Tomorrow's Presentation

Hello everyone! So tomorrow I'm going into work and giving a presentation on self expression through art, this has been such an awesome thing to do and I feel totally in my element. Not only do i get to do art, but i get to experience it with others and help them!

Swoons

So here is my powerpoint, I'm sorry about a couple of things.

1. The english isn't good because it has to translate well into Bulgarian, it does make sense but some grammar is not good. 
2. Also, the last slide will not play, so it has to be played separately. 

My talk will involve what my presentation is about (I will obviously have a translator since my Bulgarian is not up to scratch and this is something that cannot afford to be mistranslated). The topic is helping people express themselves. There was a point raised by a student that she did not enjoy making art in certain ways other than the way she likes and knows, so this will hopefully nudge them to exploring other techniques and give them the desire to try new styles. I believe the lack of not wanting to change comes from a lack of inspiration, self confidence or ar unaware of other styles, because this is exactly the way I felt about myself and have had friends in the past feel the same way. I will instill self confidence through this process. So, enjoy!




After the presentation I will que the video which will launch my ongoing project with them. Oh my god i am soooo excited!

Let's Make a Fingerprint Racoon from Animade on Vimeo.

My project idea is to make a visual journal. The journal cover will be our starting point for the day. We will make pictures of ourselves, in mascott form and put them on the cover. The mascott will represent yourself in the most postitive way, in whatever style they feel most adequate. And from there on we will start with page number 1. This will include a picture and some text, anything they want and feel is appropriate to describe something e.g:

• How their day went
• How they currently feel
• What their hopes and dreams are
• Goals 
• Things that make them happy
• Life events

The journal is something that they can read and discover things about themselves. The journal will be examined by the psychologist in order to help them though something (all the children have different problems). So in order for them to better express themselves and move on, the journal will always be a go-to place to let off negative emotions in a positive way. It also allows a lot of self reflection in a positive manner. Positive thinking is the best!

The world is turning so fast I can't stop looking

So it has been long over due for a blog post, now more than ever. So much has happened to me this year physically and spiritually, and it is time I come out of my shell as I feel I can gather my thoughts appropriately. I promise myself I will not leave it this long. I don't know If i will promise that my posts will consist purely of illustrations and of such a topic, but it will be consistant of important issues and personal subjects.


mental trash can
(expression.) a place where one writes 'junk or 'crap'
in order to 'take out the mental trash' and make space 
for more .

eg: my blog is a landfill!


I am sorry for bombarding you with so much in one post but is is inevitable. I will have to make subtitles "wow, that's when you know!". So I will begin with post number one.

My working year.
My last year has been spent working at a home for the elderly, Sunrise Senior Living of Bramhall. Over the year I have come to experience life in work, adulthood and true teamwork. Having to work along side people and work in unison is something that takes patience and trust, the latter being some kind of personal difficulty. The job itself felt like a good move for me, as the core motivation was to help people and ensure excellent quality of life, something that I feel is very close to my heart. I feel like I have had an inside look at things that not many people will see and experience, the emotional side of being there for people in need. I found that I could go home happy, and be pleased with the work I had done in making people feel better. However, there was something that I had perhaps ignored, or tried to avoid for sometime. Having to go home when you know someone is sick, or having trouble coming to terms with their aging and sickness, was a very very hard thing to do. There were times at night where I'd stay up and worry about it, there were times I stayed an hour behind, this is not the kind of work you can pick up and go for 5pm. It is very hard to detatch yourself to something like that, and for me i feel it is impossible. But I do have some lovely memories, and I often think of the residents and collegues I became friends with. I often smile, when I think of how many people I made smile, through a bad day. One inparticular (Names have been changed for protection), Vivienne was struggling with depression because she was losing her ability to walk, and communicate. There were times she would leave notes and tell me she didn't want to carry on. But everyday I would try my hardest to fit in a spa-bath for her, she loved having a spa-bath. Because of her illness she would often fall, many being quite bad falls. The spa-baths always made her smile, we would even joke, it was so nice to see someone who is going through something so life changing, to smile and joke, and forget about everything for 15 minutes. That is one of my many highlights. And so my year at Sunrise came to an end, taking with me some great memories and friends.

My Spiritual year
As always I am learning and reading, challenging my beliefs and questioning. I believe that the best way to learn it through challenging your beliefs and opinions, and not to be offended or scared when new theories are infront of you. Everyone is entitled to their beliefs, however, one should not become settled in them for too long. That is what I believe. This year I feel that our world has taken a big step in challenging beliefs, traditions and people's comfort zones. I see many people promoting feminism, one speech that I find to be most on point was made by Emma Watson in United Nations to launch the He for She campaign, on September the 20th. In the past so many men have been scared of the word feminism, the very notion of it seemed to appeal only to women, which brings me to the point. Emma Watson has challenged that problem, and challenged men to step up, as a whole we need to change this, not as a gender, not only as women. 

“It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals.” -Emma Watson, He for She campaign

It is a very inspirational speech, which is why I chose to write about this. 

