A Journey

Denise set us homework for our next lecture to write a journey in first person narrative,  I decided to write about the first plane journey from Birmingham to New York when I went to start working for Disney Cruise Lines, nearly four years ago.

 This is it the day’s arrived, and now the moment, the moment where I’ve got to walk through into departures by myself, this time saying goodbye to mom is harder than ever. I’m excited but as I have one last hug and walk towards departure, I look back towards mom, who’s being much braver than me. I want to run back, say I’ve changed my mind, but something inside keeps me walking forwards with my cabin bag rolling behind me.

I’m heading to Orlando, via Newark Airport, I’ve never flown long-haul before and even though I’d traveled abroad for work before, I’d never truly been this much on my own.

The sky is thick with the deepest fog I’ve ever seen, staring out the windows onto the runways, you can’t even see the airplanes parked at the boarding gates. The delay’s start to roll in, the anxiety in my stomach continues to build. I try to shop, visiting Next in the terminal, I pick up a new swimsuit, this is going to be great, I reassure myself. I’m going to see Walt Disney World, I’m going to work on a cruise ship and visit amazing places. Shopping always makes me feel better, but as the hours stretch on, I really start to pray that they will just cancel my flight. Four hours, five hours, flight after flight is canceled except for mine, I keep phoning mom, her voice is comforting and she reassures me about the wonderful big adventure I’m going to have.

Then it finally happens my flight is called, there is only me and one other lady in a bay of three seats, I’ve got the window seat, not that there is anything to see, the fog has cleared only slightly as if the sky has turned into marshmallow fluff. The journey itself actually passes quickly, I’m so tired from my early wake-up, and the long arduous wait at the airport, I can’t help but doze. The older lady with me, is a Jewish New Yorker, she’s sort of like the characters I’ve seen in movies, but her stories about her family in the UK, and her voice is soothing; in the moments I’m not asleep.

The sky is clearer as we start to circle over New Jersey and Manhattan, I peer through the window, like a child eyeing a toy store, I can see the Statue of Liberty. The lady next to me, is charmed by my reaction,” have you ever been to New York?” She asks me, “ No,” I respond, “this is my first time in the States.”

Turbulence starts to rock the plane as it attempts to make it’s decent. I’ve never been scared of traveling on a plane, but this is the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced, my ears ache, my stomach is doing flips and nausea racks through me. We finally land, and somehow I haven't been sick, the lady smiles at me,  asks if I’m okay. I don’t think I am, but my journeys not over and now I have a missed connection flight to rearrange and another airport to wait in.

Re-connection and New Steps

I came home from Uni that night intent on trying to make a cloth doll from scratch, I have lots of experience customising existing dolls, but this was something that was a merge of two hobbies, and was a way to branch out, maybe two weeks of photography had got to me.

My dolls, cuddly toys and figurines are such a huge part of me, I'm a serial toy hoarder! You can see a teeny bit of my hoard, in my brother's documentary, p.s. it's about living with Asperger's Syndrome, not mine or my brother's incessant hoarding XD

My large google search started with making plushies (plush dolls) before arriving at Waldorf Dolls.
Waldorf dolls are named due to their use in the Waldorf Education System, they are made from soft natural fibers and typically have very simple faces.

This is my current big research list, of useful references, videos, and links,

http://www.figandme.com/blog/2014/3/31/starting-your-doll-making-adventure
http://www.figandme.com/blog/how-to-stuff-waldorf-dolls-tutorial
http://faithandstring.com/making-a-waldorf-doll-part-1-head/

And I've already ordered some supplies from this website http://www.waldorfdolls.co.uk/

Feeling Lost

IPhone's have camera's too!

Some of the pictures I've been taking on my phone, where most have been around food I've also been interested in destruction, and images of the mess that's left behind.

ps. Is it just me? or were Monica and Chandler always destined to end up together ....

What do you mean you haven't got a forty page list for mediums used..?

Just a camera and a MacBook okay, I can do this! Well maybe not the MacBook, but I have my beloved phone and a canon bridge camera that sits lonely and confused most of the time.

See the majority of the pictures I've ever taken have either been of my doll collection, photos of Disneyland and random snaps of squirrels and wild birds. I have a terrible habit with cameras of forgetting about them when the physical experience of something is way more fun than trying to capture it. Except when I'm drunk, when I will suddenly turn up in everyone's photos, whether you wanted me in the shot or not.

Sadly the only slight thing me and Harm have in common is cooking, and for me as a gluten and lactose intolerant, cooking is more a thing of desperation than joy these days.

I charged up my camera and documented one of my very half-bothered dinners.

