Inspired in London; Newsworthy Winnipeg Events

I am back from my trip overseas, and am now contemplating what the next step is for me in my art production. The course I took in London at Central St. Martins was honestly almost exactly what I was looking for in a course. It had been several years since the last time I took a drawing course, and found it really refreshing to go back to school after being away for a long time and suddenly I felt more confident in my own style, in what interests me, and in ways of working. Most people in my small class had either completed or were in the process of completing a degree in either fine arts or graphic design. And there were a few who had backgrounds in other academic areas. The class was very multi-cultural, with everyone from different country, except for one fellow Canadian. It was also really great to be surrounded by talented artists.

I feel like I was reminded of the value of sketching, of getting ideas down and actually observing my surroundings as something valuable to record on paper. For so long I have only been creating things out of my imagination and actually rarely use reference photos, and I think that shows in my work. I usually ignore backgrounds, don't use cropping to my advantage, only sometimes mix media together, and usually don't put a lot of value on anything I make that has a "sketch-y" feel to it, I usually prefer if my lines are more accurate. This course helped me to rediscover the fun in drawing and drawing quickly. I always enjoy drawing, but this brought a new light to it, as we would nearly each day go out to an area of London and sketch it- maybe a museum, maybe a public place, but the idea was to get inspiration from where we were and then go back to the studio to rework some ideas or to use that perspective in a more focused work. The course was titled "Graphic Witness: The art of Reportage." We even went to the law courts building one day and drew what was going on with the court proceedings. These were brand new experiences for me, and I found that I really loosened up and was able to sketch fairly quickly to record things. It was rather refreshing. I sent an email to myself on the last day of classes reminding myself of the things I thought that I had learned, so that in case I got home and felt uninspired I could read the list and hopefully assess what I could do to add a little more mojo into what I was making.

A challenge for myself that I am thinking of doing is to create ongoing images based on what's happening in the news, as this idea of reportage has really grabbed a hold of me. My first such image is this one that I created today, pictured above. The Bodies exhibit is coming to Winnipeg,and is something that holds quite a bit of controversy. The display includes actual human bodies that have been changed, exposed and essentially converted into rubber to preserve the human form. Much of the controversy surrounding the exhibit is whether or not is respectable, honourable, right, or deplorable to display human bodies who likely were executed prisoners from China. Under Chinese law the bodies were lawfully obtained,as their bodies were not claimed, however the whole exhibit brings up human rights issues. I am undecided on the issue, as I am personally really excited to see the Bodies exhibit, but I may change my mind upon actually viewing it.

Here is a link to a free press article about the display: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/bodies-coming-downtown-100513534.html

I have arrived in London!

I arrived yesterday in a slightly dazed state due to not sleeping all night except briefly for one hour on the plane. After finding my residence, I had to find my school's office and show them my passport. Then, after getting that out of the way I wondered around London for a while, whithout a true purpose except to find something to eat and just appreciate the sights around me. I told myself that I wasn't allowed to go to sleep until at least 8 pm, with walking being the only thing keeping me awake. by around 6:30 or so I had wandered over to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is a stunning, stately looking building that is enormous.
I didn't bring my camera with me for this jaunt around because I was just too tired, so I stole a picture of St. Paul's from this site: http://beautyisobjective.blogspot.com/2010/05/london-attractions.html

Having slept well, and waking up at a riduclous hour (4:30 am), I am ready to plan out my day, and actually enjoy London as a well rested individual. My course doesn't start until Monday, so I have a few days of full-fledged sight seeing to do.
On the agenda for today: National Gallery or Tate Modern?

First impressions of London:
It is busy! So many people walking, with a purpose and somewhere to go.
There are a lot of busses.
The English use direct, but strange wording on their signs. For example in the tube stops the signs read, "WAY OUT" with arrows. I find this strange because why not use the word exit?
The tube's signage could use more icons (I think I am saying this because of my familiarity with Mexico City's metro system that links each stop with a sympbol, which I appreciate as a visual person).
I like the accents (something I knew before I arrived...)

Here is something I wrote while waiting in Iceland for my connecting flight:

I'm sitting in the Kevalik Airport in Iceland having spend the past 6 hours on a plane. It is 1 am for me, which means it is approaching my normal bedtime hours, however, a three hour plane ride awaits. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep a little along the way so that all of tomorrow(today) isn't a write off due to lack of sleep. So far, Iceland kind of looks like how used to imagine it before I really ever saw any pictures of Iceland- It looks a little the way the prairies look in spring when there's that transition time between brown and green. We flew down onto the runway which opens up off of the coastline. Unfortunately I wasn't in a window seat, so I couldn't really get the best view of flying in off of the ocean, but the land surrounding the tarmac is made up of varying degrees of low-lying green and brown bits of grassiness. I would say that it is good advice to not judge a country only on their airport. It is now raining, and I am disapointed in Iceland's airport because it is too early for any shops to be open, and I'm just really thirsty right now, and was hoping for maybe some tea or at least a bottle of water. Not even a vending machine in sight. The airport itself looks Scandinavian (or maybe Canadian...). Of course by Scandinavian I mean that it looks like the furniture may have been designed by Ikea. There are large floor to ceiling angled windows looking out onto the ariport runways, which I appreciate because I hate it when airports forget to include windows in their terminals. I can hear change being counted, and perhaps the sound of an espresso machine which tells me that something is open, so I may try to get something to drink before we board in 10 minutes.
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As a note to that, after writing this I ended up chatting with two guys who had also come from Winnipeg and were waiting for the one-hour delayed London Flight. This made the airport waiting much less dull, and one named Garret who lives in the UK gave me some helpful guidance with the trains and underground tickets once we got off the plane in London.

Exciting Events

One of my best friends in the whole world is getting married! I designed her wedding invitations for her. Happily, she only needed a simple drawing to complete the idea she had about the invitations. This is it without the text(though in final draft we ended up switching it to landscape format). The sketch above is a cartoon version of them.

In other exciting news, I leave for LONDON, ENGLAND in one week! I bought a new sketchbook today and couple of other supplies I will need for the week-long short course that I'm taking. I'm starting to get really excited both about London, and about taking an illustration course. I ended up deciding to take a course called The Art of Witness: Graphic Reportage at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design. The excitement is really starting to build now that I have time to think about the trip.