The book is ready!

We are looking forward to show it to our MA Publishing collegues and tutors next week, and to everyone coming to the exhibition in May.

Early this morning we went through the last stages: glueing, folding and cutting. Here you are some pics...

These lovely girls are HJ (left) and Leena (right). They are members of the Marketing Dept of the project, but came in to give their help during the final processes. HJ is placing glue on the spine of the books, while Leena is adding the cover. Thanks girls for your precious help!

And here they are, ready to be trimmed and distributed to our tutors and contributors.

Stay tuned for more news about MA Publishing projects!

A Room with a Hue... Coming to life!

We are getting closer to the publishing day... And the book is going through the printing, binding and finishing processes. 

The last few weeks have been busy and stressful, but seeing the cover being printed today has been a wonderful moment! We decided to take some pictures of this process, which we found really fascinating. Check it out!

This is Tony, one of LCC Technicians. He's just finished producing the plate from a film and is cleaning it to make it ready for the machine.

Here you are the bright shiny plate just placed on the Heidelberg one colour printing machine we have at LCC.

This is our paper - 50 sheets of silk weave 350gsm turquoise paper. 

The printing process.

Our Production Dept (Becky and Karla) checking all details.

The texture and the ink create the effect we were looking for - it's nice to touch and to look at! 

We'll have an exhibition at LCC later in May. We'll keep you updated with more details, so that you can save the date and come to touch, look, and feel inspired by our book!!!

A team with an opinion...

Emma

This project has exemplified the distinctive and curious nature, not only of an artist's work, but also of their mind, demonstrating that creative work begins with unique ideas something which we all aspire to have.

Hwa Jung

Every artist in our book evokes the saying 'From small beginnings came great things'. According to the artists, everything around life can be a source of inspirations. Each idea makes a reality.

 

Isabella

Inspiration can be found anywhere, in any object, in any person, in a colour. We all have dreams and objectives in life, we try to achieve them strongly and all these artists made me understand that they can come true. It doesn't matter how long it will take.

John

Just as our book brings together a dozen artists from widely differing disciplines, so our group has taken eight people from six different countries and combined a wide array of talents and interests, resulting in a project which has been both well managed and fun: an ideal combination. Thanks to everyone in the group for working together, you've all made huge contributions to a very fulfilling term.

Karla

This book embodies art for me; it's tactile, affecting and nostalgic.  The artists enclosed herein have shared their extraordinary perspectives on art, creation and inspiration with us and their passion and energy beams off this little book's pages.

Leena

Our book unravels how people from different walks of life ventured into the world of art. How true it is that a journey of thousand miles begins with a small step.

Sihem

I believe inspiration is the main reason which give us the willpower to realize major achievements in our life. To be able to work with such artists,to protect such work pieces and to share it with people, was my inspiration for this book. Now one question remains: What is your inspiration?

‘All art is representative of the artist that creates it. Their labour, their unique mistakes.’

Michael Burrell

Sculptor and Performance Artist

Michael Burrell always wanted to be an artist although he had never envisaged that he would be a sculptor or performance artist. When he was younger he wanted to be a cartoonist...

Performance art trend

It is leaning towards relational aesthetics, which deals with social spheres and people's relationships towards one another and their surroundings...

Anecdotes

Burrell's favourite piece of work is an anecdote in itself. It is an installation based around ritualism that saw him lay on a symbolic funeral pyre with wax over his eyes and mouth.  He starved himself for three days to get himself into a controlled trance like state...

Studio

A small part of a large hall constitutes his work space. The studio is filled with junk, materials and loads of paper. The wall is an 8 ft by 4 ft blackboard...


Role model
Joseph Beuys


Inspiration
Burrell mocks when asked what inspires him,

‘Let the record show that I hate this question.’

 However, he then goes on to say,

‘Seeing art makes me want to make more art.’ 

Exhibitions
He has exhibited in venues around Leeds, one of his fondest forums is abandoned shop fronts...

Dual dreams 
Burrell's ambitions for the future are split, like the duality he perceives in art itself. On one hand he'd like to make a living from what he does and on the other he would also love to be recognised by his peers, and may be even the general public. However, awards mean very little to him.

‘One of the skills of being a freelance musician is that you have to adapt to whatever style and arena you’re playing.’

