Local Council Architecture thanks to the Government.

 

                                                        The pics from the council estates. ( I have only selected two of them)

Council Estates Visited in the name of Primary Research.

Only in the name of primary evidence, madness, call it what you will, would I have ventured around my local council estates. (Thanks dad for standing in as body guard.
So here are the pics to prove my dedication. ( I have altered the settings, so some of the photos have turned out more appealing than they appeared on the day. However, this may not be such a bad thing, as the whole project originated from 'Why Should you Never Under-Estimate a Handsome Bear?' Hence, the council estates could be the metaphor- they look all pretty and nice from the outside, yet the reality is completely different. Therefore, don't under-estimate the power of the council culture...)

My Dark Side 'Shines' Through- All in the name of creativity.

So the count down for critiques, predicted grades and hand-ins is fast approaching. A little too fast for my liking to be honest. Once again, the battle of the briefs is more of a problem...which to do now and which to leave for later. Apart from this, the question of my future career prospects is also looking doubtful in this dog-eat-dog world. (Although I love dogs) Why is everything so damn hard sometimes- even for an unpaid internship in a PR company. Granted, they do pay for your lunch. I have to answer these 6 ridiculous questions, which of course means another bout of 'thinking outside the box' and 'no answer is a wrong answer, just be different'... la la la. So someone please tell me, what one can get from 'What is your favourite Christmas song and why?' Anyway, what has to be done and all that jazz.


Back to the drawing board so to speak and my illustration work. I am compiling a so-called children's activity book with a very sinister edge. An edge that describes the negatives behind living in London's council estates. Death, drugs, gangs ect. I decided to use the style of a children's bumper book as I wanted it to suggest the loss of youth by getting involved with London's gang culture. All of the games are associated with the lifestyle of gang culture. for example, one task is to colour in 5 different syringes.

The left hand page is obviously the syringes, while the right hand side shows Benjy's stolen bike. This activity involves counting how many different circles are hidden within the image.

Another example of an activity is to unlock the door by solving the maths questions.

I still need to work out my maths questions!

So, I must get back to work for now and get thinking about which celeb I would most like to be and why; an ad campaign for Hovis bread, maths questions and maze routes to get the criminal to his chest of weapons and so on...

So, bye folks and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

A Recipe For....

So, apart from my uni brief, my fellow illos are making a fundraising book for a future London exhibition. The title being 'A Recipe For...'


With that in mind, I decided to do a Recipe for an egg. I think eggs are wonderful. I eat them for breakfast, preferably medium boiled with toast, at lunch, poached or scrambled on toast, and for dessert, in the form of meringue. Wonderful. One of the most versatile foods around.


Anyway, the image below was my contribution to our fundraising book. I once again incorporated text, collage and some fine pen drawings. I hope you like my testament to the egg.

While I Remember...

Oooooo, I forgot to mention earlier that I saw an article in the newspaper yesterday that caught my attention. Remember a while back I commented on the Yeo Valley milk rap advert? Well apparently there is a rumour that the rap from the ad is going to take the Christmas Number one slot in the charts. So, sorry Mr Cowell, you're gonna loose to a bunch of cows. Merry Xmas!

It's been a while...

Bonjour,


I know its been some time since my last post, but its been a very, very, very, very busy time; especially as I am still being a clown. Juggling uni, application, essay, life and so on.


Anyway, since last time I have been developing my project on Why One Should Never Under-Estimate a Handsome Bear? And from taking Fred around the local streets to making the DVD, I have progressed to Gun Crime, Gang Culture and so on. I know it seems a mahusive leap- and yes it is, if I explain my train of thought, bears and gang culture do actually connect. So How did I get there?


So with some advice, I was told to 'think more outside the box' and not to continue solely on the bear theme. When researching bears I came across a sentence that stated 'they will fight till death to defend their own' and this got me thinking about how I can relate this to modern day society. Hence I came up with the connection of gang culture and how each gang will fight 'till death' to defend their members.


On that note, I began researching gangs and their culture, and found the sentence 'children are killing children'- Once again I began thinking about the loss of innocence and how youths carry weapons around as if they are toys. It has become a part of daily life. I wanted to express this idea and show the sinister side of living within these communities aswell as the loss of childhood. I decided to experiment-


I tried to build a gun from little toy soldiers, and then painted them black. From afar it looks like a weapon, yet close up, the figures can be depicted. 


Typography has always been an important part of my work and therefore I wanted to incorporate it. For this reason, I decided to construct the letters 'G', 'U' and 'N' out of various children's toys, including action men, cars, jumbo pens etc. I wanted to continue expressing the viscous and violent lifestyle these gangs possess yet show how young children get caught up in it- hence losing their youth to crime. Much of this work was experimental, unsure exactly where I will end up...

The above image is my three constructed letters. I put them against a concrete wall to represent the urban locations where gang culture is most common. 

Its definitely been a fun artistic, developmental journey, yet once again, I have come to a bit of a brick wall myself, unsure now, where to take my letters? Anyway, as they say and as I have already said...its all a learning curve.