A Male Cecaelia Contemplates Miasma

They're not finished but shitting hell I'm definitely moving towards a conclusion with my collages. Kinda silly really because originally they were only meant to be idea experiments but I fell in love with them a little bit. Here's the collection so far

Here's the first one, not completely finished but the most-completed so far. Love the old-fashioned frame I managed to find for it. Really getting on my nerves that it isn't quite centred and the brown paper isn't quite straight but I suppose that's my graphics roots ruining my life again. I haven't stuck it down yet so it can still be adjusted, just wanted to see what it looked like in a frame.

I think it needs more detail round the edges somehow but I love how the graph paper turned out.

Thinking about naming the project 'Catalogue of Creatures that Should Never Exist' but I'm hoping I come up with something a bit more catchy over time. I want them to look like a collection of specimens. Perhaps when I have finished these I can move on to creating 3D aspects to the project.

Trying to come up with fancy names for everybody at the moment. So far I got:

• A Male Cecaelia Contemplates Miasma
• Sword-Wielding Crabtopus (highly territorial, likes collecting shoes)
• Insectile Abomination cheers on its favouite team
• All-Seeing Sea Turtle Plays the Tambourine
• Satan-Powered Motor Trike and Rebel Jesus
• Cetus Rhinocerotidae (The Uncommon Rhinocerfish)

I am so inspired by the work I have seen lately and the people I have met that I can't wait to do more work on this. Might have to beat Lorraine up a little bit to get her to do some work too.

Jesus was a rebel

When Jesus went through his rebellious teenage years, he probably owned a satan-powered motor-trike, but luckily god forgave him eventually and had him hung on a cross to die slowly and painfully.

Building up ideas for another collage and part of the continuing collaborative work between Lorraine Bennett and myself. I forgot to take my scissors with me (I feel naked!) so I can't make the couple of tiny adjustments needed before sticking-down time (chop off deer legs beneath wheel, trim down elephant horn, get rid of jesus' straggling hair).

I need to work on the backgrounds anyways, plain white cheap-ass paper looks a bit rubbish, I wouldn't put it on my wall in that state, so I can't imagine anybody else would want to, let alone kindly give me monies for it at a craft fair.

Through the Grape Vine

My dad has a rare genetic disease that causes muscular dystrophy, and he likes to raise money by building planters and tables out of recycled wood for the charity-run NeuroMuscular Centre in Winsford where he goes for the specialist phsyiotheraphy that helps to make his life more bearable.

While helping my dad kit out their recently-built shed, I got talking to a guy who enjoyed building ceramic dragons and he highly recommended a place in Sandbach called The Potter's Barn. Website is a little bit terrible-looking but it actually seems like a really cool place to go with a huge variety of facilities. Plus, they do Raku firings. So tempting...

By the way, if you have a look at the NeuroMuscular Centre website, they have a pretty cool Design and Print section, created and staffed by designers with muscular dystrophy

Is it illegal to draw pictures of art?

While at the Macclesfield Heritage Centre to see The Button Project, I was told by one lady that I had to write all the names of everybody whose work I drew pictures of underneath each drawing and I was told by another lady that I wasn't even allowed to draw any pictures at all which is something I haven't come across before.

had to rush the bottom right drawing due to circumstances

When I asked why, she mumbled something about copyright and then another lady who was stood next to me started telling the other lady off for being ridiculous. I came away from the experience feeling rather confused and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Is it illegal to draw pictures of art? 

The sad thing is that all I wanted to do was write more about the exhibition, and publicise it amongst my peers because the artwork was beautiful and looked like a collection of modern-day treasure. I'm hardly raking in profit (none what-so-ever) and it's for an educational purpose.

The experience was definitely not what I wanted to take away from the exhibit.

While in Macc, we met Rachel Grant who had the most beautiful research books and awesome interactive artworks. She posed the question "what makes you feel strong" and asked for responses to be wound together to make a cocoon of fragility and strength.

Landscape is bloody gorgeous up north.

Here is my inadequate doodle response. The two squiggles are cows from a very long distance, and I got distracted while drawing the wall bit.

Some kind of progress

Slowly starting to build up layers on this piece. We got my particular spin on illuminated manuscript, with all the letter forms taken from this old doodle from last year. Originally spelling "In the beginning" the famous phrase that begins a certain controversial old book, this is part of my attempt to recreate a science-based story about the beginning of the universe using religious visual language.

Not sure if it needs more doing to it yet but I'm liking where it's heading. Softened some of the rigid felt-tip lines with water to create a more organic look, to compliment the glass forms. Torn up graph paper, netting and stitching are used similarly to move away from the rigid outline of the squared paper. A lot of religious-based art borrows heavily from nature, so it wouldn't make sense to create an excessively man-made industrial-feeling piece.