Word Up/ Borderless vol 3

Another week has passed, and still keeping busy.

Last Monday I was given the opportunity to showcase some of my work at a spoken word event called WordUp in North West London. It was a really good night, with such a variety of people expressing themselves through poetry, song and other ways. Good vibes all around. Before the break I went up to tell everyone about myself and my artwork (was really nervous but I got through) and received a lot of positivity from the crowd. Managed to sell a few things and expand my network which was really cool (thanks Charlie :))

Saturday I did a live painting again at my work colleague’s event while he and his friends supplied the tunes for the night. Sooo I came up with a nice little idea before the day which combined the outline of my country of heritage Dominica and some national symbols.

The thing I’ve realised with live paintings is that you never really know how things are going to turn out. You could end up doing too much or end up doing too little. That comes with the territory.

As I was only just reaching halfway and a guy began asking me questions about what I was doing. He expressed how much he liked the piece the way it was and to name my price there and then. It was a surprise to say the least because I honestly had no intentions of selling it plus in my mind I was still in the middle of painting it. I eventually gave him a price but I was determined to finish it.

When I did he said he still liked it but it wasn’t the way he wanted it (ok not in those exact words, but he said if I hadn’t added certain thugs he wouldn’t have dropped the price to buy). So just to be nice I said if he is still keen will he buy if I redid some parts and he did say yes…

Upon further reflection I thought- did my pride get in the way? But then I remembered…this was a personal piece for me. If I sold it like that without my full intentions in the piece then I wouldn’t be happy. I’m happy to sell work no doubt, and whilst I may not be in a financially comfortable position at the moment (and some would say you can’t afford to be picky) but then to drop to half the asking price because it wasn’t how he wanted it? Didn’t sit right. I take on any feedback and appreciate all comments but I think I’d rather lose out.

I’d actually like to hear some opinions on this situation- do you think I made the wrong call?

A week off…

I’ve taken a few weeks off of work already this year (pre booked holidays away) but this time I booked one off in order to get myself back on course with projects, and strengthening my online presence.

So…what did I actually do??

1. Updated my portfolio on Behance and my LinkedIn profile
2. Applied for junior designer jobs
3. Created designs for my own brand
4. Rebooted my project from last year, Blossom.
5. Updated my bigcartel

I think I’m most excited about my “Blossom” pieces and getting the momentum going again. I’ve done 3 out of the 5 larger versions for the work and plan to finish the last two tonight.

Here’s a few images of what I’ve been working on and links to my Behance

http://www.behance.net/camillamicadaniel

2014…2015

Over a year has passed since my last post on here…and now its time to make a comeback. A lot has happened since and still have much going on now; some good, some bad, some ugly lol but here goes a summary of key moments in the last year.

May ’14

The last month before handing in my university work, I had everything prepped and ready for our degree show aswell. Around mid-May I received a call from my sister who sounded very upset. Unfortunately she delivered the news that my Grandad who had been living in Dominica had died. Obviously it had come as a big shock, as we were all actually thinking to visit him as he was approaching his 80th Birthday-the circumstances surrounding his death were even more shocking (I won’t go into too much detail, but someone caused him harm which led to his death)

Emotions were high, as we had lost my Aunt to cancer approx 6 months before, and my Mum was in hospital for an op around that time. We were all hit hard. 2 days after finding out about my Grandad, my Mum’s cousin had passed away…May ended up being a torrid month.

June ’14

With the support of my friends and my partner, I was able to continue focus on my show. My mother and sisters came to Southampton to attend and we had a nice evening, but we had to travel back to London the same night in order to get our plane to Dominica the next day.

The last time I went to Dominica before that was to bury my Nan about 8 years prior. It was a hard time trying to arrange the funeral, burial, paperwork and so on. Not to mention the person being investigated was still roaming free in the village. Even tried to attend the funeral? She got told where to go.

We were away for 2 weeks from mid june, I had to move out of my flat pretty much when I got back from Dominica. Before we left however my parents hired a van to take most of my stuff down. My 3 years in Southampton were officially done. Now it was time to head out into the real world, and await results and graduation.