I have seen many people discovering the idea of feminism, and adopting it - I applaud you! It is still an upstream struggle. And there are some who are still unwilling to see that the heart of feminism is equality and essentially a subheading of humanism. So to the people that say;

 "People who never mention the words "feminism" or "women's rights" were suddenly interested." - Amy McCarthy on Huffington Post
*This post may cause mild frustration

It is never to late to start. I see this kind of opposal all the time, and it has got to stop. Who are you to question someone elses motives? If you suddenly want to beome a vegitarian, feminist, activist - who is someone else to tell you that because you didn't think that way 1 year ago, you can't think that way at all. It is scaring people into silence and it is this kind of toxic perversion that sends us back into the stone age. Stop! 

Live and let live. 

Travels and Working Abroad
Finally, the last three months I have spent living in Varna, Bulgaria. Whilst my time here has only been short, I have done a couple of things of which I am proud of. I have become a member of the Bulgarian Red Cross (BRC), working with children who are living in poverty, have family troubles or are from a low social status. The purpose of the work is to provide a sanctuary, and a happy place for them. As I cannot share much details of the children and problems, I can briefly say that I have found it to be similar to working at Sunrise, bitter-sweet, wanting to do more but knowing that you cannot for obvious reasons. My time there has left me in ucertainty of my future, as I wanted to teach before and empower youngsters through learning, but i have interests in psychology now. However time will let me see which path is right for me. I personally find it extremely hard, emotionally to deal with accepting the hardship some go through. Though my soul wants me to help these people, I find that I am often overwhelmed by my emotions. As I have not been here long I will update more on this subject later on.  

And this week, actually I am writing this article whilst working (naughty me, but it's a slow night) I am currently at the Bulgarian Red Cross Festival, the first since 1991 (that's older than me!) and I am proud to be here. I am representing England, though not officially, but I am the only English person here. It is a Festival which celebrates the BRC's achievements, rewards the volunteers and brings together all the humanitarians. We all have in common the desire to help the less fortunate and people who need our help. Earlier this year a natural distaster hit various parts of Bulgaria. A flood destroyed the homes and belongings of many people, the majority of which were already living in poor conditions with little to no money. After the floods, many of the people were homeless, with no clothes, shelter, food and water - and this is where the Bulgarian Red Cross comes into it. The BRC not only provides, food, water, shelter and health care, but volunteers continue to work with these victims until their quality of life is restored. The BRC also continues to work with many deprived people, like the place I work with children. It is purely funded by a small government allowance, not nearly enough to keep the whole thing going, which is why it relies on donations. Life is very hard in Bulgaria as the government is very corrupt and was not very long ago considered a 3rd world country, so there's not much money to give out. But luckily there any many people who are willing to lend a hand, for nothing but a thank you. This week has been eye opening, and it makes me feel good to know that there are so many good people scattered around everywhere. Thank you!

 

"Through humanism to peace and friendship"

Final Major Update

The last week I have fallen sick and not been able to get much done, so after many horrible tasting pills to make me feel better (Yes, the ones the doctor prescribed!) I feel a bit more energetic and able to get some stuff done. I've finished mostly everything, I've yet to print out my Zine, poster & business cards, and some of my creations over the past week. I really wanted to have this done in reality but right now it really can't be done.

Mug Designs

I want this mug in real life.

And my T-shirt designs 

The T-shirts are going to be tie-dyed in blue.

I have also got down to making some versatile greetings cards. These products will be used to help fund the arty campaign & ways that the audience can show everyone that they are an 'Arturselfer'.

And these have been actually made, not mocked up!

I plan to have the mock-ups of this ready for the show.

Turner's Gallery!

This week Turner's has opened their gallery to show off all the 7x5 submissions! I unfortunately have to take mine down because i need it to hand in for my Final Major Project, but it did go in their gallery for about a week! Having seen everyone else's canvases I feel like we all thought out of the box, there were so many different styles and ideas and they were all equally eye catching. It felt like stepping into a gallery where snippets of art from each time period were taken and put onto the canvases. It was very nice to see that people from the community had come together to make such a lovely exhibition for a good cause! So well done to everyone!

There's mine!

Teenage Market

The Teenage Market is an chance for all the young artists in the stockport area to get themselves out there and have a really good time! The event is held inside the old Stockport Market Place on the 28th of April. Hannah, Katie, Lyndsay and I have been selling our designs. We attended the event not only to get ourselves out there, but to raise money for our Final Major Project Shows, so it's all for a good cause! 

The Teenage Market was such a fun event, we are all trying to figure out if we will be able to make the next Market in July, we met loads of really nice people and also bumped into a few familiar faces! It really boosts your confidence when people come to admire your work, and especially when people actually want your work. From what we learned today, we were not very prepared, since it was our first time there we quickly learnt what we should do for our next Market. It appeared that there was quite a variety of cards, so selling cards was difficult since pretty much everyone sold them. Our best seller was the Canvas bags, having sold nearly most of them! I went around to have a nosey at other peoples stalls and there was so much to choose from, from clothing & jewellery to art prints & canvases. Next time I would like to make some clothing, like different kinds of t-shirts (sleeveless, cropped) some thing a bit different. Tie-dye also seemed popular. I would also like to make more household items like tea towels, mugs, stickers, anything that can be used. I saw a lot of prints throughout the day but it didn't seem to get that much attention. 

