Saturday, 21 February 2009

Pay It Forward

Pay It forward

"This poignant novel of a young boy's unfailing belief in an individual's power to change the world and the ultimate goodness of the human spirit is destined to become a classic. Demonstrating the same universal appeal as "Forrest Gump, " Hyde's story is a down-to-earth look at the virtue of innocence and of faith--not in a deity, but in humankind."

Catherine Ryan Hyde author of the book pay it forward:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pay-Forward-Catherine-Ryan-Hyde/dp/0743412028

"Young Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother's alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, is caught up by an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet. The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward--repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people. Trevor's efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in the lives of himself, his mother and his physically and emotionally scarred teacher, but in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him. Written by Jim Beaver {jumblejim@prodigy.net}"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223897/plotsummary

Catherine Ryan Hyde and Leslie Dixon writers of the screen play:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pay-Forward-DVD-Kevin-Spacey/dp/B00005LDEM/ref=pd_sim_b_1




Evans Pritchard


“Any one can produce a new fact:
the thing is to produce is a new idea”



Sir Edward Evan (E. E.) Evans-Pritchard (September 21, 1902 – September 11, 1973) was a British anthropologist instrumental in the development of social anthropology in that country. He was professor of social anthropology at Oxford from 1946 to 1970.
Arts For Health Improving health and well-being

"The Wrong Hand" project came about because I had broken my right wrist which was my writing hand. I was left disadvantage for carrying on with my work which soon led to not only being effected physically but also mentally. I found that "The Wrong Hand" work really did help with improving my health and well-being just through creativity.

I have been thinking of how creativity, craft, art and design can help the health or well being of other individuals. I feel that if I had not have carried on with "The Wrong Hand" then both my creativity and development for my MA would have come to a stand still.
I feel that "The Wrong Hand" has become a significant tool for myself to continue. It has been making me think of how it can be translated in a way to help others.

Already I have used "The Wrong Hand" ideas to set a project for my younger sister.
She has just started secondary school, she has been finding some things difficult with personal home issues and starting secondary school. She talks to me on the phone and on line some times and she told me of how she has been feeling sad. I had mad her some wrong hand t-shirts and a wrong hand doll, she found them fun and wanted to know how I made them. I explained that she could do it and create her own wrong hand creature.
So I decided to write to my sister and send her one of my new "Wrong Hand" creatures with a letter explaining how she could make her own.
The one that I sent to here was called a "Hug Bug Thing" which is a hug sent from me to her so she can have a hug from me all the time even if I am not there.

The Dice Man


The Dice Man

I have just started reading the "Dice Man" by Luke Rhinehart. The Dice Man" was first published in 1971; written by George Cockcroft under the guise of his alter ego, Luke Rhinehart, the book attracted a cult following and has remained a popular - and controversial - work, seen by many as subversive and permissive.

"Inspired by an intriguing happenstance, Rhinehart one day makes a decision. He lists half a dozen options then rolls the die to decide which one he should follow. The result pushes his boundaries and opens up a new set of experiences. Bit by bit, he hands his life over to decisions made by roll of the die. The result is a hilarious, amoral rampage of a novel as he infects others with his ideas and injects a pattern of chaos into the chaotic order of his urbane, successful world."



www.amazon.co.uk/Dice-Man-Luke-Rhinehart/dp/0006513905


Chance 1.The ways things happen through no known cause or agency; luck, fate. 2. A possibility, likelihood, 3. An opportunity, an occasion, when successes seams very probable.

Verb 1. Happened without plan or intention. 2. Coming or happening by chance

By Chance as it happens or happened without being planned .

Take a chance take a risk act in the hope that a particular thing could happen.



Friday, 20 February 2009

Kiwon Wang

Kiwon Wang
This is examples of recycled paper jewellery by Kiwon Wang





Kiwon Wang

"My work is based on the theme "East meets West",

which is the meeting and the interplay between

materials and forms, methods, techniques

and literature. In every step of my jewellery creation

I combine the Eastern traditional boundaries

and the Western modern boundaries, reaching the

realm of where objects adorn the body using

contrast, tension, absence and presence.