Nicholas Ireson

Musician

In the case of French Horn player Nicholas Ireson this includes opera, classical and contemporary music, played in myriad venues ranging from freezing church halls to opera pits and even packed football stadia…

Background

Having taken up the horn aged twelve, switching after six formative years on the trumpet, Ireson established himself at both his school orchestra and the local music service in his home county of Hertfordshire. Aged eighteen he was accepted to read music at Christ Church College, Oxford University. After graduating from Oxford, he moved to London in order to take up a two year scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, which provided the training required for the professional work which he began to receive during his time there.

The most picturesque venue

• St George’s in Hanover Square
• Wigmore Hall,

Those two are ‘in no way exhaustive. You have a positive experience of a venue if your performance goes well. If you go to a pub and have a bad date, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad pub’

Performances

• John Williams’ film music, at Barbican and at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall
• Stadion Miejski in Poznan, accompanied Sting as part of the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra

The ‘French Horn’ and working environment

The French Horn is an instrument with a large potential for mistakes so nerves are never entirely absent from Ireson’s live performances, but studio recordings can be even more pressurised. Film score sessions are hard to come by, lucrative but with limited time frames, so it’s crucial not to be the musician whose errors slow everyone else down.

‘You can make work anywhere is my philosophy’

Bettina von Zwehl

Photographer

Zwehl began her career with an apprenticeship in Italy then came to London and studied at LCP; she has come full circle as she now teaches in BA photography at LCC. After LCP, she completed an MA at RCA.


Sources of inspiration
Zwehl states that every project has different sources of inspiration, but highlights the origins of the profile images.

• Italian Renaissance paintings
• Different tones of neutral colours

Role models
Zwehl cites the photographer Irvin Penn and Hans Holbein, the Renaissance artist who was originally from Germany, like Zwehl is, as a role model. Just like he was, Zwehl feels adopted into the British art culture and see herself as a British photographer now, since she is mainly established here as a photographer. 

• Irvin Penn
• Hans Holbein

Studio
V&A Museum in South Kensington
Zwehl is there until June 2011, and she is currently five weeks into her residency. It is a place for displaying, editing and thinking.


Events & Exhibitions

• The Photographers’ Gallery
• The National Portrait Gallery
• Guggenheim New York Collection
• V&A Museum

'I’m interested in depth and surface, and how the viewer might interpret or fall into an image’

Victoria Ahrens

Fine Artist

Victoria Ahrens’s works are distinguished by their protean nature, in form as well as content. Her forms of artistic expression are suitably varied and fluid, and involve a wide assortment of different disciplines...

Background

Ahrens started with photography and then she went away from that and started doing a lot of drawings and then got into print making. She is now beginning to come back to almost pure photography, although changed to other mediums.

Studio

Ahrens splits her time between her London studio in Camberwell and an annual winter migration to South America; sometimes to Brazil but more often to her father’s homeland of Argentina, where she spent much of her adolescence.
Studio in Camberwell...

‘The space you work in does change or influence the way you work… I’m much more comfortable in the smaller space so I think the way I work will be much freer in here. I find I work best if I’ve got everything to hand and I’m able to just sit here for hours and hours and explore and think.’

Sources of inspiration

Buenos Aires - architecture, history and politics
The idea of the ruin and the architectural palimpsest
‘Buenos Aires is an open book for that – it’s a mixture of eighteenth and nineteenth century neo-classical buildings, but also has this really modernist, almost fascist architecture of the dictatorship.’

Exhibitions

• Butterfly Walk- empty spaces, Camberwell, London
• London Group Open, Menier Gallery, London Bridge
• Crypt Gallery, St Pancras, Euston

'Art was left as a gift'

Nina Millns

Actress, Musician and Writer

Growing up Nina Millns was aware that she had an alternative lifestyle. Her father’s background as a musician meant that her family welcomed many artists into their home. Because of this, it gave her the opportunity to mix with others involved in the creative industries which was a novelty as a child.

A little bit of background

• Music was an initial influence in her early life, involving herself in bands when growing up.
• Acting intruded on her life as she took many lead roles in school plays.

For a while she balanced both of these creative practices but there came a point when it was necessary to choose what to study further. Millns attended East 15 in London, which she describes as the most alternative of the reputable drama schools there, producing talent such as Mike Leigh and Alison Steadman.

  

A global look

The actor has a global look due to her genes. Initially this was deemed to be a negative quality at drama school but it turned out to be a huge asset as it allowed her to play a variety of different nationalities (for example, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo). 

Bringing characters to life

Key technique: Stanislavski’s method of acting.