The day was very busy, there was a radio station there, some professional dancers, and some nice local musicians doing covers of popular songs. There was also a henna artist there, which i was drawn to, but i resisted! After a long day of selling from 10am to 4pm, we managed to raise........*drum roll*...... £25! Well done to all of us!

Our stall ;)

Youth Club Visit #1

Today I went to a local Youth Club after arranging a visit  a couple of weeks ago, to get started on the street event (where the dolls would be on show!). I made some work sheets for the little work shop i was doing to get some ideas generated for after the holidays when it comes to painting the dolls. I wanted to get them thinking about different ways to show your passions and aspects of themselves by thinking about what kinds of things they were interested in, like favourite colours, favourite shapes, and animals that they think are like them in some way, i got them thinking about how to put their favourite things into symbols and patterns, without it being 'realistic'. I wanted everything to by somewhat stylised so it would be simple to apply it to the doll. I have kept the work sheets so that they can look back and remember what things they've drawn to apply to the doll, which i will figure out next time i will go (after easter). Next time I go i will be preparing drawings of dolls to help them figure out where to place the drawings they've done. The time after that I will have the  model dolls ready to paint! Exciting! Here are some stuff that the children drew today, and some of the work sheets I prepared for them.






                   

                                                                                                                 

Worksheets

Click to Enlarge!

Examples:

 Work already produced, this was to help inspire them!

Express:

This was used to think of things that they are passionate about and things that make them individual!

Ideas:

 This was where they put words to drawings! I asked them to create patterns & simplify the shapes.

Create:

This was where they drew a version of themselves using the patterns and things they liked!

Colin Self

This weekend I was lucky enough to be in Norwich at the time of a Colin Self exhibition at NUCA, called 'One Thousand Sketches'. Self was actually a student at NUCA before he attended Slade in the 1960's. Self is a Pop artists and works with a variety of medias, which is actually something i really admire of him because even though he works with different medias he has his kid of look of making things, although some of his photography and digital manipulation are quite 'out there' and far away from his sketch work, to me. The display was supposed to evoke feelings of restlessness and self immersion from the audience. A lot of his drawings were influenced by the cold war and other main scares during his younger years, for example nuclear war, and challenges our view of the world.

8x8 Book Launch

The 8x8 book launch was actually a project from last year that was published this year and we had an event at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester. We had to create illustrations to go in a book, working alongside writers from the Manchester University. Working together with other students was really a ton of fun, and we made sure to talk in person rather than e-mail and phone calls, which was actually really nice to do since in todays age we rarely get to work with people in person.  The book launch was an absolute success, and during the event talks went on to advertise our project and show our works. There was an opportunity to be interviewed on stage and I decided to give it a go! It was quite nerve racking but when I was on stage everything just seemed to flow really nicely and went just as i had planned. My question was "Why was my image chosen to be in the Rogues Gallery?" The rogues gallery is the illustrations which didn't get to go along side the story text but were still featured in the book. My answer was simply "My illustration was a creative journey for myself, experimenting with elements and different types of illustrating that I had not done before, I think with more practice and refining my images would have most definitely been chosen, which is my goal for the future". It's safe to say our launch was a success since we sold out all our copies!

Photos above by Bryony Hopkins

My work featured here

Age UK: Revisited

So this week was our Age UK illustration launch at Stockport Town Hall, and I have to say what a great success it was! We had lots of interest from strangers, and we had a speech and even a ribbon cut to open our mini exhibition. A big well done to everyone who put the event together and also to my classmates and I for doing a truly great job. I was impressed with everyones work and it was so nice to see strangers interested in my work! I think it really pays off when you put so much work into a project and you get to see the impact it makes on people from the smiles on their faces. The project was aimed at raising awareness of Dementia and Altzheimers disease, and other memory loss related illnesses.
It was an emotional journey for us all working with people suffering from the illnesses and hopefully we have managed to somewhat help people dealing with this, or even towards making us one step closer to a cure. Here are some pictures I took on the day of our exhibition:

This here is my work 

Click to Enlarge

Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest & Museum of Industrial Olive-Oil Production

During our last couple of days in Lesvos we decided we could not miss out on one of the most notorious attractions of lesvos despite knowing that it would be a long treacherous journey, Lesvos is the 3rd biggest island in Greece and Sigri, where the museum is located, was on the opposite side of the  island. It was well worth the time and dodgy roads, it was amazing what time and a little bit of volcanic ash can do to trees! 

The Olive Museum

The olive museum was also some thing we visited in the last few days. It was not very high on our to-do list but since it was not too far it was well worth our time. It showed us an in-depth look into what the workers had to do to create the renowned olive oil of Greece, and also presented the agricultural side, and the technological development Greece was going through during the time the oil mill was in production.

I found this weird! In Greece :)

It was huge!

Hello! (This is me)

Really cool old box designs!