I spent some time at a usual haunt of mine, The Ceramics Studio in Ettington last week, working on some hand built pieces of my own.
I’ve attended quite a few classes at the studio now, over the course of quite a few years, including both throwing classes and hand building classes. As fun as throwing is, I feel like it has a much steeper learning curve! So while I have made some decent pieces, I just find the process of hand building a bit less stressful, and more open to creating different forms.
So I booked in for a slot of ‘studio time’ which is for those who have an idea of what they want to make that might not fit their classes schedule. You turn up with any particular tools, sketches, and ideas – and they help you along the way to making it a reality!
This time, I’ve been wanting to make some small vases, that would suit both dried flowers and are able to hold water too for single stems of flowers too.
Here are some pictures of the building process! They were slab built, and I’d prepared some paper templates at home that I brought along to use – and they worked a treat.
It took about 3 hours to make 4 vases.
I then brought them home to spend my time decorating them. I’m sticking to black underglaze – of course – and a mix of just painting, plus some carving/sgraffito work.
Here are the finished decorated pieces! Now I just have to hope they survive the bisque firing!
Then I’ll be back in the studio to make some more vases, and to apply glaze to these ready for their final firing.
Let’s hope they survive it all!
I’m really looking forward to having these on show when I’m exhibiting at The Ceramics Studio during Warwickshire Summer Art Weeks!!
I hope you’re treating yourself to something creative too.
As much as I’ve grown to love Japanese culture, it was anime that started it all for me.
Like most millenials, I remember us having The Pokemon Movie on VHS, in the solid yellow case and shiny pokemon card inside. Crying when Pikachu cries …uh! My heart!
While that is one of my first strong anime memories, there were many more through my teenage years that really shaped me, my morals, and love for Japan’s art.
Here are a few that remain big favourites. (Sticking to series here, not movies)
Card Captor Sakura
You won’t find such powerful heart-string-pulls in this anime as some later in this post, but I have fond memories watching the English Dub on some random channel at like 5am every morning during my teen years, and thank goodness I got up every every day to watch it.
CCS is a magical girl anime aimed at a younger audience, and yet it explores sexuality in a beautiful way. It doesn’t call it out, it just presents it as a normal part of life and relationships. I didn’t even realise it until I rewatched it when I was older! I wish there was more media that showed love as love in all it’s forms ❤ Oh and Sakura’s costumes are adorable, so yeah.
Fruits Basket
I can’t remember how I found this. I do remember that I didn’t necessarily watch this through ‘official’ routes in the early days of the internet let’s just say.
Viewing platform aside, FB starts as a funny anime where people turn into animals, to delving into subjects of grief, identity, family, and acceptance.
While I do find Tohru a bit of a sickly-sweet character through the first half of the series. It starts to peel away that even those ‘perfect’ characters have flaws, needs, and can be selfish, and that doesn’t make them bad people.
FB taught me to treat others with respect, and to see them as individuals: we’re all different. I will carry my love for FB with me for the rest of my life no doubt.
Clannad & Clannad After Story (and other Key Animation series)
Get the tissues! Clannad, in particular After Story, makes me cry uncontrollably.
While it follows a lot of classic anime tropes: the tsudere, the book worm, the guy surrounded by cute girls. You would be forgiven for seeing it as your everyday school anime series. Stick with it though, and it reveals lost youth, troubled parents, illness, loneliness, and finding yourself. A lot of animes do this but Clannad does it fabulously, and with a great soundtrack.
Where it really gets you though is Clannad After Story (the second series) where you follow the protagonist after school and into working life. Here we explore themes of family, marriage, navigating work life balance, and being a parent.
So few animes take you beyond the classroom, so Clannad AS is special in this regard, and it is gut-wrenching (be prepared for tears). There’s also a little splash of fantasy in there which I love. It sums up how I feel when I visit Japan: there’s just something a little bit magic about it.
Full Moon wo Sagashite
The plot of this anime is pretty heavy from the get go – even though it’s got an overall light hearted and funny style. We’re talking terminal illness and death gods for goodness – is this really a kids anime??
That mix is very well navigated however. It shows courage, following your dreams, looking back with rose-tinted glasses and eventually facing reality. It’s a powerful anime for sure that pops into my head from time to time, despite never rewatching it.
The drawing style is very of it’s time but I absolutely love it, and have the art book, of course.
