Notes from Salts Mill

• I really enjoy the breadth and his different aesthetic styles. Everything still feels tied together as *him* though, it must be something about the feeling
• Looking at Hockney and other artists I think about how sometimes a nice picture of a landscape can mean a lot- or rather not mean a lot and just make you happy. I think it is ok to not make massively deep things all the time - and sometimes I think that when you do do that it can become exhausted and cheap and naff. Be accepting, paint a nice hill.

Sunflowers for Jonathon

• This painting made me a smile a lot. It's just bold and again says a lot about paintings / art that is just designed to bring aesthetic and joy. We talked about how, although in this context it has a purpose, it would be funny to sign your name really big on every painting you make. We realised that children do this all the time, and that it's funny that they're not afraid to take ownership of every little thing they make. I know it's not possible / right / normal to sign a piece of illustration in a lot of contexts, but it made me think that I should be  prouder of what I make and not feel weird about such little things such as putting my name on a zine.

The Arrival of Spring (iPad drawings)

• I loved this exhibition! I love his sentiments towards the surrounding countryside and how lucky we are to have it (and for most of it to not be completely overrun with tourists). This probably also comes from growing up in largely the same area as what he has been recording.
• I also enjoy his attitude towards technology, which is maybe not so expected for someone his age or at least someone so well known for physical painting. He's very open towards it, and presumably how it can be a tool to help him (or anyone)- it's a quick and light way of recording information.
• Following that, he said something along the lines of how Turner would love to use the app because of it's translucency and layers. I can imagine a lot of people recoiling at that idea and I love that brazen attitude.
• It is quite bizarre to see the iPad drawings printed at such a large scale (I'd guess around A0). From a distance they look largely like any of his other paintings but up close it's obvious, and at times can look sort of, *cheap*. I'm not typically fond of using digital media because it can come off so flat but I actually like his acceptance of pixels and flatness and weird gradients. It's letting your media dictate you a little bit and I think that is cool

Notes from The Whitworth

At the Whitworth I had a minor revelation (though not new to the world, I hadn't thought about it before). I felt really intimidated looking at so much art, both in quantity and quality. It seemed bizarre that so many people do it and I realised that I had been thinking, all along, of art as some kind of competition. I guess it may come from largely only participating in art/design in an academic context. Maybe art is something for yourself and design is the real competition... it just depends on what you want to get out of it. And I'm still thinking about that.

Textiles

• The textiles exhibition was nice and it's good to remind yourself of the contexts of where design in a social sense has come from. This exhibition talked a little about how women began to make a stand in design.
• I can't find a picture of it but there was a cloth sample by Natalia Goncharova where the figure had incredibly drawn hands- so expressive, so strange. Hands are ridiculous and I love to see how people draw them. I don't think they ever have to look real.

Portraits Exhibition

• It was really interesting how this exhibition was curated- walls were filled with stacked portraits- old and refined was mixed with new and loose. It is quite a lot for the eyes to take in, but is fun. The downside was that it took a long time to figure out who's portraits were who's. It made me think about how an exhibition is curated and set up is so important and can change the feel of the work too.
• I've been thinking about working bigger but I was surprised to be interested in the really small portraits. I think they looked more impressive the bigger the frame was to the image. It feels sensitive. The perfect ratio of picture to frame is like David Byrne to his suit

Tibor Reich

• I wasn't that interested by his textiles work, I wasn't into his patterns and I have a distaste for rainbow colour palettes. 
• I wasn't too keen on his drawings either, but then once those characters were put on to ceramics  I suddenly liked them a lot more. Their character seemed to be amplified in the third dimension, and I enjoy how although largely character based they were also functional items. My favourite was the woman with her face drawn on the inside of the vase. It's so bizarre and catches you off guard. I'm thinking a lot about art being funny.

Elizabeth Price Curates - In A Dream You Saw A Way To Survive and You Were Full of Joy

• This is where I had my minor revelation, although it was the exhibition I had the least interest in. I just don't care too much for the conceptual. Maybe I am lazy.
• The show was split into three sections, MOURNING, SLEEPING and WORKING. The one thing I remember most is the end scene of this film they showed. It's ridiculously dramatic and yet quite touching, particularly when it is shown so big and the music so loud. I suppose it's more engrossing than just watching in the context of your little laptop screen.

SaveSave

It's July and I've not realised how fast time has slipped by and haven't really kept on top of what I should be doing. I've not paid too much attention to personal and projects that are more relevant to the degree but I've been keeping up with my work for Fuzzy Logic.

Now it is summer it is time for the annual *rebrand* I've had the opportunity to really consider how I can make work that I enjoy and feel is relevant to how I work and how I can incorporate it into the brand. In first year with the big cartoony work it did feel relevant to what I was into at the time, but slowly I fell out of favour with it and by the end of the year didn't like it much. In second year I panicked a little and under the guideline of "make it look slick" I made something that worked and was quite easy but I didn't have much heart in it. I really wanted to spend time making something I was into but also, most importantly the client liked! You can't make work that you like without showing people you're capable of it and I'm lucky this year in that they've been quite trusting and let me show them I can work a little differently.

I've also been working on my portfolio website a little more and changed to Format instead of Cargo Collective. Ideally I would like to complete the portfolio soon (it will always be changing, but to have a solid starting one) and figure out how/ if I can get any more jobs with it throughout the summer. Without the support of tutors I'll have to figure it out myself, maybe that's not a bad thing to have some independence. I suppose there's no use sitting around waiting until September.

As well as self initiated projects I think it would be nice to take on some competition briefs. The AOI TFL competition looks interesting. It's a little out of range in terms of subject of the kind of project I would choose to pick up on but it's 1) a challenge (drawing transport) and 2) good practice for commercial type commissions. And the  AOI is a good and trusted establishment, and the prizes (including 100 illustrations getting into an exhibition) are tempting too. It feels like an opportunity to get lots of circulation if I do place, which isn't to be expected but also a good drive!