1. Looking at clues and information in a text to ascertain how the characters interact with each other;
2. Think about characters’ objectives and what methods are used to achieve these;
3. Identifying the obstacles in the way;
4. Understanding how the characters evolve in the text.

‘Lines, scribbles and colours all over the text’ this is how Millns breaks it up and brings characters to life.

Portolio for auditions

• Monologues;
• Dynamic and interesting speeches;
• Uncomfortable humour..

She is most inspired by characters with an edge: if there is something you don’t like about them then it’s a role to get your teeth into.

Important moments in her career

• Acting in a show at the Edinburgh festival - it received rave reviews, sold out every night and made a profit!
• Winning a monologue slam competition which enabled her to perform off Broadway in New York; she sees the acknowledgement and reward of her work as a huge confidence boost.
• Playing Frida Kahlo in a production both at the Arcola Theatre and Stratford Circus. She found engaging and exciting because she had never played anyone celebrated before.

Writing and the studio

To complement her acting, she likes writing her own sketches and monologues. This takes place in a corner office space.

• A good working environment: more related to the feelings associated with the room.
• She surrounds herself with possessions to create the right atmosphere. 
• Silence is a necessity. 
• A bit of adversity: Stressful situations force her to be more creative - ‘being too comfortable can be a bit of a killing of creativity sometimes.’ 

Check out Nina Millns' website for the latest news about her career!

“Work means almost the same as life”

Sunghee Ahn

Installation Artist

Sunghee Ahn’s installation works combine, in terms of both artistic inspiration and geographic location, the influences of her native South Korea and her adopted home of London where she first arrived in the late 1990s to take an MA in Fine Arts at the Chelsea College of Art, before moving on to a research fellowship at Goldsmiths College...

Inspiration 

It is from everyday life that she continues to receive her greatest inspiration, particularly how nature continually changes and reshapes itself, in the form of drifting clouds, leaves changing colour and flowers blooming.

Favorite artworks

• The "captivating" abstract works of JMW Turner hanging in the neighbouring Tate Britain
• Richard Wilson’s 20:50, a Saatchi Gallery installation of a reservoir of recycled sump oil

Studio

Ahn doesn’t have a personal studio, although she prefers a quiet private space to allow herself to draw on her thoughts. She would rather describe herself as working within “a nomadic studio”, whereby she adopts whichever site specific region she’s setting up her installation as her working environment.

Prizes & Exhibitions

• Selected as International Architecture Showcase in London, UK - London Festival of Architecture (22/06/2010 – 04/07/2010): Korean Vegetable Garden in Spitalfields 
• Selected as one of the Asian artists in the new millennium by Chinese Art Centre, Manchester, UK
• Exhibition of the student engraving competition by Lancaster Univ., UK
• Public Design Award in Seoul, Korea
• Exhibition in Gwangju Design biennale, Korea
• Exhibition in Busan biennale, Korea

“The text shouldn’t duplicate what the pictures have already told – they should work symbiotically.”

Jane Johnson

Children's Illustrator

Jane Johnson observes as she reflects on the keystones of a career as a children’s illustrator which spanned over 20 years.

“There’s nothing to take the place of dogged practice. Like practising scales, you’ve got to keep doing it. Your style will develop and evolve over time.” 

Her success came not through formal training in the shape of a foundation course, but arrived after seven years of refining her skills and working on her children’s illustrations...

The influences

Johnson's aesthetic is based on the Edwardian era owing to her idiosyncratically old-fashioned childhood in the 1950s. Modestly claiming to have been slow to read as child, Johnson says she delighted in her mother’s book of Arthur Rackham’s Shakespeare illustrations. She identifies two chief strands of the British illustrative tradition: the weird and gothic imaginative works of Lewis Carroll and Mervyn Peake, and the more comforting side of AA Milne and The Wind in the Willows. She belongs to the latter camp...

The style

Throughout her many works Johnson’s values remain constant: elegant illustrations and a desire to 'convey a sense of comfort and reassurance to lonely and unhappy children'. Her work exudes sensitive symbiosis between text and the pictures.

Few of her works

• Sybil and the Blue Rabbit 
• 1984’s A Book of Nursery Riddles 
• Today I Thought I’d Run Away 
• Tiger
• The Princess and the Painter
• My Dear Noel

Prizes

• The runner up for the 1980 Mother Goose Prize for best new illustrator
• The Owl Prize in Japan

“It's not what goes on around you; it's what goes on in your mind that defines your work.”