Please discover and enjoy my creations"

- Kiwon Wang


http://www.kiwanwang.com/about.html




Sun Shine

Sunshine

The sun makes us all feel so much more happier, it makes so many people smile including myself .


Drawings by the wrong hand

Wednesday, 18 February 2009

New Or Old

I have been thinking of materials new and old, how they work together, especially with my work as I use recycled materials. How does the material effect the reaction of a client or the viewer?

Retail Desire;
So from a retail point of view matirials efect everyaspect; a marble floor caan covey elegence where a laminate floor signals efficiency. A silk coverd bust form is traditional where one finished in brushed steel is ultra modern.
But it is not just the material themes which talk but it is also the way in which they are used and combined.

You can take a completely new material and give it a new vocabulary by using it in an unusual or unpredictable way.

New materials or variations and improvements on old and new are drivers of creative energy.

Many manufactures team up with designer, or designers team up with artist to achieve increasingly progressive thinking around the finished products or outcomes. Collaborating ideas to archive a more divers and innovative outcome.

I think that by investing heavily in research of materials it increases the retail potabilities, as well as making it a desirable material to be used in different areas.

I think that this is important for me as I use recycled material, end of life material the key to my way of working is to find other uses for it. And by looking at it from a retail point of view it does make it clear to what is classed or accepted or desirable.
I feel that the current economic climet will effect this much more and possibly the idea of a piece of plastic being as desirable as a shiny stone is not far off. People are starting to see fully the cost of living, the cost of things and just how precious certain things can be.

for me "All That Glitters is not Gold"

Monday, 9 February 2009

Wrong Hand Doll Thing!

Wrong Hand Doll for Kim

Recently one of my close friends has just packed and gone to Australia so as a gift I mad her a wrong hand doll thing. I haven't quite thought of a name for it yet but I think that it is just one off designs for the moment. I thought that it was appropriate as a gift for her to take because when I broke my wrist she was very helpful. So giving her the wrong hand doll seamed appropriate.

Wednesday, 4 February 2009

Connecting Lines and Scribbles

Connecting lines, connecting the wrong hand and video tapes, linking a thread from one to another. After knitting with the video tape, the wrong hand illustrations, stitching and designing products I have been thinking of what links it all together.
When Knitting it is a continues line like a scribble. Creating a continues line drawing or a stitch with thread of images from the wrong hand.

The images created with the wrong had are uncontrolled, it becomes controlled when I stitch it with the right hand.

When working with the wrong hand I became frustrated at times, some of the drawings were messy or unclear to what they represent. I found this interesting the idea of a line which is one thing but could mean another. A continues line which links controlled and uncontrolled together.


What is a line? How long is the piece of string? what determines controlled or uncontrolled?




This is a scribble which became a scribble when I was getting frustrated with not being able to draw so I scribbled all over it. This was actually strangely satisfying, I continued to scribble every now then when I was thinking. I become interested in what is a scribble or a line and the different types of scribbles which I could create.



I decided to play around with different types of pens and creating different types of scribbles, just like the wrong hand drawings especially now that I have no broken arm. It made me think of what would it look like if I stitched the scribbles just like the stitched illustrations.

So I am going to look in to the idea of the controlled line and the uncontrolled line and incorporating text and illustration as part of my final MA work.



Cy Twombly


One thing which I have looking at recently is the "Wrong Hand" drawings i did whilst my hand was broken. I have been trying to incorporate the wrong hand in with the video tape work, by doing this I created design t-shirts flyers and posters. It got me thinking of styles and out comes of work in an art sense especially on scale, size and what it looks like when it is finished.
I have been looking at artist who are interesting to me in their way of creating a final out come such Cy Twombly.

CY Twombly was one of the artist who I have been looking in to, his work at first appears to be a messy scribble or a piece of graffiti; which actually it is.
His paintings and drawings are a mass of doodles, layer upon layer of paint scribbles and doodling and using all types of medium's. He spends his time developing the doodle, exploring the idea of the line, controlled and uncontrolled then expressing it thorough his paintings.

I have become interested in my scribbles, the controlled and uncontrolled, the idea of a line becoming something other than just a line.

