Civilisation

So the last brief I completed was called "The beginning of..." from this there was a list of words we could chose from such as space travel, life, death, fear, hope etc. For this project I was working in pairs. Myself and my partner Jonny Ray, decided upon the word "Civilisation". 

What we deduced from the research we had established, our image would stem from the idea that our whole civilisation we have grows from the ground. The ground provides us with food, raw materials, essentially life. So we decided that we would create an image that would show this underground world of potential that the ground has. Its happening all the time and its beneath our feet all the time something we are never fully aware of. Thus the image we have created will be projected onto the floor for the public to interact with. we will create a film from this, probably sped up also. 

Chicago

So, last week I was in Chicago with Uni. 

Chicago, is cool. Damn cool. When everyone tells you that everything is big in America, its a given and you generally nod along in belief thinking thats that 7th time you have been told this fact.

Truth is, words cannot being to justify HOW big everything is. The sheer enormity of the buildings gives you cramp in your neck, and to cross a road brings new meaning to "getting to the other side safely". 

Food portions are astronomical. I still can't understand how people can eat such large portions for meals and not feel ill or sick afterwards or suffer from heartburn. Which could explain America's Current obesity problem. Although saying this, we didn't see any obesity- except maybe when we went to the Pizza Resturant.

It's a shame that we couldn't spend more time in Chicago, the city is so vast you can't possibly cover it all in the time frame we were given. 

An aspect I loved of the City was Wicker Park area. It oozed charm and had an arts scene that permeated sophistication and chicness that was somewhat elitest. Despite this, there was some cool record shops, galleries, vintage clothes shops, street art and potentially the best cafe.... EVER.

EARWAX CAFE.

No joke, best burger and fries I have ever eaten in my life ever...

Long live the messy Burger. Comprising of  black bean burger, cheese, caramelised onions, mustard dressing and peppercorn dressing and spicy fries.

Oh my days, I never wanted the meal to end...ever. My friend had a steak sandwich with fries. I don't convey a word of a lie when I say there was the best of half a cow between the bread.

Something that continues to shock me and baffle me about America is that amount of poverty that is around. Away from the slick sky scrapers and haute cuisine of the resturants, there is the streets of the poor, where they struggle to make ends meet and gang culture is the norm. We walked streets and streets of some of the poorer neighborhoods and soon realised that America is not always the land of dreams it always wants to portray itself as.

On every street corner, musicians cling to the dream of the Jazz music following which gave some meaning to black working community in bygone eras. The jazz scene, although still existant, is now somewhat jaded and only exists for the tourist population. There is a sadness to it when you see a drummer drumming to try and recreate the magic of what once was, but the spell is broken, and no matter how long you drum, its will never come back.

However, the America dream and ceremony exists still is some parts of the city. One of the best places I saw this was the United Centre when we saw the Blackhawks Hockey Team play a match. 

Everyone stands to sing the National Anthem and pomp and pride that most Americans have in this country is something to marvel at and admire. I doubt I would see the same amount of Patriotic fervor in this country.

All in all I really enjoyed myself and saw a multi-faseted view of Chicago that deviates from what the Guidebook suggests.

Nuclear Power.

So this is my life drawing project for this week. Needless to say my feet have barely touched the ground this week. After being ill last week, everything seemed to get rather manic all at once. 

But I'll start with this. This weeks brief was Climate Change. I decided upon the idea of nuclear power. Despite the fact that we are investing money into more renewable sources of energy, the amount of power they will provide will not quench our lust for energy and technology. So it has to be soured elsewhere. Sadly, it seems Nuclear power is the only answer.

The very idea of Nuclear Power fills me with dread. In the Sellafield area, child leukaemia is more prevalent then any other part of the UK, on the Dounraey plant in the Scottish Highlands, radioactive particles were released accidentally that were later sourced further along the coast line. To me Nuclear power is ticking time bomb that will have catasrophic effect on our environment and ourselves. But the power that Nuclear plants provide is somewhat insatiable. which brings me to my next point.

What is the point of all of us doing "our bit" for the environment, when in reality we are only going to sell out to nuclear power, and no matter how many plastic bags we save, it will not save the earth if something was to go wrong.

Moreover, it seems very in vogue at current for people to appear green and carry their "Bags for life" around, except that the reality is that soon as may return home from their shopping trips, their homes are fed by Nuclear power.

I don't pretend to be a martyr. I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to energy consumption, Hence why i felt this was such a sticking point.

What is the point in being "green" when we are only going to sacrifice everything for our love of technology?

And this is what my image is about. I wanted to make the image in two halves and but it on a "bag for life". the idea is that from one angle, the bag portrays a wistful image that echoes affinity with being green and almost "at one with the earth".