And not a single kawaii face on anything, XD

The one with the netflix

I tried listening to Electronic Dance Music, I really couldn't bear it.
Netflix was much easier on the senses but I'm pretty sure Harm doesn't binge watch Friends. I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, however, I'm quite certain I missed the brief on this one. Oh dear!

What happened next !

So Dean read everyone's sheets, I still hadn't clicked then as he started to hand them back out, it clicked! He'd worked out everyone's worse nightmares! Suddenly this was looking good though, who would get mine? What had everyone else got? Oh god was I going to get photography? I hate photography. If it doesn't give me carpal tunnel syndrome I've never felt the urge to use it. Then Chris got Amy's and I was living for the mad frankenartworks this would make.

So who was my classmate opposite...

I'm kind of kicking myself for not trying to work out who Harm is or the fact I thought his name was Harry until I scanned this document. I think I know who he is, I seem to remember from his presentation he's into minimalism. Erm, I'm clearly many things but a minimalist is not one of those.

On the afternoon I nearly got a get out of jail free card, when I was offered chance to have Cal's methodology instead, but I realised not only had I landed her with the same brief as mine, I was also going to be running away from my worst fears if I chose to work with Cal's methodology instead, mixed media, embroidery, historical costume!! that's my idea of heaven!!

Nothing against maybe a little dabble? you know a bit of Tudor costume inspiration between abstract photos right?

The lecture where I had to write down my methodology,

It was so good listening to other classmates explain who they had picked to do their studies on, everyone is so quiet, but I love it when people talk about their interests, you can learn so much from everyone and not just from the lecturers. I jotted notes on other people’s picks to take away and sort of landed in a group leader role? 

Then there was the next bit! Writing down our themes of interest and media and methods we use. Great stuff, but I really could have done with a side of a4 for my interests, a more accurate description would have been everything but SPORT ...ps... I have focussing issues, I change hobbies and interests often, sometimes even in the same day (I like to think I’ve improved and now it might be a whole week XD). But I really hate sport, I'm a clumsy, hypermobile nerd, me and sport do not mix.

Then came time for my methods, I decided to be brutally honest and it went something like.

STEP 1 Spend too much time on Instagram and YouTube

STEP 2 Go shopping, collect random tat and stash it with all my other tatty treasures

STEP 3 Look at all the tat, think of ways to glue the tat together and paint it, to make something out of the tat.

The process is similar for doodles but after spending way too much time on YouTube, I doodle and then draw the doodle bigger; before rendering it with whatever medium I feel like at the time. (I am so precise)

All this and I’m technically an animator just one who doesn’t animate that often, (or not really at all) But!! I’m going to change that !! well after the next two weeks, because that was perhaps the juiciest bombshell in the entire lecture, and maybe I love me some drama but yeah people being forced out their comfort zones is apparently my idea of good fun.

What a Mare!! Crafty things for a friend.

If there’s one thing I’ve realised on my MA is that I often treat my craft making as something I do for fun and neglect to comment on the creativity and ideas involved. But not anymore! Making random things is part of who I am as an artist , whether it’s an IKEA frankenwardrobe or a large lantern with a diorama built inside of it.

I recently made both this items as part of a leaving present for a colleague from the team .

I picked up the my little Pony with no idea what I wanted to do with it, a search for other stored away treasures, resulted in this little sweetie jar.

And this reclaimed Ikea Horse, I decoupaged it with fun photos, and got dremel and drill happy on it, turning it into a pen stand.

Methodology, Joanna Quinn

It was much easier to choose someone from my own practice, someone I really idolise, Joanna Quinn,  her beautiful pencil lines make me so happy :D.

She's a very character driven animator, who loves the hands on approach of a piece of paper and pencil. Her sense of humour shines through in her style, and I feel that is something I'm trying to grasp in my own style.

Methodology Study, Lady Gaga

First Task this semester was to research two different artists , methodology, or how they approach their work. I was stumped for somebody to study not from my practise, but after seeing Lady Gaga perform at the LG Arena in Birmingham, I knew just who, to research into.

One of things I found most interesting was how many of her songs had only took her 10 minutes to write. Most derive from emotions, her interests and her reactions to event going on in her life.  She's so much more than a musician/performer, she has a massive interest in art, which inspired the album ArtPop.

About Me,

Hi, My name is Sam, I'm currently studying my MA part time in Digital and Visual Communication. I'm loving being back at University , its helped me to find a part of myself I'd felt that had been missing for a long time. This blog was originally designed to be my art blog, many years ago straight after University, but things didn't turn out that way. There is a strange sense of karma in this blog design finally getting to be used, rather than lurking in the shadowy pits of the unused interwebz.