Ouran Hugh School Host Club
This makes it onto the list again because it plays on the idea of identity and expression. The main character, a girl, is mistaken as a boy for pretty much the whole series – that’s kind of the point – and has no qualms with it whatsoever. She knows who she is and doesn’t care how others view her. It shows a strong willed, independent, honest character. You can’t help but be gift a little bit of courage to ‘be yourself’ after watching OHSHC.
It also explores (somewhat) the theme of classes in society and the huge gap between the lives of the rich and working class. I kind of wish it explored it more, but it does a good job of it.
It’s also fabulously animated and absolutely hilarious. I haven’t read the manga so I don’t actually know how it ends…I will one day!!
So there you go. There are lots more but I better wrap this one up.
Anime is easy to snigger at or consider not a ‘sophisticated’ art form, but the themes, design, music, and lessons have followed me throughout my life. I can’t wait to see what gems are yet to be discovered, and I can guarantee I will still be watching, crying, and laughing to it for many many years to come.
What anime shaped you? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments!
I’m coming back from my 16 night holiday in Japan feeling warm and fuzzy inside. I thought this would be a good opportunity to share some of the art-y highlights of the trip and how that might translate into my work over the coming year and beyond…
Also, just if you’re wondering where to start planning your own trip to the Land of the Rising Sun, here was our itinery: I wouldn’t have changed a thing! This agenda gives room for getting over jet lag, relaxation, countryside, and city.
The holiday was a tale of two halves: the countryside and the city. While in the Aso region we were absolutely spoilt to huge vistas, looming mountains, powerful volcanos, and you-couldn’t-imagine-it valleys. I was taking mental photos throughout of the way clouds formed on the mountains, the mist, and shadows. It was just beautiful. On the other side, we visited Tokyo and saw Temples, skyscrapers, lights, and people.
Both of these left me buzzing about drawing more landscapes and backgrounds in my work.
Language
Now, I know you can’t draw audio into a picture so hear me out. I was really proud of myself that I made a real effort to speak as much Japanese as I could during this holiday (even if by the end I was relying a little on the English menus in Tokyo restaurants! It got exhausting!)
Speaking the language though makes all the experiences feel deeper somehow, like I was more of a part of it rather than a spectator. It helped me feel like less of a burden to the Japanese people too!
I’m keen to keep my Japanese skills sharp, so I am thinking of including more text in my work, but only as much as I understand. Kanji for example. Either written into the work, or things like ラ-メン on packaging or shop signs. I also got a hiragana and katakana stamp set which I can’t wait to use somehow!
The Everyday
When people think Japan they think shrines, temples, bamboo, food, technology, kimono, geisha, samurai, castles, mt Fuji…
While of course I still love all these things and they will for sure be showing up in my work, I want to include the ‘quieter’ things. The things that when you’re there you just know it, even without seeing any of the aforementioned.
Streams, rivers, road crossings, signposts, wires hanging over streets, flora and fauna, convenience, respect for nature, people, and spirituality. I want to capture all these, if I can.
There’s plenty in my head for me to work on over many months (along with all my other projects I’m working on – argh!)
No doubt you’ll be seeing some of the above playing out into my creations soon.
As many of you know, art isn’t my profession. I’m actually a full time data analyst – odd combination right?? That is another conversation for another blog post…
So anyway early last year my workplace was moving it’s main office in London to a new location, and as part of that they sent a call out to any creatives in the organisation to create something to put on the walls of the new office! How exciting!
Of course, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass so I ambitiously submitted 3 ideas…and all 3 got accepted! Suddenly I had the realisation – I have to make these 3 big artworks (big because they’re going on office walls so they’d look super tiny if they were A4 drawings!) and I have to make them fast. There was a deadline of around 12 weeks or so to send them to the office, where they would organise the framing and where they would go in the office.
So it was all hands on deck! Lots of people tell me I work fast so I wasn’t too concerned. I set out a bit of a schedule for myself to create piece 1 by this date and 2 by that date etc so I was feeling comfortable. Worst comes to worst I can take some annual leave and commit a bit more time to meet the deadline.
In short, I finished them in plenty of time actually! Some of the other artists who were picked got delayed so it ended up pushing the deadline further back so it was all good. Eventually we were all able to go to the new office together and see them framed and in their full glory, it was great!
