Interim Reflections

-  Was feeling pretty nervous for this - didn't feel I had enough to show. I'm really enjoying this project but its been pretty time consuming writing the content that I'm responding to? So because this and my research have taken a lot of time I was worried I didn't have enough practical work yet. But this is fine because the research and writing were necessary for me to feel well prepared and ready to make the images. S'all good just got to get my head down now

- I have a plan of my outcomes I've just got to DO THEM. I think its all doable in the time. My plan is to leave some time in Easter to sew my tapestry so I can go home to see my family and do the sewing there because I miss home

- I'm really loving this project. It feels selfish but in the right way (???) like I'm making something for me and indulging in what I'm interested in and that feels great. I love folklore!!!!

- Having fun in my sketchbooks - they're integral to my process and have been a great place for me to work out my stories through drawing. I've discovered the thin muji sketchbooks which I love because theyre thin and feel less precious - a dumping ground for ideas and process rather than something which needs to look outwardly facing beautiful

- I talked to ben after the crit which was really reassuring and needed. I was worried about who this project / the book existed for? But he said its fine that it exists for me, in turn it exists for an audience of creatives which is great. Because of the way I'm writing the text my stories aren't necessarily for childrens books but thats not to say the stories arent - I'm making 3D things to further tell the stories so it can be like an immersive storytelling world. He said FMP is like Friends (tv show) and its spinoff. So my book is the series and then my ideas like tapestries are like that programme about Joey (but hopefully not as shit). Ben also said I could approach some publishers later on which would be really cool so I'll look into that when my book is more fully formed.

- Ben mentioned Jan Lenica's animations 'Adam 2' , 'Labyrinth' and ' The Rhinoceros'. I've been using collage processes to develop characters which is really fun and can make interesting unexpected things so I'm going to keep pushing this process. These animations are amazing - definitely going to look into them more. They're uneasy but familiar?

Adam 2 - Jan Lenica

FEEDBACK BOOK:

What do you think the work is about?

- "Folklore + poems"

- "Spoken history & history"

- "Folklore stories"

- "Myth but down to earth"

Do the 4 stories make sense?

- "Yes! I love the fact that they are not obvious and a bit ambiguous"

They each have a moral - is this enough to make the project have meaning (rather than it just being self indulgent story making)

- "Yes! I don't think it matters if it doesn't have a planned meaning. it will come after"

- "Definitely! But it's not wrong to make a project for yourself, self-indulgent"

- "Yeah but chill, indulge bro"

I'm making chopped up poems to then write the stories with to echo the idea that folk tales are made up of lots of voices. Does this make sense or am I better off just actually writing them?

- "Yes I like this idea, could be like a surrealist poem"

- "Sounds like it could be fun but I don't understand if you mean to write multiple versions of the same story"

- "Do it!"

Should I make more of a link to climate respect?

- "I feel like the work already does this subtly."

- "Nah, does it already"

Should tapestries tell my stories or 'exist within' (eg be the wind womans dress she sews)?

- "I like the idea of tapestries accompanying the lino prints & other bits and bobs"

- "I like both ideas, maybe try and see"

- "I like the idea of tapestries telling the story rather than just existing"

- "Can't you do both?"

Anything else?

- "I love your varied methods of making!! Ur a star"

- "The way you explore narrative is so charming and delicate, such a joy to see"

-"Love the lines"

PLANNED OUTCOMES:

The Book - 

The main thing. 

"How The Weather Came To Be" or something along those lines. A book containing my 4 stories and the illustrations, each story blends into the next - all coming together in the last story. The text of the book has come from exercises in poems and cut up collages to echo the idea that folk stories are a mixing pot of lots of untraceable voices.

Vehicles of storytelling (that also exist within the stories)

- Bigger felt tapestry telling all the stories, which also doubles up as a cape type thing to exist within the wind story

- Other things to exist within the stories eg rain stick / horseshoes - can be used to tell the story aloud 

Prints

- Screenprints and lino prints