Michèle Findlay 

Ceramic Artist

Findlay's love of creativity was inevitable due to a childhood surrounded by art lovers. This passion came to fruition when she started studying in 1985, having worked before in travel and teaching. Her Master Degree in 2001 allowed her to develop her affinity for ceramics and clay...


Findlay's clay crush continues...
'Clay is a great sculptural material.'
'The best thing about clay as a medium is its durability.  It is like a key to the past and passes information on to the future about civilisations that we wouldn't ever have known existed without the hard-waring nature of ceramics.'
'A lot of advantages as a medium: Clay is recyclable, it's cheaper then metals and easier to manipulate, as well as possesses great textures and an element of unpredictability.'

Dreams and objectives 

A remnant of her work will remain, even when she is gone, for people to look at and know that she existed...

Sensations post creations...

Development is a very solitary thing

Selling is not the be all and end all of art

'in the zone thing' - an instinctive gesture

Sources of inspiration

• World cultures
• Perception of women
• Exploration of emotions

Studio

It's a brick shed that was once used to house tools. The building is cold and bare and exposed. 

Exhibitions

• 'Artists of the 20th century' in 2009
• Chalk Gallery in Lewes

“Once I got started I never stopped.”

Lata Shah

Textile Designer

Lata Shah is a self-taught textile designer. Her journey into the world of art began at home. She had an eye for design, color and style; and she had ambitions...

Zamaku Collections

Shah started a company called Zamaku Collections, so that her brand was visible in the market. The company participated in several exhibitions organized by Crafts Council of India apart from holding private exhibitions in several cities of India such as Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Jaipur, Vadodara, Ahemdabad and Surat. 

Shah found her niche...

Shah found her niche in block printed fabrics and sarees. 

Saree is popular dress in India, designed as a strip of unstitched cloth that is draped over the body in various styles.

Block printing is a traditional art that employs wooden or metal blocks to print designs and patterns on fabric, by hand. What makes block printing unique is that the design patterns are first carved onto the block by hand. The carved block is then dipped into the required colour tray, and then stamped onto the fabric to create repeat patterns. Natural vegetable dyes and non-toxic chemical dyes are normally used for printing. 

The working environment

Shah has come a long way since she started working from a small almirah and a few bags in one of the spare rooms she had in her house. Now she works with different print workshops; and has her corporate office in Lower Parel, Mumbai which also serves as a warehouse for finished fabrics which are then parceled to various customers and wholesalers. 

Sources of inspirations

• Nature and the patterns therein
• Colourful paintings
• Sculpture
• Furniture

‘Writing is easier than breathing’

Steven Pottle

Poet

‘I’ve always wanted to express something.’ 

Pottle began drawing and sketching as a child and said he always enjoyed putting something down on paper, commenting that he couldn’t imagine working in a factory or office like most of his peers.

Essential objects to carry around

• A notebook
• A black bic biro 

Sources of inspiration

• Fellow humans
• Friends
• Family
• Questions he always askes himself: ‘what’s life?’ and ‘what drives us?’
• Music playing in the background
• London

London's poetry scene

London is an endless source of inspiration, it makes his creativity flourish and exposes him to a range of poetry:

• Events around the city (as the reading and open mic sessions at 'First Out' - Tottenham Court Road)
• Slams, revealing poetry as a controversial art form that can be compared to rap artists
• 'Poems on the Underground', exposing verse to those who would not have otherwise chosen to read poetry.

The “studio”

Pottle's working environment is really adaptable. 

Inspiration can hit him anywhere, thus he finds himself writing at home - early in the morning or really late at night - and in public spaces, because they stimulate the mind. 

Some pieces

• ‘A Ray of Sun’ 

depicts his desire for children, which people seems to really engage with because they seem shocked to hear of a male need for children.

• ‘The Saturn’s Return’ 

is about reaching thirty and feeling like the planets are aligning in your favour and being able to put things in perspective and recognise that some things aren’t so important that you need to really worry about them.

• ‘Love Notes’ 

is a short piece expressing the meaning of love.

• ‘Blow your whole world apart’ 

is a sexually confrontational poem.

Dream

To have his own book of poetry. 

Pottle had already a taster of this in the last year: Four of his poems were published in a photography book called ‘Dualism’.

While waiting for the book to be published, why don't you start reading Steven Pottle's poems and see how deep, touching, and real they are?