barron, the director, about to smash the comic book window????




Who is this mystery man???

strike

I'm feeling completely depressed after a busy (but fruitful) week getting loads of inspiration for my illustration work, but it seems that inspiration has left the building as far as this project is going this week. I am sick to the back teeth of filling out forms instead of just getting on with it. I know that on Monday I will have to have my work photographed for the Degree Show catalogue, and I know that photos will be of the drawings I did last semester, which seem to bear little resemblance to what I envisage will become of my installation.
I don't like to be in my studio at Greestone at the moment; there are always far too many distractions, and my heart is in my illustration work at the moment. I need time to breathe, and to rid myself of what seems like completely contradictory advice. Last week I felt there was a clear path ahead, but now things have started to go into the realms of complete confusion, and I'd rather not go there.

One positive thing to have come out of today, that I will probably appreciate more next week than I do right now, is that I saw a guy making an animation in the computer room that was similar to my original one, so I asked him what he was up to. I told him that I'd done something similar before, and offered some advice. He had seen my work in my studio, and commented that he thought a guy had done it.
To me this is a compliment, because I am resenting deeply any kind of perception that my work has been made by a "screaming fan", or has anything to do with that, and all people keep telling me is that I SHOULD be doing that, and I just can't see it, I can't take that seriously, but I suppose that's the point... anyway, I'm glad he thought that, as it appeals to the rebellious tomboy in me ;-)
The poor guy seemed to be having no luck figuring out how to do what he wanted to do, and I could've offered more help, but I decided to go and leave the Valentines cards that I made for Illustration there and go home early, so that I can stay at home and possibly work out my storyboards properly on my own tomorrow.
I'm going on strike!

20:39
OK! I think I have finally cracked it ;-)
I couldn't sleep at all last night, so I kept reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, a book that appeared in a blog written by Magne last month, that subsequently disappeared... there was a long list of recommendations, but knowing that my work has been about time, this one struck a chord, as I suspect Magne may well have known... Art! Time! Coincidence! Birds and Borges - everything I was missing is only fully realised now that I've finished the book (that's what I was doing to take my mind off my seeming lack of inspiration!). I've just read the last few chapters, and towards the end it appeared; each chapter is dated, with the ages that the characters Clare and Henry are at the time, there appeared a chapter "Saturday, July 12th, 2008"
This date will be my 32nd birthday, which coincides with the fact that the faculty of Illustration have booked a space for us to exhibit at New Designers in London - therefore I was planning to celebrate my birthday that weekend in London.... I have informed Magne via his myspace of this, informally invited him to come and see my work, I am considering the same for my Fine Art Degree Show - A-ha will be in London for the weekend after the Fine Art Degree Show, so they could possibly have time to come and see my work. Last week I wrote a question for Magne in a forum in which questions are being chosen for the man himself to answer... these will be chosen tomorrow! I have invited Morten, Magne and Pal to the degree show.... I may have to rephrase the question in light of my epiphany....
Today, John and I were discussing the banner I took to the Liverpool gig in 2006. The conversation confused me in my bewildered and sleep deprived state, but now everything is clear..... the banner expresses my wish, a wish that still remains unfulfilled - if the guys could make it to the degree show, it would be a work of GENIUS! Mags is a genius!
I have also figured out that I don't need to worry about storyboards! What was I thinking!! All I need to do, is to carry on the way I was working before, only document what has happened so far, and make up what happens next (ie if A-ha actually show up at the Degree Show, or if I meet them at New Designers...)
The strike is off! I have work to do tomorrow!


This is a copy of the banner I took to Liverpool


This is what I did to it, to bring it up to date following my revelation, however, I'm also in the process of editing the comic book images that I used if they will fit in the made up version I'm making... the text is so small and lengthy that it couldn't really be read if this was a banner at a gig. Which is interesting.... this won't be for a gig, it will be for a gallery. I might change the text later though, it depends what people say about it.