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I have sketched a few more composition ideas and further researched a couple more interesting artist’s work.

Val Britton  http://valbritton.com/ has created some beautiful maps, network diagrams and astronomical photography. Her work is abstract and she uses collage and other mixed media.

https://helenwellsartist.com/

British contemporary artist Helen Wells  https://helenwellsartist.com/blog/2021/2/6/illuminatedtree uses ‘expressive mark making to create details and patterned art works which feature repetition and rhythm, multiple layers and organic imagery’.

 Reflection

I’ve researched many illustrations of hand drawn maps by Grayson Perry,  Qiu Zhijie, Roberta Faulhaber’s “art-mapping” to work out the composition of my “map”. I’ve also practiced some mindful sketching, sketched some rough ideas, practised my yoga and meditated and reflected some more. I have some chalk pastels which I’ve been experimenting various effects with, mark making and exploring  colour palettes whilst listening to some chilled jazz muzak. I really need to stop procrastinating, I can’t use all the colours and all the ideas. I need to be selective!

Last night I watched the final episode on tv about the artist Ophelia Redpath on Sky Arts “Landscape Artist of the Year 2021”.  She was sketching the landscape in Dinas Oleu, Snowdonia. I really empathised with her as she told the cameras she felt completely overwhelmed by the sensory overload of details and how she wanted to capture it all, not to leave anything out.

• Create my time plan and keep to it as much as possible.
• I will experiment with materials/ papers and try and establish a colour palette
• I will experiment further in developing my images into firmer solutions, and then narrow those down – (meditating Buddah’s too predictable?) What elements do I want to include?
• I will look at combining fractals with images and explore pathways of maps and veins and tree branches
• Experiment with map forms – what might it look like in essence? Will it fold or roll? Will it have a border or a compass? Astrological map? Mystical garden? Circular 360 degree? Fictional neural pathways in the mind? How will the points in it connect? (Is it a map of nowhere and also of everywhere) (Grayson Perry maps)
• Collaged/ephemera photos – start gathering suitable ideas for inclusion
• Sketch more trees and branches, leaves, fractals – what about dragonfly wings? Butterflies?

Feedback and reflection from tutorial 11/3/2021

Add further references to bibliography

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/sky-arts-landscape-artist-of-the-year

https://opheliaredpath.com/

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/grayson-perry-ra-s-portraits-of

https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/news/2019/apr-29

It has been discovered that Jackson Pollock’s paintings have fractal patterns running through them. I backtracked a bit and researched fractals in nature, I’m particularly inspired by the fractal pattern structures found in trees and leaves.

Feedback and reflection from tutorial 11/3/2021

I need to remember to use my project proposal as a measure of my progress and check I am going in a relevant direction.

What aspects of mindfulness do I want to show in my project?

What are the benefits of mindfulness? Are there goals to be reached? (Not necessarily as it can put pressure on someone who suffers from an anxiety disorder to reach something they feel is unattainable. What will the headspace be that the onlooker needs to be in to practice it? I need the project to be a balanced view of self-help because if someone happens to be in a bad place mentally some people can’t get out of it on their own and need professional help. Some of my tutor feedback was to explore mindfulness through printing techniques – look at mono printing, dry point etching, and get a variety of marks in controlled vs uncontrolled results.

Will it be a book or a map? A zine? Will the book or magazine be bought and paid for? Will it be for a mental health charity?

I have established that my aim is to visualise and follow the sensory effects of nature on the mind in the practice of mindfulness.

What’s the next step ? / Feedback and thoughts following tutor /peer session:

I’m feeling overwhelmed with ideas and thoughts and am not sure where to begin. I must find a starting point. Gather information through drawing?

• REFLECT REGULARLY – WEEKLY! (Use the points from the Individual Learning Plan for guidance)
• Mood boards
• Research and read
• Go for a walk and experience nature – practice mindfulness – what are the steps?
• How is it practiced? Categorise ways of being mindful. I could narrow it down to something within my own experience.
• Loose sketches
• Explore practitioners in art and mindfulness/wellbeing
• Reflect on whether this might border on fine art, will it be authorial?
• Is it a map for someone who doesn’t need a map? Look at types of hand drawn maps. Map my own environment? Have I travelled in my mind to places I have pictured during lockdown? (Oh yes!)
• The act of drawing and knowing the geography of a place … connections….
• Test and explore materials, start to pre-empt problems arising and ways in which a solution might be sought.
• Evolve the project as it progresses, adapt and change. The form may not be specific at this stage.

What is mindfulness?

It’s the awareness of the ‘here and now’, being in the present moment. The awareness of the self both mentally and physically, our thoughts, senses and imagination responding and reacting to each moment as we experience it. A present moment of freshness and perspective, connecting to the wonder of life.  It’s meditation, positive affirmation, journaling, practicing gratitude, positive psychology, reflection and balance.

Where can you practice it?  Find a calm and peaceful spot, a green outdoor space in nature, or a calm place indoors to meditate, exercise, eat good food, breathe deeply.  Anyone can practice it and it doesn’t cost anything.

What are the benefits of Mindfulness?

It improves your well-being (it reduces anxiety, improves self-esteem, creates deeper connections and empathy with the environment and with others.

Mindfulness improves your physical health (scientifically proven) (helps reduce stress, treats heart disease, lowers blood pressure, reduces chronic pain, improves sleep and alleviates gastrointestinal difficulties.)

It has proven benefits on the brain and thickens the amygdala. (Dr Sara Lazar – TEDex Talks).  It can help improve many areas of mental health illnesses.