July – August ’14

I arranged to do an internship as a Gallery Assistant at the Brick Lane Gallery and was also looking for part time work. Luckily for me I landed a job quikcly as a waitress that was planning to open its first restaurant in London. My internship at Brick Lane lasted for 3 months in which I was involved in doing a variety of things such as assisting with the set up, hanging and taking down of bi-weekly exhibitions at the space along with helping at the private launches. It was a good experience and I was able to liase with a variety of artists- and it gave me an insight to the operations of a small gallery (ponders…). I was also balancing this with my training for the new job at Ippudo (name of restaurant, famous for Ramen and Japanese cuisine). Passed two interview stages beforehand and then we trained in classrooms in Central London while they were still dealing with the new building. Learning Japanese, “Issatsu”, carrying empty Ramen bowls, taken pretend orders….lol it was a pretty surreal experience before we even got to the place.

Oct ’14

Grand Opening of the restaurant.All of us were putting in early hours, double shifts, exhausted. I arranged another gallery internship and was put on “trial” for a week. Unfortunately due some unforseen circumstances I chose not to continue. Also that same week my Uncle had passed away from failing health.

Nov ’14

My uncle’s funeral. My graduation. I also attempted to launch a Kickstarter project in order to get funding for a solo exhibition that I had planned. I didn’t reach my target, but I put myself out there and have put the project on hold (for now) for more information about what I had planned, click the link just here. Blossom Kickstarter

I had also started doing work experience with a fashion brand called Binghi’s Boutique-did a speculative application and they took me on. Initially I started to do custom designs for customers, which actually helped improve my knowledge and use of Adobe Illustrator…the owners were great, and we were a small team that gelled pretty well.

Jan-Feb ’15

New year. Hoping that things would be much better than the last. Myself along with about 4 other people had taken up our roles as Head Waiters/Head Waitresses. Tbh, it was really stressful, we were left with disorganisation, things were messy. We were tired. Communication was a bit off. There was a week I was working everyday to cover 2 of the heads who were away on holiday and it was draining. Got paid enough, and luckily I was off to Antigua with my partner for 10 days beginning of Feb. Much needed break, and it was an amazing holiday (even though many of the locals were talking about us getting married? lol)

April-May ’15

I took part in a group exhibition called Roots Culture Identity which showcased the works of young black and ethinc artists working in London. This took place in collaboration with the TUC workers conference on Great Russell Street. It was nice to network with up and coming artists and see the talent around me. My brother’s partner is a really talented face painter and mural artist from Italy. She asked if I was interested in doing a painting job with her and her friend she works with. We drove to a stop off point in Milton Keynes and painted a flower mural in a Starbucks. We finished quicker than expected and even got a nice bit of pay for the work.

June ’15

Me, my sister and parents decided to take a first real family holiday to Dominica. It was nice to actually go there and see some sights, and chill. We visited my Grandad’s grave, relaxed in a hot spring, visited Mero beach, also visited a relative on my Dad’s side who celebrated her 100th birthday :).

July -September ’15

I had a stall in South Kilburn Festival to promote and sell my art. I receieved really good comments from passers by and even had a few people buy some of my t-shirt designs (these can be viewed in my shop, details below). I had also ended my work experience with Binghi’s, but I left on a high.  The Roots Culture Identity exhibition was up and running again in PCS house in Clapham, and had another painting job in Starbucks; this time in Bournemouth and it was a 2 day job so we stayed overnight.

Now I’m just trying to work on my portfolio, up my design game up and get on with projects that have been put on hold 🙂 Hopefully I’ll land that full time designer job soon

As I said earlier I will be making more regular posts on here, but feel free to follow me on my other social media

Instagram: cami_san28

Twitter: @MicaCamilla

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MicaArtandIllustration

Shop: http://www.micatheart1st.bigcartel.com

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Creative CV…

To the future…

Now that my time as a student is coming to an end…well…what’s going to happen next??

