Natural History Museum

I popped to London this week to have a look round the Natural History Museum. Always a lovely day out. Really enjoyed slowly strolling around taking it all in. I particularly enjoyed the two exhibitions they had on - Images of Nature and Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Images of nature is a selection of historic as well as modern nature imagery. There was some really interesting images and it was good to see various ways of visually presenting nature.

Wildlife photographer of the year was a brilliant selection of wildlife photography. Some of the pictures were really stunning and demonstrated great skill.

Images of Nature

The caterogory that really interested me was the One Earth caterogory One Earth Award. This section highlighted conservation issues or actions and the interaction between humans and the natural world.

Black Fish

Thursday the 28th I went to a talk by ocean conservation group The Black Fish. The group has set itself a mission to change attitudes towards our oceans and work to protect the life within them. I've always had a great love of the sea and all that lives within it. To produce work to support the ocean would be wonderful.

The talk was hosted by the Cowley club, a social club based on London road (http://www.cowleyclub.org.uk). The talk was mostly based around the issue of over fishing especially of tuna. Tuna, in particular blue fin tuna. Blue fin tuna is extremely popular and brings in a huge amount of money. Recently one blue fin tuna sold for 250 thousand pounds. Due to it's popularity the fish is coming very close to extinction and is reported to fall from existence in 3-4 years. Regulations have been put in place but there is such a lack in up keeping these rules.

Also mentioned in the talk was their fight against keeping dolphins and whales captive, a fight I am very much behind. At the moment there is a lot of concern for Morgan the killer whale who is currently captive in the Netherlands where experts are considering her release. Also being considered is selling Morgan to Sea World Florida.

The talk was really motivating and really informative. Hoping to stay in touch with the organization and hopefully be bale to produce some work for them!


http://www.theblackfish.org/

Vodafone tax dodge

Vodafone have recently managed to dodge a huge tax bill of 6 billion pounds funnily enough at the same time that 7 billion pounds worth of welfare cuts have been placed on the UK. £6bn is 85% of the £7bn the Chancellor has cut from the Welfare bill per year. Why isn’t the Chancellor asking companies who operate here to pay their fair share of tax if the deficit needs to be plugged now? Why hit the elderly, the disabled and the poor instead? Vodafone is the perfect example of a system that has become biased towards powerful corporations and against ordinary people.

Faroe Island whale slaughter

Residents of the Faroe Islands, an province of Denmark, slaughter and eat pilot whales every year. The process is said to be 'part of becoming a man' The Faroese are descendents of Vikings, and pilot whales have been a central part of their diet for more than 1,000 years. They crowd these intelligent animals into a bay and kill them, cutting the dorsal area through to the spinal cord. In the process, their main arteries get cut.

Ironically, this practice, called grindadráp, is diminishing the population of 5,000 islanders. Many of them get sick and die from high mercury levels in the whales. Mentally retarded children are reportedly being born at alarmingly high rates.

Shark finning

Shark finning is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark's fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea. The sharks either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown. This happens to tens of millions of sharks every year meaning that since the 1970s the populations of several species have been decimated by over 95%. This is all due to the huge demand for shark fin soup in Japan and China.

Electronic waste dumps

Over in Ghana and other parts of Africa there are huge areas where the Western world is simply dumping it's electronic waste. This huge amount of waste is so big due to our constant need for the latest technology. Our waste is dumped on other peoples land and is filled with harmful toxic chemicals. Many go to the scrap piles in desperate search of items to sell. Young children are often seen rummaging through the poisonous waste as they're so desperate for an income.

Dolphin slaughter and capture in Taiji Japan

These shocking images were only made aware to me by watching the award winning film "The Cove". I've been a dolphin lover for years and had no idea this was going on. Annually 20,000 dolphins in Japan alone are being hunted and brutally killed. Fishermen lure the dolphins into a small bay where a small percentage are removed and taken to marine parks and the rest are beaten to death. Many of the dolphins are dumped where as some are used for school dinners. Children are secretly fed dolphin which has dangerously high mercury levels.

Interim crit No.2!

I'm still not happy!! Although I do have a real passion for this kind of work I feel like I want to work like this myself rather than just celebrate others! From past experience it's a always a stress and an effort to organize other people when they're helping you and that's not what this project is about. I've recently suddenly felt an irritation and a need to go against graphic design as I think it can be taken too seriously. I do feel sometimes we need to realize there is a lot more important things in life than point size! With this in mind and the need for my work to have benefit I'm yet again changing the direction of this project! I've recently seen and read a lot of things that I can't believe there's not more of a fuss about. This project will hopefully have and achieve the aim of informing and educating about these issues.

Glenray Tutor

An amazing painter that specializes in photorealism. His paintings are just like beautiful photographs and are full of colour and emotion. I really like this work not only for the skill but for the very aesthetically pleasing outcome.

Lizzie Finn

Lizzie Finn has a very individual and unique style which you can see comes from a love of materials. Work is very heartfelt and full of character. You can see there's a love of the handmade in this girls work. It's very hands on and very crafts based.

Hellovon

Hellovon's work admittedly is a mix between hand drawings and digital work but it is a beautiful mix. The precision in his drawing is really amazing and he seems to have a really special touch. I've a real admiration for anyone with the skill of drawing and this guy certainly has that skill.

Francois Berthoud

A fashion illustrator with a really original style and feel to his work. His work is very expressionist and appears very hands on. It's simple and doesn't need anymore than he puts in. It's sophisticated classic and most importantly hand done.

Claire Morgan

A visual and installation artist. Produces stills of taxidermic animals arranged in a beautiful manner. Work is very delicate and precise and you can instantly see the skill. Again the work has that slight odd twist to but still oozes beauty and skill.

Boo Ritson

Boo Ritson paints people, but not on canvas or on board – she literally coats people with paint. Presented as photographs, Ritson’s portraits are a double masquerade: her subjects coated in sticky disguise, and the documentary image a surrogate representation of the tangible painterly, sculptural, and performative qualities of work. By using photography Ritson capitalises on the associations of snapshot memory and filmic narrative, with each of her characters playing out readily recognisable stereotypes.

I love this work, it's so instantly recognizable as hers and is so quirky and individual. There's something slightly odd about her work which I like, that little odd twist always makes work more interesting and appealing to me.

Peter Callesen

A very talented paper arts artist. A great talent in crafting paper into a piece of art. I really love his work as you can instantly see the skill and the time he's put into the pieces. They're very delicate and precious and difficult to take your eyes away from.





A very talented paper arts artist. A great talent in crafting paper into a piece of art. I really love his work as you can instantly see the skill and the time he's put into the pieces. They're very delicate and precious and difficult to take your eyes away from.

Interim Crit No.1

After returning from the Christmas break I had a interim crit in which I expressed my concern about the project. Although experimental image making is the way in which I enjoy working I cannot help feeling the project is a little flat. I feel that this project is the start of thinking what direction you want to head in and I don't just want to make attractive imagery for myself, I want my work to have purpose and be beneficial.

From the crit we came with the idea of working within the realms of art direction and creating a project around handmade work and celebrating peoples skills. Perhaps a magazine followed by an art sale congratulating and celebrating artists skills. Handmade work is something I'm really passionate. I think when you've handcrafted work it has a very special aura about it and is often work to feel very proud of.

MISC WORK

This is a selection of work that I feel fits well within my project but the artists are unknown. This selection is really just works that appeal to me for one reason or the other. I think the things that stand out to me the most when looking at work I like is colour and composition, features very important in collage work.