Please click on this link for my body of early key research – http://mandmade.co.uk/?page_id=503

My theme will be:

A ‘map of mindfulness’ (inspired by the pandemic and its effects on our mental health)

The proposal framework will follow this format:

• Theme
• Why it is worthy / justify its need in the world
• Intention (The effect I wish to have on the audience)
• Key Research (theory /practitioners to investigate)
• Potential audience / end-user context
• Potential forms e.g. book – how specific do you want to be?
• Methods / practical methods skills problems to solve

The intended effect I wish it to have on the audience? Why it’s worthy:

In the past year or so of the pandemic everyone’s mental health has been affected  to a lesser or greater extent

 Being mentally healthy and living well is important to every single one of us – whether we are living with a mental illness or not.

Everyone is experiencing lockdown differently and it is widely reported that most people are likely to be struggling with their own mental health.

Mental health is a journey we all take and this is my map to hopefully help guide the way more easily and to empathise and discuss.

To explore, empathise and illustrate methods of connection with nature, and nurture our mental health and wellbeing. Many people don’t discuss how the pandemic has affected their mental health, and we have all become more isolated during lockdown. My project is to get people talking about it, empathising, thinking and looking at possible ways of improving/nurturing their mental health and wellbeing. Looking at art and creative mindfulness practice.

Key Research (theory / practitioners)

(this is just a starting point – I’m compiling an evolving Harvard Bibliography as my project progresses)

• https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week
• Mind.org  charity
• NHS Mental Health  – Every Mind Matters
• Psychology/ mindfulness through art – Tate.org/ artists who practice mindfulness
• The Lancet  https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30491-0/fulltext
• The British Journal of Psychiatry  – https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/mental-health-and-wellbeing-during-the-covid19-pandemic-longitudinal-analyses-of-adults-in-the-uk-covid19-mental-health-wellbeing-study/F7321CBF45C749C788256CFE6964B00C
• Methods of meditation, mindfulness and wellbeing – yoga /diet/sleep/ exercise/sunlight  = vitaminD3 ….
• Mindfulness within art and observational drawing
• BBC Sounds Dr Rangan Chatterjee  ‘Walk Yourself Better’ With Julia Bradbury https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000sjbk https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p097j4tn
• Fractals in nature etc.  Scientific research – Mandelbrot …. Fibonacci sequence
• Illustrated hand drawn maps/diaries or journals

The Potential Audience / End User Context = Young adults and adults

Potential Form?  = A large hand rendered map which (will fold up?) (Or possibly a zine?)

Methods / practical methods skills / problems to solve etc.

-What information will be on the map? Linear or non-linear?
-It will be fictional
– What form will it take? Possibly use an old ordnance survey map as a base?
-Or make my own map using a large sheet of (brown?) paper – how large?
-What sort of paper?
– Will the map fold? Maybe some pockets and stitching?
-What medium? Gesso base, ink? Collage? Mixed media, watercolour?
 -Include ephemera?
– Colour palette?
-Journal/diaristic  journey/route style? Linear or non-linear?  Autobiographical or authorial??

Half term term week followed by Stage 2 assessment week

I have been reflecting on my assessment feeback and advice from my tutor, and using this in my thinking about ideas and concepts going forward for my Stage 3 project proposal.  After compiling long lists of things I enjoy/am interested in, then mindmapping, brain farting (it’s an official term!), and general procrastination … I narrowed my ideas down to two possibilities:

A ‘map‘of mindfulness (inspired by the pandemic and its effects on our mental health)

OR

A zine exploring bereavement and grief, or mindfulness and wellbeing

 

It’s the final assessment stage! The time has flown by, despite the never-ending lockdown and no access to uni campus, and going stir crazy …. The tutorials and workshops have continued via Zoom with success. Although we all miss the social aspect of being in a physical workshop room, and of course the peer contact, idea-bouncing and general creative ambience of like-minded folks. Our tutors are a friendly, supportive and interesting bunch of arty academics, who are really knowledgeable. I’ve really enjoyed the Illustration pathway so far.

Stage 3 Project Proposal  (Project launched mid-February)

The brief is loose:

Develop a project idea – invite open-ended enquiry

Pitch the idea in a short presentation to a small peer group and tutor

Write up a proposal having taken onboard feedback. Submit proposal, a project time plan (we have 10 weeks) and a Harvard bibliography.

Theory Lectures

Luke’s weekly Theory Lectures – They are really interesting art genres that I have not really considered before, and gave me an excellent understanding. I am particularly interested in The Uncanny, Psychogeography, and The Art of Ideas – (Conceptual Art).  Yoko Ono’s work became clear to me, giving me a better understanding of her conceptual instructions, and I looked up Robert Rauschenberg’s “Tire Print” – I’m tempted to have a go myself and use my car ….

Luke’s Theory lectures:

The Uncanny
Hauntology
The Art of Ideas (Conceptual Art)
Relational Aesthetics
Folk Horror & Deeper Paths
Psychogeography
The Anthropocene
Appropriation – Unfixing the Fixed
Hyperobjects
Health
Afrofuturism

“Texture is the tactile function of the mind”.

A perfect workshop for me incorporating experimental texture making with a) collage, b) recycling, c) found materials. Bliss!

Experimental texture workshop

This challenged everything you do as a creative . We looked at Dadaism and the practice of going against all accepted art practice which actually created a new art movement. A subversion of the accepted norms. Surrealism, Absurdity (Duchamp’s urinal)  – ready-mades, found objects, Jackson Pollock’s splattering paint, Mona Hartourn, Tracey Emin, actions by artists in performance and participative art – Yoko Ono et al. (This ties in with the Context & Theory lectures). Anti-Practice in Fine Art

It’s official – it’s magic! I made a digital colour palette in Illustrator from a photo of some my lampwork beads. A very useful tool for the future for selecting complementary colour palettes in my practice.