I am more of a “here and now” person but that’s not to say I don’t consider the future at all…so here goes…

I definitely believe freelance is the path I will be taking. I really enjoy playing with a variety of themes, briefs and materials. I also have hopes of having my first solo exhibition within the next year. I am currently working on building my social media networks in terms of finding contacts and trying to keep my pages updated and promoted with works in progress and finished pieces.

Over the summer I am looking to volunteer or do an internship in a gallery in London. I believe this is a good start to help me gain some experience within a gallery environment, strengthen my organisational and communication skills for other arts based roles, and again it would hopefully help with planning my own exhibition.

And while I have a good sized room back home for me to do my work, I would love to have a large artist studio space where I can get really messy in the next few years…so that will involve a lot of saving up (and having a job)

For now I will continue to paint, draw, cut, print etc. I will continue to create.

A Little Time to Reflect

So we are now fast approaching the finish line to hand in all our work and set up for our degree show…feeling nervous but also excited as it marks the end of my days as a student and the start of entering the real world as an illustrator.

I got off to a fairly slow start in my opinion, as I was unsure exactly what I wanted to do. Brainstorming at the beginning definitely helped to narrow down the enormous theme I wanted to explore intially, about black people in media. By focusing on black women in media, I think it was still a broad topic to research but still able to produce and refine my images.

Upon my research I think I started to respond personally with my work and was able to get the ball rolling. My digital drawings of my ‘marionnettes’ was the big push forward for me. It summarised the opinions I gathered from my research succesfully and I feel the concept was powerful.

Going more ambitious and large-scale with my papercuts I think was also successful. Having a bold message through text, within the outline of a female figures and physical markers associated with a black woman makes it aesthetically interesting, but also shows I am making a statement. Initially I never imagined papercuts to be my final and best way of working, as I thought printing, painting or photography would be heavily involved. Also being advised to try incorporate beauty products and creating papercuts in the shape of them worked as well. I think all these elements combined together solidifies what I am trying to get across…That black women in media have been shaped, appropriated to a particular image of beauty, and this has had a direct psychological effect on black women in society on how they view themselves physically.

I think the least successful part of FMP was the photoshoot. While I did get some decent photos, it was quite tricky. Because the papercuts had become so fiddly it was hard to get the full shadow that I was hoping to get. However it has opened my eyes up to another way of expereimenting with them.

I still feel like I could do more research, and there are other ideas I wanted to try out. But if I did try them all out I think my focus would’ve been muddled and I wouldn’t have produced the work that I have. So overall I’m quite happy with my work, the processes I’ve used. I’ve been challenged. I’ve had to improvise on the spot at times.

22nd May to hand in all the work? No problem (I hope) 🙂

Artists to mention…

When FMP was first launched back in January, I was at a bit of a loss as to how to approach it. Did I want to do screen printed posters? Paintings? Papercuts. I thought it would be a good idea to look at other well known practising black artists and the subjects they approached.

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Ellen Gallagher, Godfried Donker, Mickalene Thomas, Keith Piper, Kara Walker
I think the most inspirational work I researched was Kara Walker. I really love her life-sized papercuts and the simplicity, narrative and power behind her images.

 

From full body to beauty products…

At my formative assessment before the Easter holidays, I was advised to try incorporate beauty products into my work, and so spent some time at home over Easter drafting more ideas for papercuts.

This didn’t come without its challenges however. I was back at my parents, there was a lot of distractions around the house with so many people, and I pretty much had no personal space since I had to kip in the front room on the sofa…

Eventually I was able to knuckle down and get into cutting late at night. And the main products I chose to use were foundation, contact lenses, and a range of hair products. Produced about 2-3 variations for each product type.

Again I had to think of a way to convey messages that some products suggest to consumers or how consumers read the message-without being over detailed or being too short. In the end I came up with 3 short but succient messages

1. “Light is Right”

From pictures I see posted on my social media feeds, to discussions on radio stations. I’ve been seeing and hearing more of some women doing things to their skin pigment in order to make them appear lighter via the application of make up, or even resort to bleaching. I chose to put this message in foundation containers. I think the thing I had an initial problem of resolving was the font style. I felt that considering foundation is in a liquid state, the font should match it but without it looking too soft.

