Self-Portrait

This is an animation I made to show what its like in my head sometimes, for 'a moment in time'. Its still not really finished, I want to include more images and do another voice over and noises so there is lots of talking at once. im a bit embarassed of it, its so weird hearing your voice back!! But i decided to do it this way because i can just talk to myself and make some sense withut making much sense, and I love the excitement when it finally all comes together.

i made this animation using photographs, drawings, a lot of patience, a bit of insomnia, photo editing and talking to myself. i dont really like it but I like that it says what I want it to say, sort of...  It is a bit intense and raar raaar...

But Anyway, watch if u feel like, i dont know if its stupid....
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RC9jKAlpcKc

ANIMATION!

You wont believe what we did today.....

We made a feature length film.

 Ok, so its only 19 seconds long...... But oh my god, learning how to make animation has opened up a whole new world if possibilities. One moment we were scribbling and rubbing things out, taking a few pictures, the next we were watching it come bursting to life, moving on the screen. I absolutely loves it!!!

Lauren, Jo and I made a little charcoal story. So here is our second attempt at animation, the first one was trial and error. We did a seed growing into a tree and come blossoming to life, then thoughts growing up from the ground. It ends a bit suddenly but, not bad for a practise run, we were pretty proud of it anyway!! 

I literally felt a bit sick with the anticipation as we uploaded our images, and squealed with excited delight as we watched it all unfold before us.....
Yeah, things with me can be pretty intense. I dont mean to be a drama queen, it just comes naturally. am exhausted now!!
There is something really magic about watching your images come to life.

Check it out!!!!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tSl7QW3uCFg

Continuous Linings

Here are some of the continuos line drawings i've been doing. i do them quite quickly and freely, just leting the pen go where it wants to go. The result  shows my train of thought, different emotions and feelings. On this one I filled the background in with ink and water. it accidentally got rained on, which actually made a nice dotty effect.

We had a workshop where we had to take our ideas and make a doll for our portrait. Mine is not a doll as such, but a little maquette. I am using the image of tree to describe myself.... A tree is growing and stands strong through all kinds if weather. The branches reach upwards and stretch out, sometimes the twigs and vines get tangled up. 

 i cut the tree shape from 5 bits of card, and drew continuous faces and eyes and things going on, i stitched the paper together to make a 3d tree,and left some if the threads hanging down like roots. I like that it us made of paper because it is fragile and delicate.

Pictured with the balls rolling around, these are ping pong balls that i covered in writings from my journals over the years of trying to make sense of the noise in my head. They are like thoughts rolling round, overlapping and not making much sense.

And here are some continuous doodles that i have then computer edited to make blocks of colour or to repeat the image.

The line is a journey, it tells a story. My final piece us going to portray a journey through my mind. I am thinking f making a mobile rsomething so that things are hanging down and moving. It might all seem a bit dark or messy, but its supposed to be, because thats how i felt. Its nice that i dont feel like this anymore, when i draw i am not desperately trying to get it out, just seeing it as a piece ofart that tells a story, and thinking how best i can portray it.

Jeez i sound like such a la de da artiste these days

Hi, I'm back

I have abandoned my blog. My good friend Ian said he needed something to read and he likes my blog, and he said i could just start with "hi, i'm back". So hi, I'm back.

havnt blogged for freakin ages, just sort of forgot about it and gots caught up in other things. i worry a very lot, and since i was gonna blog about a few things and then didnt, i just didnt know where to start and so avoided the issue, sorry for any empty promises..

 

Quick recap, just to get up to date with myself and make sense of life.......whats been going down? last proj was memento and wish you were here....i did keep a travel journal and do some drawlings in spain....and i ended up making little mini wearable pianos out of origami ing fabric. It was a crafty project and i tried lots of new things like making felt from sheep hair and banging bits of metal together, and kuttle fishing, and there was shiny things.

Ummm we been on a couple trips... We went to London on the coach to the National Portrait Gallery. Some of my friends disappeared to china town and came back with fortune cookies, but i just had a gander round the gallery and liked it a lot. School trips are always a laugh.

Oh i had my birthday, that was the best....22 now.

 This year on my birthday was really happy because i realised how far  have come in a year. I was at uni which is my fav place, even though I had my assesment that day (did really well,) and i spent it with my friends from my class, we looked fancy in our dresses and we had a boogy and drinks  though i was very sensible and have learnt to drink in moderation.. But everyone else has jus turned 18 and got wasted, and that was a hoot.

Its a big comparison to my 21st, spent at The Funny Farm and then Therapy group. But that was still the best birthday in a while, since i was feeling much better and we had cake.

Umm so that brings us up to now. The unit is portrait and narrative image making. This is my most favourite exciting project yet, because i loves making stories and doing drawlings and stuff. I am doing a self-portrait, which i worried was maybe too revealing or self-absorbed or something but i ignored those silly thoughts and doing it anyway, because there is only one of me and i am the person that i know best. So i have been drawing what my brains might have looked like over the last few years, to tell the story of a journey through craziness to wellness. Ive been doing these continuous line drawings with the idea that the line tells a story when you follow it, and i draw all the emotions and stuff. I am having fun with it but dont feel yet have created anything that could really explain what i want to say properly. Ive also been playing with distorting the face to show distorted thinking and changing, using photo editings and sketching.

