As part of our professional practice, we had to make business cards. (The sound of it just sends a ripple of excitement through me every time!)
Dan Peterson who leads all the PP sessions agreed (took it upon himself more like) to help us all out with the design and printing side of things, all according to our own preferences of course. Because of his contacts, we got a really good price for 500 cards each (I still can’t believe there are so many, don’t know what to do with all of them!), which is pretty amazing.
The first image is what I have on the back of my card, and the second has all the appropriate text over it. I am really pleased, although at the time I still hadn’t started working on my website, so the cards only refer to my blog. Not the end of the world in any way. They were done in time for the show in Bristol, which was brilliant.
And here are the final pieces from the Bristol show.
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‘UNVEIL‘ is about entering the state of dreaming, becoming your astral self, unveiling the door to that realm of infinite possibility of which the moon is a guardian.
‘EXPLORE‘ is a scene from one of my vivd dreams where the sun was rising over the seaside (the exact moment when the dark of night and the daylight fight for dominion over the dome of the sky) its light gently washing over the massive planet and the mirror-like sea. Even though there were no waves, the surf board moved on its own with my intention, much like everything else happens in dreams.
‘ENCOUNTER‘ is about the person I kept meeting in different scenarios in a number of the dreams (if not all) which inspired this collection of artworks. The geometric forest is a concept I came up with many years ago in a painting i was never pleased with, and now seemed like a good time to revisit it and give it new life.
‘SEE‘ is the attempt to visualise a bit of a dream where that person’s eyes were there, real, on his face, but they also somehow had the scale and gravity of immense planets, and at the same time they had the spiral pull of galaxies, it felt like I was being pulled in and I could float about and observe them from a distance one could fully observe a planet or a galaxy, while I was fully aware that I was looking into a pair of eyes right in front of me. A very surreal and overwhelming part of the dream but completely enthralling and mesmerising.
‘TOUCH‘ refers to the idea that in order to lucid dream, the first challenge (or the first gate of dreaming) is to be able to look at your hands during a dream. It also refers to the strange sensation of touching and experiencing the texture and weight, pull or push, of objects in dreams – enhanced and very real but at the same time… not.
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Originally ‘See’ and ‘Touch’ were quarter the size of the rest but because of a misunderstanding at the printer’s I had prints of all of them in both sizes.
That being said, if you like what you see, get in touch and you just might get one of the original prints! :)
At first I wanted to represent the idea that the bubbleverse was in fact all the particles of the body of the primordial creator god. I ended up drawing this guy thinking, I shouldn’t limit myself to a strictly human body shape, even if it’s massively simplified. if it’s an entity of unfathomable dimensions then I can just let my mind go crazy and see what comes out.
I was especially pleased with the watercolours I was using at the time because I was getting bright and vivid colours, even when diluted. I had the thought to add the heart as a transparency to the great emotion which drives this being, out on display like an emblem but also a core part of the being itself.
Unfortunately I drew this being for no reason – I had already decided to discard the rainbow creator and replace it with the mirror creator. The whole idea that god created us in his image, that we are god and god is us… and most importantly- the self-reflection in the context of the universal genesis.
Further on, if I decide to continue my work on the project, I will definitely find a use for this concept drawing. Not just yet though.
A few days ago I was playing around with neon markers and ended up making these two images…
frequencies, 2016
distortion
frequencies has a lot to do with the dream-themed images I’ve been doing for the exhibition in Bristol (Within/Without). I like to think that when we dream all our frequencies are in tune so this is about them coming together slowly and all at once.
distortion comes from the same headspace but that has more to do with my final project for the degree show at the end of the year. In trying to figure out how to represent the god/consciousness that created our world I thought to experiment with the ‘blank TV screen’ visuals – that black and white distortion which is in constant motion that I once heard was in fact frequencies emitted from the Big Bang.
I’m planning to turn those into prints to have at the show, so if you like what you see, you know where to look :)
This is the first piece I did with the intention for it to be finalised and displayed in the upcoming exhibition. After doing a few more pieces it was certain, I wasn’t going to be putting this one up; not too pleased with the outcome.
