Since I set up my website a while ago, my work has been evolving as I continue with my coursework and I’ve been having a major rethink this week in the light of my latest tutor’s report. I was nervous about how he would take my PechaKucha presentation (20 images with 20 seconds speaking per image) but he was fully on board with how I had done it, adopting a team approach. When I set up Spillustrate I only really recognised 2 members but recently I have realised there are 4 of us and I need give them their place too.
On the one hand there is the side of me that wants to present as “mature lady artist doing arty stuff” (sensible, conventional) but actually that isn’t really the direction I’m headed with the creation of the Spillustrate Team. In my creative life there is The G-Ma, Susie, Sukey and the Octopus, all of whom have an important role.
I’m going to have to alter my “About” page to reflect who’s who, but first I will do this as a blog post.
A while back I made some “fortune telling” cards, each one showing a way that I work. Looking at them again I can easily see which one goes with which part of the Spillustrate team.
So here they are:
The G-Ma: stencils, layouts, digital manipulation in photoshop. She likes the neat and tidy and does the fiddling tidying up. We just need to set her onto this but not let her get carried away.
Susie: inversions, monoprint line drawings, coptic marker drawings of people (body language), map style drawings of places , wild card (gets bored and goes off piste)
She does the marker work which is a real asset to the zines and also has the bright ideas and enthusiasms for example, being part of the Pecha Kucha presentation. She has the energy for pushing things forward, unfortunately she is also messy, sloppy, a poor speller and can’t be bothered with tidying up. It is always a balance with her and the G-Ma making the finished product.
Sukey: 3d models, cardboard cut outs, oil pastels, lino cuts, wild card (random ideas arrive fully formed from out of “nowhere”) is a bit of a dark horse, she doesn’t communicate well, her sketches are very basic and hard to read retrospectively, just quietly produces stuff. One of the big questions for the team is how much they tidy up / fiddle with her stuff? She is the beating heart of the team and the project, she drives it.
Octopus: colours, patterns, textures, hand printing. Doesn’t work in “finished” way, just makes backdrops and backgrounds, more of a mood board type thing. Deals with basic emotions and sensations, non verbal.
The whole team is united on liking to work with emotions and use humour / pathos.