However, by flipping the bag over, you can see the reality. The subject is being seduced by nuclear power and the very idea of recycling pales into insignificance. This is further emphasised by the use of radioactive signs that slowly transform into flowers, suggesting that idea of Nuclear power is so seductive when it comes to feeding our technology needs.

Th image consists f photographs, my own drawings and textures. I screen printed the image onto canvas and made the bag to confront the idea of how faceless this big "green" push really is.

All products and images Copyright Charlotte Cooper 2009.

Hello Inspiration

Today life is good.

Even though I have a horrific cold, and every time I speak sound like I smoke 40 a day I feel that there is a change in the air.

Outside I feel spring is on its way, as I was walking to the library, there was a freshness in the air and warmth in the air that hinted that spring was coming. Change was coming.

I think I have finally found my inspiration, I'm just hanging about in my room at Uni surrounded by images of things I like which i photocopied from various books and journals from the Library on campus. I like having things all over the floor to inspire me, I used to do it all the time when I was at college, and then for some unknown reason I disregarded this method at uni. Lord knows why as it always helped and by re-arranging the pictures, I see things I didn't see before.

I have to go to my studio about 2 though, as its life drawing and i need photographs of the life model to explore a project about agesim, if I can pull it off, it will hopefully work really well.

I talked to my tutor on Friday, and told her how despondent I was about my work and the direction I was going in. It really helped, and ever since, I feel like I'm on the up. I'm totally changing my work ethic and giving it my all. I'm a workaholic, and i have no shame in admitting that. Everything I produced recently was just born from knowledge I already knew. nothing excited me, and it was just a continual slog of getting the work done as opposed to enjoying it and having fun with it. And that was what was really upsetting me the most. I was bored of what I was doing and continually getting stressed about it being right, I totally forgot about it being right for me.

I really feel like I'm finally having a breakthrough. Hallelujah. And to celebrate I bought a nice tacky new watch and a scanner.

Also, the landlady came around yesterday with a new hoover. I went on a hoovering fetish and vacuumed everywhere, seen as our other hoover did naf all when it came to cleaning. I only did the hall and half of my room when the cylinder was FULL. It repulses me that we have been living in a house that was just full of our own dead skin and hair. I was morified.

But the psychological feeling of knowing everything was beautiful and clean has done me the power of good.

I am having a good day.

I wish I was an owl.

I wish I has an owl. They are beautiful birds and have a essence of wisdom.

At the moment, I feel like life is going quite A.W.O.L. I am feeling horrifically ill. After talking to my tutor today in the studio, I'm petrified of the next semester. Its freezing outside and my personal life has just had a massive blow.

I feel devastated.

So in an effort to try and cheer myself up and keep inspired, I made some cuddly owls. I am going to make some smaller ones so there is a little family of them.

I wish I was an owl right now :(

I ruined a jumper for this.

Well today like the last few, I have spent working on the next project I have been given. Basically, we have been given a list of books to pick one from, read it, produce nine images from it. But these aren't typical book illustrations- thanks goodness.

 I don't mind doing book illustrations at all, but I don't want to copy and paste the text either. So the book I chose was TIMBUKTU by Paul Auster. Its a lovely novel. Lovely is quite  a obsequious word to us, so maybe I should be a bit more selective with my language. It is an extraordinary book.

Better?

Either way, I really love being given projects when I can read. Its a rare thing for me to read these days. A sad but true fact. I love reading, and its so important as an illustrator to read, as it can feed your imagination and equip you with a better vocabulary to express your ideas. Either on the page or off.

However, the work load is so great here at Loughborough, that when I finish my work at 12 at night, reading a book is normally the last thing on my mind.

So it is always a refreshing change to get a book to read. The novel TIMBUKTU deals with lots of ideas and issues. It was nice to get my English literature head into gear for a change. All I seem to do these days is to draw and scribble, not that I loathe this of course, but it to analyse a text was good for a change.

One of the ideas the novel talks about is drug use, although only looked at in a sideways glance there is a room to explore the impact it has had on the character "Willy".

So here is a few extracts from my sketchbook dealing with lots of issue in the novel.

In my ink flinging antics, I ruined a perfectly good jumper. I hope the tutors take this into account when they look at my sketchbook.

Assessment update.

So, I got the ominous results back today from my assessment. Needless to say that I'm not overly satisfied with them. The thins is with being a an illustrator, your work and degree means so much more to you than perhaps maybe a more traditional subject. The work is personal and its from you, so when you fail in that, sometimes it is a bit of a blow.

I know that all failings are good, as you learn from them, but in my case, this means that there is a need for reconsideration of time. I need to be more Savvy with my time, and think about the creative judgements I make instead of thinking i need to get the work in on time, I need to think more "What can I do with my time?" and start building from there and then I feel my work will excel and get far more personalised. At the moment it is stale, its is not going anywhere, I'm not learning anything new and I want to do more and take more risks. 

Whoever said this course was a walk in the park was lying.