A line, a pencil line a piece of thread I can determine what this can be in a controlled situation and an uncontrolled situation. They can become linked, they can cross over and they can become one.
"The Wrong Hand' work is important I feel it is a missing link for the on going development of my work a necessity for my design development.



Wilder Shores of Love, 1985, Cy Twombly


Untitaled Print CY Twomblys

Untitled (New York City) oil based house paint and wax crayon on canvas Cy Twombly


http://www.artnet.com/artist/16910/cy-twombly.html

Tuesday, 3 February 2009

Snow In Cornwall
A walk in the Snow at Night




Its late Monday night Tuesday morning I cant sleep, worrying about my work what I am doing and how I am doing it. So I decided to go out for a walk to try and clear my head so I could sleep. I walked around for about an hour I took my camera with me to get a few photos.

I was so quite there seamed to be no one around and the air had a strange feel to it which was in a way comforting. I could sense that the clouds were low and at any time it could start snowing again at any time. With the snow covering everything which it could cling to and the snow clouds so low made it feel as if i was walking in a bubble or a giant snow globe. There was hardly any noise apart from the crunch of my foot steps which was strangely satisfying to here. I just walked and listened to the snow underneath my feet, taking in the atmosphere. Everything was wrapped in a blanket of snow as I was walking I did not notice at all how it cleared my mind it was peaceful.

When started to walk back the snow started to fall but it was OK I had cleared my head and now ready for bed.


The Next Day




The Next day I was up early, it was cold but peaceful and clear.

Monday, 2 February 2009

Giant knits for Snowy Day's

OK. . . . . . So it is Monday morning the 2nd of February and it is cold outside but the sun is shinning but all over the rest of the country it looks like this . . . . . . .


So it has been making me think just a bit more about some big giant knits which would worm and suitable to ware in today's current weather situation. I think that Giles Deacon Giant Knits are inspiring and well I was thinking of something of a more everyday Knits whit this sort of spin on it.




Yokoo
And her Giant Knits


I found this Designer who creates Giant Knits which are complete fun and have the Giles Deacon feel to them but in a way which everyday people would wear. I love Yokoo's scarf's they are just like a mini duvet which you wouldn't mind wearing everyday, they just look worm and protective. These examples I found on the website Ety ( http://www.etsy.com/ ) etsy shop.
She creates a range of knits from the giant scarfs to the cozy's, hats, knitted chains and more. I do not know how I could create the cosy feel with the video tape.
I find her work food for thought especially on a snow day like today.




The Woodchip Brown Soopascarf

http://www.etsy.com



The Cambridge Chain in Citron

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19161387



The Vermont Snuggler in Charcoal

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20144902


Sunday, 1 February 2009



Things which I have been involved in

Since Christmas have been getting involved with other projects outside my MA but I have been incorporating the wrong hand illustrations and way of working. I have been working with the university radio station and some of the DJ's helping with designing for promotion for the shows. Things such as flyers and promotional hoddies and T-shirts as well as ideas illustrating and art work for linked websites. One of the shows is called Spinninseed, it is trying to work outside the radio also creating a collaboration with music art and design. The show itself is a backdrop of music that creates a platform for the student culture to put forward creative ideas and stories. The radio show is there to get people involved and to feel part of something and getting students heard and keeping them in contact with others.


"Spinninseed"

The word "Spinninseed" was inspired by seeds falling in the wind such as a dandelions being taken in the wind or helicopter seeds or maple seeds falling from trees and being taken in the wind. When the seeds are spinning they fall or it carried far but then they replant creating more plants trees and there for new seeds. and this is continuously ongoing, which "Spinninseed" is trying to recreate but through music, art, design and collaboration.

Here are some of the examples which I was asked to create for "Spinninseed"



This is a CD front and back cover, the CD is a snip it of student life with examples of music, interviews and audio from creative nights which "spinninseed" put on last academic year. Its a real example from people, students, professionals and ex-students communicating the need for collaboration in and out of university. Explaining the need for connection, communication, and collaboration, making the most out of what is on our doorstep.


Example of T-shirt design for the show


This is also an example of another t-shirt for the "Spinninseed" but on this on i have taken a illustration from "The wrong hand" sketch book but put a "Spinninseed" spin on it.