Carolina Melis

Carolina Melis is an interesting animator and illustrator that I came across during a seminar this morning. I discovered her work in a book entitled ‘Illustration Play’. The book is packed full of very inspirational work from a whole range of artists from around the world. I feel the book shows a very experimental, unique approach to illustration and includes embroidery, paper cutting and origami. Some of Carolina Melis’s work looks like it has been created very spontaneously but yet it works so beautifully, also the vivid colours she uses and her interesting use of embroidery caught my attention. The work visible on her website is quite diverse and well worth a look at.

Below I have included a link to her website, some images of her work and a couple of videos of her work which i particularly like.

http://www.carolinamelis.com/

Carolina Melis 1
Uploaded by echymose.

Think Big!

In a lecture a couple of weeks ago Mike Press told us to ‘THINK BIG’ by this he meant that we are not textile designers in Dundee or in the UK but designers on planet Earth, we need to think big to achieve big. We need to be daring and take risks, small ideas are safe ideas. In design you have to be in front of everything else, aware of what’s happening in the world around us, aware of what other designers are doing and brave enough to take risks.

Recently I read an interesting article in WIRED magazine entitled ‘Data on the move, The petrol car will take a backseat in tomorrow's city centres’ by Joe Simpson and I think his perception of the future is a big idea. Here is the link to the article online: http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazine/archive/2009/11/features/digital-cities-the-transport-of-tomorrow-is-already-here.aspx This idea aims to revolutionise the workings of our cities by drastically increasing the use of digital technology in order to ultimately change the appearance of our cities and the methods of transport we currently use. The proposed scenario suggests congestion, time spent travelling and the cost of travelling would be reduced. Ease of parking as well as road and pedestrian safety would be greatly improved.

In the article Joe Simpson writes ‘This scenario is not far-fetched. It’s actually a combination of existing concepts…’ however, I think the scenario is far-fetched, it is a big idea. Joe Simpson is thinking big. To try and transform a scenario such as this in to reality would be very daring. It may be possible but is it realistic? The cost I imagine would be huge and to redesign an entire city centre would be very time consuming and damaging for local businesses, also would elderly people and locals be in favour for such change, or would they find all the disruption a huge annoyance? But who knows what the future holds? Some aspects of this scenario would be relatively quick and easy to put in to practice, so perhaps ‘think big’ scenarios such as this may become reality in a few years time in order to combat ever-increasing congestion and pollution in city centres.

Photoshop

Last week I spent a lot of time in the media lab using Photoshop to develop black and white mark making images in to designs. I enjoyed the week, as previous to this workshop my Photoshop skills were very limited, the week led me to realise how useful Photoshop can be to quickly digitally manipulate and create designs. Adding colour or changing the composition of a design and creating interesting layered images using the opacity tool can all be achieved relatively quickly. Below are a few of the many designs I created this week.

The Tipping Point Mind Map

Hush Puppies Mind Map

Culture Project 2

I have now moved on from looking at how to grow a tomato to the second section of my culture project-something my dad doesn't know. What i have decided to concentrate on now is that my dad doesn't know what it is like to be on the moon. I want this section of my sketchbook to be visually very different to the last section of my project so i have decided to work mainly in black and white rather than vivd colours. Any colour i use in this section will be understated and carefully considered. I have also decided to work on a larger scale and fine detail will be less important. So far i have only began to consider the surface of the moon looking at reference books and interesting surfaces in the natural environment for inspiration. I have particularly enjoyed experimenting with masking fluid to create unusual layered images and creating different textured surfaces to work on with thick white emulsion paint and collage papers.

Culture Project 1

Recently I have been doing a lot of work on my Culture project. Still progressing with the theme of how to grow a tomato I have looked at garden tools, allotments and a variety of leaves based on photographs taken at the botanic gardens in Dundee. I have been inspired by the use of colour in Patrick Herons work, I also looked at the work of Mark Rothco who uses colour and composition in a very bold manner and textile designer Kate Blee. I feel Kate Blee’s work is likely to appeal to many people as it is contemporary and very minimalist. Some of her work and that of Mark Rothco and Patrick Heron is visible on the sketch book page above.

I based some of my work on my dads vegetable garden and greenhouses, i have also used inspiration from photographs i took at the botanical gardens in Dundee. A couple of photographs and pages from my sketchbook are shown below.

