Wrap

Whilst at YSP the other day I noticed hidden away in the corner of the shop "WRAP" an illustrated magazine that once read can be used as gift-wrap. What a good idea although I do get the impression you might have to buy two copies? See what you think - hit the title link.

Jonny Hannah in Manchester

Jaume Plensa at YSP

Beautiful October sunshine at the weekend finally decided to visit the Jaume Plensa exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Well worth the trip. Some amazing pieces of work, the elongated dreamlike portraits of sleeping/dreaming heads are fantastic and beautifully lit. There is also a room with suspended gongs you're invited to hit - they reverberated tremendously.
The outdoor pieces figures made from letterforms were stunning as well. Really photogenic in the low October sunlight. I especially liked the tree hugging figures and the haunting heads that sat on top of the gallery roof.

Also, it also transpired that Rob Ryan was at YSP that Saturday and signing copies of his new book, "A Sky Full of Kindness". What a nice man, it was a real pleasure to meet him and chat for a couple of minutes. I enjoyed the show "You can still do a lot with a small brain" last year, and I do like his paper-cut work. I am slightly nervous at the ubiquity of his work presently, but can't help feeling supportive of an "illustrator" who is successful for crossing craft and business.

The Jaume Plensa show has been extended until January. Go and see it.

Alice in Wonderland at Tate Liverpool

Starting 4th November Tate Liverpool has curated a show that looks at the influence on fine artists in particular of Lewis Carroll's masterpiece. From the Tenniel drawings for the first edition to contemporary artists. One of the words missing from the entire description of the exhibition is of course - illustration, we wouldn't want to bring down the tone by mentioning the i word... Here are some of my favourite illustrations of Alice by Mervyn Peake, Lisbeth Zwerger, and Peter Blake

"More Source" a call for work from Preston students

Just over ten years ago UCLAN published Source a showcase of Preston based graphic talent. A call for work for a new book celebrating 40 years of Preston visual communication graduates has just been put out. So if you were a former Preston student and graduate from Illustration and you have had award winning, published, or just bloody brilliant work as an illustrator or designer that deserves to be seen alongside the very best visual communication work then submit your work to the source. 
Click the title link for more details, or email the organiser at the contact address on the website.

100 Artists' Manifestos

Currently reading "100 Artists' Manifestos from the Futurists to the Stuckists" published by Penguin (and hence the previous Bauhaus entry - that was inspired by my reading of the book in the bookshop before I actually bought it to read on holiday!).

The manifesto book is really interesting and well worth dipping into, some are really quite daft like the Futurist Manifesto of Men's Clothing 1913:

"WE MUST DESTROY ALL PASSEIST CLOTHES, and everything about them which is tight fitting, colourless, funereal, decadent, boring and unhygienic...we must abolish: wishy washy, pretty-pretty, gloomy and neutral colours, along with patterns composed of lines, checks and spots"!!! Great.

Some were very influential like The Suprematist Manifesto by Kasimir Malevich 1916:

" ...In repeating or tracing the forms of nature, we have nurtured our consciousness with a false conception of art... The transmission of real objects onto canvas is the art of skilful reproduction, that's all.
And between the art of creating and the art of repeating there is a great difference.
And however much we arrange furniture about rooms, we will not extend or create a new form for them.
And however many moonlit landscapes the artist paints, however many grazing cows and pretty sunsets, they will remain the same dear little cows and sunsets. Only in a much worse form.
And in fact, whether an artist is a genius or not is determined by the number of cows he paints.

The artist can be a creator only when the forms in his picture have nothing in common with nature..."

There are some fabulous Dada and Surrealist manifestos too, like the Dada manifesto by Francis Picabia from 1920:

"...Art is a drug for imbeciles...The Dadists are nothing, nothing, nothing and they will certainly succeed in nothing, nothing, nothing."

With excellent introductions to each Manifesto by Alex Danchev, I can feel several project briefs stirring.

Grow Your Own by Esther Hall

A graduate from the MA Children's Book Illustration course at Preston, and highly commended in the Macmillan prize in 2008 I somehow managed to miss the fact that Esther Hall's first book for Macmillan was published in April and is out in the shops now.
She was also selected for the Bologna Children's Book Fair exhibition in 2009 as a result of which Esther has also just published a book for a Korean publisher.
Most of her illustrations are made up from linocuts that are hand-printed and digitally coloured, she also sells print work through her website linked above.