Plot twist – they then annouced they were moving to Manchester office from the outskirts to central and did another call out! So of course I had to apply again! I submitted 3 ideas, two of them got rejected but they asked me to add two that were similar to the ones I did in the first office so I did end up doing 3 again. I took some of the learnings from round 1 and I was happy again with how those turned out.
I’ll put some pics below of them up on the walls of the office, it’s been a fantastic opportunity and my legacy will live on there for as long as my work is on the walls haha. Ironic that I am now known as the Artist rather than the Data Analyst – which is what I do there every day!!
Designing for office space: my learnings:
Think you’ve made it big enough? Make it BIGGER! Commercial wall space is HUGE, so make the most of it
Go bold. My work is usually fine line drawings, and they just don’t cut it when you’re looking at a piece of art from 10 metres away: it looks like a blank piece of paper. Use thicker pens, thicker lines, and have a clear silhouette to make your work visible
Think about yourself as an artist. Sounds silly but that artwork is going to be there for a long time (hopefully). I sometimes wish I’d done one show-stopper of a piece that makes people stop in their tracks, rather than 3 ‘good’ pieces. Quality over quantity
Don’t be a yes-man. The second time around, they asked me to make some ‘like the ones you did for London’. Which I did, and then thought…”but I didn’t want to draw that!” If you don’t want to do it, say no
Overall it’s been a great experience, and who knows maybe they’ll move another office and I’ll put some artwork there too!!
It’s a question I always get asked at shows: “where did you get the idea for this?”, “what does this mean?”
I always feel like such a downer when I give the honest answer that is…I don’t really know!
I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t go to art school or maybe I’m missing out on a trick but I don’t really have much of a process for my designs… what process I do have I’ll elaborate here…
Ideas I would love to say that I go for long walks or meditate and get inspired but it just doesn’t work like that for me. Ideas bubble up at their own will. I am merely a vessel to take these thoughts and put them into the world. I know that sounds dramatic but it does kind of feel like that sometimes! While I do my best at putting pen to paper, I’m not one of the greats of art ok I know that!! I could give my idea to someone else and they would create it with much more skill than me…but that idea is mine and mine alone, so I treat each idea as precious.
Sketches Ideas often come fully formed so most of the time I don’t plan my designs before hand. If you’ve seen me at art shows you might have seen me drawing straight onto the paper without any references. I like that because it forces more of the illustration to come from my head. I could look at art books and study the designs of flowers, or I could remember a flower as best I can, and create something new; something with a bit of truth, and a bit of imagination.
The only times I do sketch really are when I get ideas out and about, e.g. on the train to work. So I often carry a tiny notebook with me for those occasions, just to loosely capture the thought.
Illustration The main thing I think about when drawing is: what do I feel? What do I want the viewer to feel? It’s often hard to quantify, but drawing is such a natural thing to me. It’s something I need to do. It’s not optional or a choice, it’s a part of me. Again – sounds dramatic, but it’s true! Anyway, going back to the drawing. Sometimes I will sketch out some of the design and sometimes I go straight in with pen. In the past, I used the draw the whole design out in pencil first but then I felt like the pen work was just redrawing, taking away some of the spontaneity, so I do as little as possible now. I also don’t have the patience for spending so long on the planning phase: I just want to complete this design so I can move on to the next!
I’ve taken the plunge and started a website (again)…. I think this is my third attempt… I’ve tried various sites and styles over the years, hopefully this one work work longer term!
I’ve been using Instagram as my main communications platform but I’m hoping I’ll look a bit more like a professional artist – fake it ’til you make it and all that. Instagram will be my main channel still just because I already have followers over there, but I will be posting on here as well. Both for anyone to see but also for myself. It’s easy to forgot how far I’ve come, and I spend too much time comparing myself to other artists who post what feels like every day on socials, whereas I need to focus more on comparing the ‘me’ now to the ‘me’ in the past so I can see my growth.
I’m already feeling good about it actually: when I was updating the Events page on this website I realised just how many events I’ve done, and I haven’t even recorded any of the open calls where I had a piece in an exhibition, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten some events too.
Also just reminding myself of the fact that I started my art ‘career’ in 2017, a long time ago now!!
Anyway like I say, I’m hoping this website will help me to share what I’m up to with the World Wide Web. I hope you’ll drop by every now and then too ❤
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