Tokyo Ghost. Commissioned for a book cover. A2 cartridge. Sold. Shown mounted for stability in transit. Cover reveal was today (17th July 2022) and the book, An Unfamiliar Landscape by Amanda Huggins, will be out in October published by Valley Press. Link to the process is here.
Audio is my multitracked reading of my flash fiction piece, The Breathing of Souls, a story about ghosts in the walls of buildings waiting for your next breath. The text and original audio is here.
2. Bang Bang
Bang Bang. Original painting, without text, commissioned to accompany the poem ‘Single Shot’ by Tom Sheehan. This is one of several photographs taken from different angles from which the editor could choose. A2 cartridge. Link to the process is here.
The video combines the physical with the digital. Here, I was able to split the image, change the saturation, and time that to coincide with the gun shot audio.
3. Navy Seal
Navy Seal. It is important to me to get faces right when they mean so much and this took many attempts. A2 cartridge. The photographer is Barbara Laker who posted her photograph to our local Facebook page. Link to the process is here.
4. Army Seal
Army Seal. A2 cartridge. From my own photograph. Link to the process is here.
The video again uses the physical work to form the basis of commentary on the pursuit, albeit benign in this instance, of wildlife. Cameras can disturb resting seals. Camouflage is their only defence.
5. Spider Spider
Following a tutorial discussion, Blue Bus to Keswick has been relegated. Instead, I found a further subject qualifying for inclusion in the Parallel Project, Mitigation.
This is a clean crop of the piece below. Again, the eyes were critical, to me, in bringing life to this image. The process is here.This full size piece is on A2 cartridge.
6. Loch Arkaig Osprey 2021
Loch Arkaig Osprey 2021 painted from a still drawn from the live video stream of the nest [link here]. A2 cartridge.
7. Loch Arkaig Osprey 2020
Loch Arkaig Osprey with eggs and a chick also after a still from the Loch Arkaig live stream. This was the 2020 pair. A2 cartridge. Link to the process is here.
Osprey return to the same nest every year, usually meeting the same mate on arrival. The Loch Arkaig nest, like many others, is built on a platform constructed and maintained by The Woodland Trust.
8. The Speed of Things
This is the first pair of paintings. Post tutorial, I re-worked the pieces and selected one to submit. The pre-tutorial pieces are presented here as per instructions.
The Speed of Things. The image on the left is monoprint of the one on the right with additional working; they are designed as a pair in reflection of the ambiguity of the poem. The title comes from the inclusion of speed measurements in the paintings – sound, light, thought, a snail.
After discussing this piece in the final tutorial, I have reworked it (details here) and include the original piece (above) as per instructions.
This is the pair of print/paintings from which the submission was selected.
Detail from the dark side painting with remnants of the lettering from the other image.
After working the two sides of this painting, and printing across from left to right, I found the first piece to be the stronger of the two. This is in contrast to the original where I had favoured the second.
The video, I think, stands alone, is not physically linked to the poem, and doesn’t need altering.
Sheehan’s poem is an exquisite chaos of colliding elements. After several readings, I still wasn’t sure if the voice was the voice of a person who was looking forward to morning or who had died before it broke.
9. Blue Glasses
Framed for exhibition. Background scrubbed in Paintshop Pro. Tilt due to angle required to reduce reflection and only partially corrected. Link to the process is here.
Animation in MotionLeap, audio – spoon on the rim of the glasses – added in Filmora10.
10. Despicable Apes (Flood retitled)
Based on and incorporating the poem Whales by Harry Gallagher (2019). Development process here.
This is the first iteration which both my tutor and I thought to be rather weak. It is included as per instructions. The re-working follows.
Made in Filmora10, animation by MotionLeap for iOS, audio by Epidemic Sounds.
Reflective account, Studio Practice assessment 2021/22. The audio describes my experience of the module, the progress I feel I have made, and what I believe I have learned. The visual component is a metaphor reflecting the frenetic process of making, and the long, slow breath of completion.
Strayfish Arts 