Rebecca Horn

Who knew that a visit to a gallery would have such an impact on my work over the coming months. I found an artist I immediately tapped into, it's amazing to feel a connection to a living breathing soul by inanimate objects they have created. The artist is Rebecca Horn, she specialises in artistic costume and film, where these are the stars of the show. She peeks at the hidden corners of your mind and sates them, encapsulating more senses. With the 3D nature of her work you get a real sense of inclusion, you could physically wear them and breathe the artwork. She names them body extensions. long spindly fingers you are controlling but can't feel, scratching at your surroundings, extending your reach, almost like a new part of yourself.

Being face to face enclosed with your partner by soft and pure feathers. A feeling which for most of us would present claustrophobia and invasion of personal space. Yet there's something intruiging about it, and you want to have a go, even just for a minute.

Exposed, raw and curious. These are all things I feel when I look at her work. Along with the help of nine inch nails, I made the images below, always with her in mind.

But she still looks pretty doesn't she

I guess this is a follow on from Ragdoll, it's almost 5am...

But she still looks pretty doesn't she

How I feel in the mirror a measure of my worth to him. How much confidence I could have to leave. As playful as a child magnifying an ant in the sunlight. Oh how I burn and seethe. Fire comes as water. With only a pathetic singular tear that managed to crack the surface. Practice comes perfect. 

Here I am to change elements, to build and breathe my beautiful body. My arches and curves, contours and crooks, they're precious, an imprint of the earth. Cut from the cloth of my sister yet we are so different. And I love it, I love my body, it is all that I am. Yet I stand in the mirror and hate it so. How this flesh being touched could hurt my head, I'm so connected to it my only relief is sleep which comes so infrequent.

And you here trying to tear down my kingdom, I built this, I rule over it, it was given to me as a gift. A labour of my ancestors who made me, I come from life itself. But your touch burns me, it scolds my skin, I wasn't taught that love could be like this. I knew of the fleeting restlessness, a desperation to be close, loneliness when you're apart, but I didn't know it would be amplified so loud it screeches me awake. This love of ours each facet has been marred and scarred and I hold your hand because I know no other way of being this close to you and not. And I hate myself, your fingers interlocked with mine should be the sweetest feeling, but it's too much and it makes me sick, sick to my stomach that the thought of letting go. 

 Alone in the bed that I made, sheets I laundered and pulled into place, the thunder becomes soothing, the rain surrounding me like a wall, pitter pattering on the window like it knows we should be as one. You start to take the darkness and find your place in it. As a child everything is golden, happiness is a given and your pillars are set to the core of the earth and nothing will ever rock them. It's part of growing up, knowing these shift and crack with the rolling tides, the night time moon pulling and pushing. You let the darkness in, you learn how to deal with it and one day embrace it with open arms, just maybe not everyday..

Ragdoll

This poem in particular has been written rewritten and I could write a short story from all the cut lines. I'll probably never be happy with it, but I don't think I ever could be. But doing so has given me a little closure, taken away some anger and popped everything into a poem shaped box. I can recognise my feelings and see them in a form, and if I ever look back, I know I've made some art out of it.

    

Ragdoll

Poke me, squeeze me, love me
It's all here on the box
Here to serve you
Here to please you
What you don't hear is stop

Here lies an empty shell
But the shell is all you need
A ghost of who she was
But still she looks pretty doesn't she

Cold comforting chains clasp
Secrets whispered lay our heads
Bind iron to my skin
Burn bright white hot and brand me

The mascara runs no matter
Reapply it
The neighbours heard no matter
Keep them quiet
Lucy go round the merry go round

Sit me up or drag me
Disconnected dots
Walking, talking, smiling
Train screeches to a stop
Tear drops


She drops

Dream Client List

Now it's time to start thinking about the direction I want to take my work in in the future, and who would be my dream clients. The list below comprises of unique homewear and fashion, when it comes to the bigger brands like Urban Outfitters, the dream for those is to work with the boutiques within those umbrellas. I would love to design statement pieces for these companies opposed to everyday cuts.

Kinfolk

Oh comely

Be In Art Gallery

Beautiful Bizzarre Magazine

Habitat

Nkuku

Urban Outfitters

Hunger Magazine

Nobody's Child

UNIF

The Ragged Priest

First steps

Scary prospects of leaving my comfortable studio at uni, into the world of someone could actually reject what I do! And the alien idea of getting paid. 

So I love LARPing, mainly for running around in a forest getting to shoot people or hit them with epic "fireballs". There's a ton of production that goes into these events, they need marketing materials, set design, props and costume to immerse everyone in the story that has been written, the surroundings need to look the part. For my venture into professional life I have contacted a few people who run LARP games. After sending out some bottles in the ocean one has got back to me! I will be doing artwork for an upcoming game, an apocalyptic world full broken down androids, big guns and Jeeps with questionable safety, think Mad Max meets Resident Evil... And lot's of leather. So these guys run lots of games, but they feel my art would work best with this one, as I tend to go down the despair route, which is a feeling they would like to instill amongst the players.

My job will be to create simple print illustrations for the Facebook event page, create ID badges for the players and help with the set design. They wanted simple due to the nature of the world, the worlds resources are depleting and everything's roughed up and worn away and they're making the best out of what they have. So I'm very excited to get behind the scenes of a weekend of storytelling.

Here's a snap of a Firefly game I recently played, as I don't have any pics of my artwork yet!

Business Cards

Here is my final business card design. I has always had my lady there designed and ready for my cards but she wasn't quite fitting to have her just alone. I wanted the design to give a feel of the company and the print we used, whilst keeping it intriguing in order to increase traffic to the website. I used moo.com and the process was really easy, had all my files ready as JPEGs to upload, and was all ordered in around 20 minutes. I splashed out a little and got the lux range which has two white layers and a black one in the middle. Can't wait to see them!

Designing a logo

I've finished my final logo design for my project I'm currently working on, a clothing/homewear brand. This will feature across the board, for the website, business cards and clothing labels, so I had to get it just right.

I've had a little previous experience with type. I wanted a freehand geometric drawing to make it feel like it hasn't been generated, so the logo seemed like it was designed for purpose opposed to taken from an already made alphabet.

Upon reflection, next time I would print off some letters to use as a rough template, as the curved letters were quite hard to do by hand and it would be easy to lose proportion. They also have to have some uniform aspect to them, so a guide would definitely help. I would also like to find better ways of drawing curves as the last curve of the S on the bottom was especially difficult, so this last chunk I made in Photoshop.

Trying new things

I'm currently working on applications for my artwork, I'm very interested in incorporating it into homewear and clothing. So first steps, when you have no idea how to do something, take a beginners course or consult Youtube, I chose the former, having no idea where I could get some clay and a kiln. Yep, I'm talking about ceramics, I attended a beginners mug making workshop at the Manchester Craft and Design Center, run by the Manchester Pottery School. I do have to say my mug is abit weird but I love it for all it's flaws as you can see I predicted this in my design. 

The plan for the future is to find more classes and have a go on a potters wheel. I would love to sell my designs on tiles or mugs, as these are items that can be a little quirky opposed to dinner plates. My homewear range would be singular stand out peices or smaller ones you could co-ord in a room. Sticking to little use of colour will help me to stay away from trends so much as I would never want the pieces to be kitsch or throwaway, hopefully handmade items you want to hold on to. I'm very much inspired by Moroccan tiles and the beautiful patterns in them, I would love to do some repeating patterns with my work.