That and the fact my idea shifted – this piece is mainly about the beginning of the dream, the physical self, the dream self and the influence of the moon. For all the other pieces I ended up settling on dreamscapes and scenes.
reader info: the original artwork is on the right (in the collage below), the other is inverted digitally and edited.
For the recent formative assessment I wanted to show concept artwork and a storyboard for the animation I’m working on. Instead, I decided to create a continuous drawing which tells the whole story.
It is a mixture of a number of creation myths and my own interpretation of scientific discovery. The story begins with the bubbles of the multiverse, each one its own universe. We then dive into one and witness, bit by bit and as a whole, the creation and development of what we soon realise is our own world.
The image turned out to be 3,33m which I thought quite intriguing. I used pencils, acrylic, gold, silver and white pen, and a bit of gouache.
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Any comments, feelings, and generally creative criticism of all kinds would be greatly appreciated :)
This Christmas, I decided to actually sit down and create portraits for my family. I asked my mum to send me some pictures of my grandparents to work from, what I didn’t tell her was that I was going to use a photo and do one of her and her partner. I wanted to make ones of my sister and father but I started quite late and couldn’t get round to it on time. Also, being really secretive about it all and making sure no one knew I was doing portraits added an exciting danger factor to the whole experience.
It was a nice project, something creative to do while I was back home for the Christmas holidays. I didn’t bring anything to do with my uni project or dissertation, so I could clear my mind and breathe easy for a while.
my grandparents
mum & BoB
I’m actually quite happy with how they turned out as I did it all as an experiment – single line portraits aren’t really something I do often, but now that I have tried it out, I think I can make some interesting work.
I did this last night, like I used to, as a way to clear my head and subconsciously express my emotions, thoughts and inner states. With my personal, social and work lives taking turns in every possible direction I cannot help but feel dizzy (in a very emotional sense). It sounds ridiculous but I do have so much love to give, so much love for the world, so much love for life and its mysterious ways… In a way I feel aware of everything all the time… Something which causes my mind to overload on a regular basis. But that’s fine, because it is those times that I come up with the most interesting concepts………
Anyway…
The last 3 posts were in fact answers to the three questions written on my feedback form from our formative assessment about a month ago. I was told to take some time and work on a statement, so I decided to take these questions as challenges… hence the writing.
I do understand that perhaps I can shorten them.. considerably… but what can I do when it feels like there’s so much to say? It’s like as soon as such topics arise people just nod and look away. A constant “yes I’m aware of this but I choose not to engage.” WHY? Even when talking to the tutors about my idea, which I have done over and over again since the start of the academic year, it feels like each time I’m talking to a wall – no response, no thought, no nothing. Do they not see that what I’m exploring areuniversal concepts?! Do they not have their own opinions on the matter?! I refuse to believe that they haven’t thought about such things at some point or another.
I’m tired of wondering. I’m tired of thinking. This is what it is. These writings are a small fraction of everything I’ve got going on in my head, and it will be a miracle when I finish my statement. I don’t know how to stress the importance I believe this has – mutual understanding. In a way I end up taking everyone’s position on love, unity and cooperation for granted… am I just a naive dreamer hoping for a brighter future? Or am I one of these people, whose light is constantly smothered by the commercial bullsh*t of “society”.
This, whatever it is, that we all live in is not a “society”. It’s more like a machine designed to swallow up creative, thinking individuals and spit our mindless conformist consumers… it’s an endless struggle… until one remembers that they are not subjected to this system, that they are a building block that could be a part of something infinitely better.
This way of thinking, “someone else will do it”, isn’t working. It never has. “Be the change you want to see in the world.” No more excuses…
Once I finished this piece, I went out on the look for frames. I knew I didn’t want this drawing to be forgotten away somewhere in a sketchbook or an album, and I wanted to give it an honourable place in my room.
CHROMOSAPIENS 
