Christmas card 2

<----Second design out of three. I have been working with a couple of Chinese ladies and they are trying so hard to teach me Mandarin(verbally- we're not into the characters yet!). That is how this idea was borne. Out of frustration and also interest. Very simple but rather fun. I truly love doing card design, and now Christmas is over it must be Thank You cards that we design for all the elderly relatives who forget what they sent us.
I am interested in the way the languages look together on one page, a sense of unity which is perfect at Christmas time. Especially after the snow when people in the streets actually spoke to one another rather than walking by as if nobody else existed in the world.
So, how is the mandarin coming along?
Màn màn de!

Woops, too long to wait.

So, heres a snippet of the Christmas card designs we sent out this year. It has been a busy year. In September while I was having a mad clear out of my room, I found a whole book of manuscript paper from when I was prepping for grade 5 music theory a few years ago. It still had some of the old notations in it, and I really needed a quick idea for a birthday card for Dad. I started scribbling all the music notations I could remember down onto the staves, in the form of words. After many lines being used up and half and eraser in mini pieces all over the page and my lap, I managed to put enough together to form 'Happy Birthday'. Dad was so excited by it, he suggested that it be the starting theme for one of 2010's Christmas card designs. So, again, much drawing and then rubbing out, and I fonally came up with the above piece. Quite frustrating that some of the notations have to be set above the staves, as it makes it more difficult to read. But really i had a lot of fun with the designs this year!

After the Metro did an article on him a few weeks ago, I've really been interested in David Kassan. His paintings are so true to life, and although all the subjects look a little damp they display an enormous amount of emotion and really relate to their 'surroundings' in the composition. David says "My paintings strive for reality, a chance to mimic life in both scale and complexity." I certainly think that's true of the figures, as each looks unavoidably deep in thought, or struggling for something. Kassan works hard not only on the figure itself but on the entire composition, first ensuring that the background and surface is as much as main part as the girl will be. It is vital that she will not look out of place once she is a part of the picture. Indeed Kassan uses the whole composition to represent the feeling and emotion that the subject has, and transmits this visually so that we ( as the viewers, the receivers) have a similar experience. David has learnt that our own experience will be altered depending on the portrayal of his subject matter and her surrounding, and so he must adjust his work accordingly to resonate this emotion to us. Kassan explains "I am constantly seeking out work that is congruent with my own which has led me to explore the work of life size old master paintings." David, however, adds a different element to his painting, or perhaps a combination of styles, taken from his influences including Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg and Caravaggio. Certainly he strives to include reality and the abstract in each work. "The image stands alone without evidence of the artist." Photographic realism. As if he was never there, David wants the paintings to be important, and for himself to be learning and growing through the process but taking a step back, letting the artwork speak for itself.

LOVE birthdays. FACT.
Thanks Eithne for these gorgeous tulips!

Finally!!! it is finished. i strated this in august and never felt like finishing it, until last week. The quote is direct from the video tagged at the bottom. This is a response from the two weeks i spent in Durban in July 2009 with 19 other people from St Saviours church. We were working with Umthombo(Zulu for Wellspring), and organisation founded by Tom Hewitt, focusing on helping and improving the lives of the street children in Durban. Umthombo's ultimate goal is to change the way that society perceives and treats street children in South Africa.
http://www.umthombo.org/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbSQN7Rbklw

Stereotypes and Labels

This is part fo my project for Matt. Stereotypes and labels. i am centreing on the theme of identity mainly, and its going extremely slowly. the main theme in my work so far has been about disguise, hence the masquerade masks. the first option was to show different parts of a persons identity, through things that are changeable, eg. hats, moustache, masks, wigs, glasses. and the image would be strking enough that you would immediately have a picture of the whole person in your head, just by being shown one aspect, thus stereotyping yourself int he act of creating the persons image.
secondly, i was thinking about how animals have stereotypes likened to us, people are often labelled like animals too, "a bit of a monkey" " a tigress" " the lone wolf" etc etc. i was wondering whether to use the masquearde masks as as means of portraying the persons identity through animals. the mask would be made to look like an animals face, clearly showing the personality of the wearer for all to see. its a disguise (the mask) but it is displaying the whole nature of the person wearing it.
The last image, was about quotations and the words we often speak without holding much thought to their meanings when we would say them to/ about someone else. inside the quotation marks are many different stereotypes scribbled on top of each other so that they cannot be read.

Ahhhh! yes this was a challenge from Chris. I bet you can't draw a hippo in the style of Vivaldi. or words to that effect.Knowing Vivaldi is a musician, it was obviously going to be difficult. as it stands im not sure it really holds any more reference to vivaldi than to say... beethoven or bach or anyone who can play a tune. but, i completed the challenge.