Age UK Brief : Life Stories

Cheryl and her husband, Kenny - 2002

We were asked as a group to produce a book to promote age awareness  in collaboration with the charity Age Uk. We were split into two groups and visited two day care centres within the Manchester region. During these visits  we each worked with one of the people within the facility, the majority of which

whom suffered from dementia. The idea was to gain a sufficient amount of information 'Five things you didn't know about me' from the chosen patient in order to create a double page spread consisting of some imagery

representing the information and the transcript that influenced the piece. 

 

I have been working in collage using artists such as Erin Kemp  and Sabrina Ward as inspiration. I've been aiming to avoid using Photoshop as much as possible as it's my standard practise. I used it for the first time earlier to manipulate the faces of Cheryl and her husband into the heart locket above. 


[faces pixelated for privacy reasons]

I have been using Brusho as opposed to watercolour or acrylic and oil paints because I prefer the look it gives - anyone who has used Brusho before will understand it's unique powdered effect and impressive colour bursts when mixed with water.

/cheese/

You could argue that it reflects the strong memories within people, especially those suffering from dementia - the moment a memory resurfaces they will cling to it - emphasising the colours and expanding outwards the way Brusho powder does. 

/endofcheese

I did some test collage pieces using standard imagery inspired from the information I had managed to gain from my chats with Cheryl. I was greatly inspired by Sabrina Ward's font/writing style and have attempted to reproduce it within my own pieces. 

My main themes are 

Paris | Effeil Tower

Painting | Sketches

Scottish descent | Family

Classical Music

lipstick | red

Warm beds

Beach

My transcript that I'll be using to influence my piece is:

Cheryl was much like any other young lady, taking pride in her appearance, she enjoyed holidaying Paris with her two daughters and son, visiting the beach, swimming in the sea, lengthy busy pieces of  Classical Music, seeing family up in Scotland and the warmth of her bed. She used to create large vivid canvases and handheld sketches inspired by her vast experiences and currently lives with her 

loving husband, Kenny. 

Tim Walker

http://www.timwalkerphotography.com/

Tim Walker is a London based fashion photographer. His photos are exciting and overly extravagant, engaging and unique creating an unmistakable style. The majority of his works have featured within Vogue for over a decade now. 

I became aware of him by a friend who is studying fashion photography in Stoke-on-Trent, she pointed me in his direction during a brief chat and I realized I had seen a fair few of his works before hand such as the advert he created for the Dior fragrance. 

He creates visually stunning pieces, rich with colour, detail and imagination. 

Each location and costume is more stunning than the one before it leaving you eager to see more examples. 
His works are able to retain the professionalism of the fashion context while being fun and fluid with emotion and ideas.

His work appeals to me because it is so enriched with fantasy like notions. His ideas are surreal, appealing and help inspire me, I love his use of colours, lighting and surrounding detail to emphasize the model and her clothing. His work is something I could never tire from admiring. 

Banner Research

We were asked to choose a topic within the News that we could design banners for in response to Ed Hill's work, I choose the European crisis in which China is offering to bail out using their vast amount of gold reserves.

However the price on such a claim would require the EU to remain silent on China's terrible human rights history and current proceedings. The papers are in protest in regards to this as are many others, China is nicknamed 'Fu Guo, Quoing Min' - 
Rich Country, Poor People.
To quote the article I'm basing the project round 'More than 200million of it's citizens are officially defined as living in poverty'.

During my research I found more protest imagery for the Olypmic Games back in 2008 that were held in Beijing. A majority of which were funded by Amnesty International. 

"It is quite appalling that the EU is happy to let millions of Chinese suffer because it has taken a lot of money from this dictatorial Communist regime.
"It shows the EU is no champion of human rights, and once again China is guilty of economic bullying of the most blatant kind. I find this stance unacceptable. Now is the time for Britain to take a 

stand."

I also looked into some other forms of human rights posters to get more inspiration.

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

I visited the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair after the People's Museum as they were literally down the road from each other. I really enjoyed the craft fair, there were so many unique pieces of art and craft on display. I admired the presentation and dedication made by each artist to advertise their work, by the end of the day my bag was weighed down by postcards and business cards. 

http://clareknoxbentham.wordpress.com

http://www.jennifercollier.co.uk

http://fayepower.webs.com

http://www.charlotteverity.com

I adored one of Charlotte Verity's necklace designs, a fun, bright and colourful accessory created by hand torched glass with sterling silver. Entrapping a combination of faceted round cubic zirconia stones in various colours and sizes depicting a rainbow. I ending up purchasing the piece as a small keepsake since I was so fond of it <3

On the March by Ed Hall

I went to see Ed Hall's On the March Exhibit at the People's History Museum recently for a new brief regarding protest and campaign banners. I was surprised by the sheer amount of work he has produced - over 500 banners since the early 1980s that have been used in many, many different campaigns and marches ranging from Trade Union and Death in Custody Protests to various art related and Society banners.

 The booklet contains a fitting quote by Jeremy Deller;

'Ed Hall is probably one of the best known artists in Britain in one way,

but people would not know who he was, 

because what he does is basically anonymous.'

I'd never heard of him previously but I'm sure I and many others have glimpsed one of his pieces on the streets or News during a protest or campaign. I find his way of working interesting as it's similar to my preferences in the sense of combining paint and pencil with fabric and sewing techniques to create an image. 

Ed Hall combines satiny fabrics with block cottons to help them stand out amongst the crowd, he experiments with the font sizes and positioning to create the most impact. 

I found it interesting that some banners made use of bias binding to outline the blocks of colour and how on some he had sewn round the entire letter of each word while on others they were just applied with fabric glue.

Some used a careful sewing technique while others the sewing haphazard and simply there to keep the fabric in place.  

You could also see the pencil marks on some of the more painted than fabric orientated banners.