The Tipping Point

I have recently read 'The Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell and many aspects and ideas discussed in the book I found very interesting. Some of the ideas and concepts made me think about how things do happen and what makes them happen and even how we could control them, I began relating aspects of the book to my life. Being able to relate to the book increased its interest for me. Although areas of the book I did find repetitive and so slightly boring, however this use of repetition did cement the points being made in my memory.

Creating this mind map has helped me to understand ‘The Tipping Point’ more clearly and I found the process quite enjoyable, although I found some areas quite difficult to map out as there are so may connections and overlaps within the book. I particularly liked using MindNode as a tool to create this mind map, as MindNode is quick, neat, tidy and easy to use. It is a programme I will be keen to use to plan out my ideas in the future. Within my mind map I explored the epidemic section in greater depth than the other areas as I found this most interesting I concentrated particularly on the Hush Puppy epidemic. This is because I found it very surprising to learn that something so small as the actions of a few kids in East Village and Soho could make such a huge difference.

I think many things I have learnt from this book will be relevant to my studies in Textile Design and also in other areas of my life. For example, the information about the amount of trial and error necessary to create Sesame Street highlights the importance of testing, the need for lots of attempts, small adjustments and constant analysis whilst creating.It is also very useful to know Connectors, Mavens and Salesman if you wish to create an epidemic or increase sales or get something noticed. Small changes can make a big difference. A small reduction in the budget to treat syphilis can leave a few untreated Connectors, which can cause a large number of newly infected people. Changing the colour of a small area of a print could have a huge impact. Things happening all around us even small initially somewhat unnoticeable things can have a dramatic impact.

This is the mind map i created to explore the contents of the 'Tipping Point'

I then went on to look in more depth at the Hush Puppies epidemic.

Please note i have posted the two mind maps shown above separately, as here the images appear very small and the text is too small to read.

Dawn Dupree

Since the lecture based on composition that I had on Monday I have had a look at the work of some of the artists and designers mentioned. I particularly like the work of Dawn Dupree who has been creating textile art since 1990. I like the bold colorful semi-abstract prints she creates, I especially like her work based on a shopping trolley and her range of ‘domestic’ cushions. I think her work is original, unusual and vibrant.

I like to know what inspires people and on http://www.themaking.org.uk/Content/makers/2007/09/dawn_dupree.html Dawn Dupree says 'I like urban wastelands and empty spaces which have once been very busy or are about to be busy – they have a strange anticipatory, slightly loaded atmosphere that I like to express in my work' which I find very interesting.

The images below are taken from http://www.dawndupree.com/domestics.html#and are two of the cushions from Dawn Dupree's domestic range which i particularly like.

Culture Project

My culture project is rapidly developing and very enjoyable so it is probably about time I started to document my ideas. A few weeks ago I began with the idea that culture is what you know, what you don’t know and what you want to be. This idea I found online whilst researching culture with examples such as depending on your culture you may know how to catch a fish with your bare hands, build a mud hut or use a computer. You may want to be literate, an astronaut or able to afford to send your kids to school. This I found interesting and so decided to ask my family and friends these questions: What do you know? What don’t you know? And what do you want to be? I asked them to give me three answers to each question. However I ended up with too much information to work with so I decided to base my project solely on what my dad’s answers to the questions were.

My dad knows:

How to grow a tomato (Do all cultures grow and eat tomatoes?)

How to drive a digger

That he pays too much in taxes (I don’t think he does know this he just wishes it was true!)

My dad doesn’t know:

What it’s like to be on the moon

What it’s like to be rich (although in some places he may be considered to be rich)

He also doesn’t know how to fly a hot air balloon

My dad wants to be:

Happy

Healthy

Rich

(I imagined he would answer this question with a profession like my mum did- a travel writer/ photographer)

I have taken his first answer and so began investigating how to grow a tomato. During the past week or so I have been drawing directly from fruit and vegetables, looking at magnified images of fruit and vegetables and also banana cells under a microscope. I am now beginning to look at gardening tools, allotments, greenhouses, potting sheds and overgrown vegetable plots.

Below are some images of my sketchbook pages based on drawing from fruit and vegetables, the photographs within my sketchbook i found online. However i hope to visit the botanical gardens or some local allotments to do some photography this week.