Everyone in my class is doing really interesting work... Making moulds of teeth and masks and crazy dolls and male/female transitions and aging faces and cool things with fashion or photos or clay. Oooooh so many possibilities.... Always look at other peoples and think they have such cool ideas and maybe i am just doodling too much? Its cool being around all arty people because you bounce ideas off each other. 

Also we have been doing life drawing again with the beautiful lady and her glorious bosoms, and we gots to do painting in oils on little canvases, like what proper artists do, at our easles with our squinty eyes.

Today i had an egg sandwhich and the egg got in my hair.

Who Are You

That competition i entered, my piece got shortlisted in the top 25.... Yippeeee.
So now it is down to a facebook vote to see which image gets the most 'likes'.

To help get someones work on a billboard, go on Facebook and type in 'AUB inspired' ... Then click on 'Who Are You? 2 Shortlisted entries (Years 12-13, fda, diploma)', and vote for your favourite. Just like and share the image.

Hint...Mines the scrabble tiles! And i really wanna win!!!

Voting closes today so hop to it. :)

Memento

So, think i may have sabotaged my chances with the 'Who are you' competition....got a bit carried away and couldnt decide what to enter, so entered 3 different pieces... This may have been cheating.
So if on the teeny tiny chance that they tell me i've won, i'll just have to be honest and tell them i cheated.
But ho hum I had a blast taking part, and thats what counts.

We've broken up for easter hols now. I finished me slippers proj and got a distinction!

Am technically on a break..so decided to chillax.. but was bored after an hour so just got cracking on artings, already stuck into the next unit.

Since been off have also tidied up a bit (flat lookin spick and span) and put food in my fridge and seen people. And been to the library every day to look at books (the uni lib is much better, but  cant be bothered to drive to bournemouth).

Like to keep in the swing of getting up and out....to think i didnt do anything before studying...what did i do with my life?

The theme for this proj is 'wish you were here'. Im going on holiday to spain on Wednesday to stay with me madre, for a whole week, so going to keep a travel journal and do some sketchings. 

Last time I went to spain was ..aside from the quad bike accident (that was pretty bad, sorry mum)....but mostly due to not being right in the head, and people confusing me...was disastrous. Disastrous doesn't even cover it actually....

This time is gonna be great.

All packed and ready to go.

I cant wait to have a week of blue skies and seeing the doggy woggys, and time with my ma. will probs blog and upload some photies.

I am excited for this project, we have to develop craft and design ideas to make a memento. I have been researching some really interesting artists, and looked up the meaning of memento.

it means a souvenir, something to remember something or someone by. It can also be to give a warning,
and  comes from the latin 'memento mori' which means, 'remember you will die...'

Its all very optimistic.

I dont want my project to be too deathy, but thinking of doing something about how life is fragile and we should make the most of it.

So since I am vaguely interested and perplexed by life and death, have plunged straight in at the deep end with a little mind map of life and a littlemind map of death.

anyone have any views on life / death?
All views welcome.

I have a lot of questions abut these topics, but I dont know any of the answers.

Who Are You?

I'm entering this arty competition, you have to answer the question 'who are you?'

http://www.facebook.com/inspiredAUB/app_229376917149574

How would you answer this question?
What image would you use?

The question has got me thinking and inspired me..its like making my journal into art.

The prize is to get your work supersized onto a billboard... Which is pretty awesome..though kind of scary, because everyone will see it.

But its good to do things that scare you. And there seems little point in me being an artiste if i dont want anyone to judge my work...

I've been trying out a few ideas.. Its such a broad question and i have a million different answers, and things i want to say.

I started off with a mind map, and thought of just doing a mega one to submit as my piece, but perhaps this isnt very easy on the eye.

I could talk about who i have been, who i am now, who i want to be. I could do something about humans in general.

I think a good piece of artwork is something that can be interpreted in different ways, so it carries an individual meaning to each person.

I want people to make a connection with my art so that it is meaningful to them.

Alternatively i like to do something that makes you smile, or provokes some sort of emotion.

I also like to use art to express things that are otherwise too difficult to explain.

Anyways, im not sure which to submit yet, but here's a few scribblings and photos and editings and possible responsings..

This is kinda cool as I'm discovering more every day who I am,

Life is a journey and blah de blahh...

and I like scrabble.

Plus you have to sort of figure out what it says. 

 

I am a Work of Art

scribblings in my note book, talking about me and people generally.

I photographed it on my table that is covered in paint, because that is who i am, usually covered in paint.

I made  the image black and white because the writing says it on its own.

 i would probably rearrange some of the words, or maybe do a piece on the last bit, which says

 I am a masterpiece.

that's something i never thought I would say, but I think its true for everyone,

human beings are so intricate and complicated

And really its amazing..

This is an image of my writing about who I am, all back to front and skewiff

because once, I got really freakin confused

and things got messy

and I really didn't know who I was or if I was even real

I did some oil pastels, scribbling over and etching out words,

because I like scratching things off.

The blobs of paint and mess are luminous.

you cant make out the writing in my notebook,

because really its irrelevant,

its like a secret code, because everyone is a unique combination of stuff

And everyone has secrets and things you cant work out about them.

I am Not Afraid

This is an image of my face, the eyes being the window to the soul.

One of the eyes is all swirling and complicated, an eye inside an eye,

Its an image of brain-wonkyness.

I added the text I am Not Afraid.

The picture is sort of a lie, because i'm pretty much scared of everything, but its like one of those affirmations when you tell yourself your not.

I'm not afraid anymore of life or mental illness.

Fingers up to you,

This is an image about being strong.