Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness! It's just two weeks until the exhibition launches! I've seen some photo's of the installations coming together, and I think it could very well be MAGIC!I shan't tell you the lay out of the main thing, as I don't want to spoil it for anyone that makes it down- although I'll definitely post pictures once the show's open. I can tell you that it'll be a chronological journey through the ages of children's book illustration. There's something very special about the idea that whatever age you are, you'll be able to see images from your own childhood.
The exhibition will of course also cover present day, and I'm very excited to see all of my hero's work in the flesh. I'm particularly interested in seeing Anthony Browne's work- I'm a sucker for detail! And from yester-year, I feel I may be drooling openly at a glimpse of Tenniel's work.
For my part, I'll be setting up a separate installation based on 'The Day in the Life of an Illustrator'. I'll be re-creating an area of my studio, so people can see what equiptment I use, and a little bit of the process behind my books. I'll have work exhibited, and an audio interview. Please don't laugh at my squeaky voice! I haven't recorded it yet, but I'm sure I'll sound like an infant mouse doing a bad Michael Jackson impression.
Today I went and got my work printed up, and took a trip into The Lightbox to leave it to be framed. I was asked to choose 3 pieces of work to display. The only thing I don't like about this sort of thing is the decision-making- I'm terrible at making decisions. I can't even choose what cereal to have for breakfast... It's very easy to select work if it's not your own, but it's harder to see things objectively when it's your own. It's good to pick work that's varied, but that complements eachother. Unfortunately, I often find the pieces I can look at without cringing are the similar ones! Also, more and more, I do my work in pieces, which I stitch together in the computer afterward, so finding recent original work that's complete enough is pretty difficult. It's done now though, and I'll put it out of my mind. I'm beginning to feel it's all coming together, and the reality that this is really going to happen has finally hit.
My only slightly 'eeeeeek-ish' worry now, is what to do for the workshops. I'm thinking of doing a character one... and possibly an interpretation of text one, but I'm really not sure. I've never done this sort of thing before, so if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
Cassia,
ReplyDeleteThis is a beautifully presented blog. I look forward to seeing lots of things posted here. Fantastic!
Good luck!
Laurie
Gosh, well done indeed for being part of the exhibition.
ReplyDeleteIt does sound very good indeed.
So that's what the drawing board was for :)
Character and text interpretation sound good for the workshops.
Only other thing I can think of is maybe something on different approaches for different age groups, or something?
Jon, yes, you're right. The workshops will be aimed at 4-8 year olds, so I think that might be a little tricky, but I'm hopefully doing some older kids and aldult lectures/workshops later in the year and I'd love to do something like that with them. Excellent idea.
ReplyDeleteA character workshops sounds perfect. One thing that I find fascinates kids of that age is how you can so easily create expressive faces, just with subtle tweeks of eyebrows and different mouth shapes.
ReplyDeleteooh, that's a good idea. that sounds pretty spiffo actually, as I can always have the rest of her drawn before hand, and just change the faces!
ReplyDelete