2. “Bright is Right”.

I remember watching a season of America’s Next Top Model. One of the girls who made it into the top 13 was a beautiful looking Indian girl, and initially wore blue contact lenses upon her meeting with Tyra and the other judges. She stated that Indian people like girls/women with lighter eyes and skin. Upon more research and brainstorming I decided to look at black british female models and of course went for Naomi Campbell. Looking at many of her high fashion photoshoots and magazine coversI noticed that her eye colour was quite light in most of them, but footage I’d seen of her outside of the modelling world showed her to have dark brown eyes. She’s known to wear contacts. I started to wonder why? Was it a personal thing? Or again was it the idea of being appropriated to fit a notion of beauty to satisfy society?

3. “Full Locks Rock”

Hair product adverts. Display women with full bodied, lengthly and almost impossibly glossy hair, waving it, flicking it. And these products give you the false promise of achieving such a look. We do a lot of things to our hair, put a lot of chemicals in it without realising that it can do more harm than good. Straightening, hot curling, bleaching/dying, chemically straightening or perming. I remember sometime last year I randomly came across a documentary titled “Good Hair” in which Chris Rock was exploring the relationship African/American Women have with their hair. The views some women (and even some men) shocked me a bit, amongst other things. A school girl said she doesn’t think someone should have an afro if going for a job interview. Girls as young as 2 were getting their hair permed. Women pay $1000’s for a ‘good weave”

I’m quite pleased with the way these have turned out and have got a good range to pick from that I want to present at the degree show. It’s better to have too much of one thing than nothing at all…and I still can’t break out of this habit of having too much.

Casting Shadows

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Earlier today I had a small photoshoot with the 3 full body papercuts I had made, trying to capture the shadows against my friends skin. It came with MANY challenges to say the least.

My photography skills are pretty basic-I’ve handled a SLR a few times before, however all the things I learnt about the different modes in college had escaped me completely lol.

Luckily my friends were on hand to help and knew what extra equipment I would need

As we were testing the shadows, I realised how extremely fiddly the papercuts had become as my friend was trying to hold them up. And there was no one else on hand to help hold them. So initially I thought a tripod would be the solution.

Upon further testing I realised the tripod would be a hinderance, as I wouldnt be able to get as close as I needed to in order to capture the detailing from the shadows and get different angles, so I opted not to use it in the end.

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Despite everything I think the shoot went well. I quite like the fact that only part of the shadows were visible, but also in some of them the main words and images are visible and the main focus, particularly in the last image in the above slideshow.

Big papercut number 3

The last two days I’ve been working on my third full body papercut.

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I need new blades for my craft knife, I’ve had to put a plaster and bandage around my middle finger to stop the blade pressing into it. But I managed to push through and finish it. Initially I thought to just do the top half of the body since that was the original source of the image I had used. The initial message as well wouldn’t have filled up a whole body and still look strong visually, so I did a bit of brainstorming and imporvising for the bottom half of the figure

Nope. Wasn’t kidding about the bandage. lol

Now that I’ve finished this one I’m starting to see how my work for the degree show will form, and is getting me quite excited, but also a bit nervous as it marks the end of my road as a student and enter the real world as an artist.

And this one reads

We have been appropriated to fit a particular image of beauty. An image constructed by a predominantly white, patriarchal system, for a white patriarchal society…sculpted to fulfill the desires within a consumer culture.

 

As a personal preference, I think this one works the best. Again I had to really consider the message I wanted to portray and the wording. It sums up my opinions after further reading from Bell Hooks, and also my opinions that were shaped from doing the research for my dissertation unit. The body language of my figures are supposed to contradict the inner message and get people to engage in every way possible….

I think this will be the last large scale papercut I will probably do (with text in the container)…