Author: seaglassvisuals

The Sketchbook Project…

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It was a golden autumnal day when l discovered The Sketchbook Project / Brooklyn Art Library post on my Instagram feed. With my heart skipping a beat, l scrolled through the engaging details of the project, and felt instantly compelled to participate.

Inspired by one of the suggested themes – ´Mixed Use´, l set out to create a visual celebration of the sketchbooks to which l have joyfully filled over the years – from graphic design student to present day. l see my book as an opportunity for others to follow my creative journey, as the project actively invites readers to browse through a sketchbook, whether it be analog – off-the-shelf, or digital “slide-show”. Parallel to this, the experience encompasses a mobile library in the form of “pop-ups”, tours and exhibitions. l find this aspect hugely exciting!

Titled:´Reflections of a Creative Hybrid´ my sketchbook evolved into mirroring both my sides – as a commercial graphic designer and mixed-media artist. l am delighted to announce, l am now officially an artist of The Brooklyn Library Sketchbook Project, and my book has been catalogued. As all books are trackable, l will naturally be curious to see who views it.

Founded by Managing Director, Steven Peterman in 2006, when he was just 20yrs old and in college, The Sketchbook Project was set up with the vision to create a small community art space. As Peterman so beautifully writes…

“With over 50,000 sketchbooks from 30,000 different global creative people, we have grown over the past 14 years to be the largest collection of sketchbooks in the world. We have reignited art careers, inspired first time creatives and even helped a few marriage proposals. We have connected long lost friends, sparked creativity in young minds and created a space for art to live on, indefinitely. We are more than just a project. We are a slice of global creativity. We are an inside look at what people are thinking. We are an archive, a library, a source for endless inspiration.”

l am thrilled to be a part of a global movement of creatives. It is an honour to help fund and contribute to the Brooklyn Art Library. l wish both the library and The Sketchbook Project a bright and creative future!

Perhaps you may feel inspired to participate, and become part of the global creative movement…

The Seaglass journey…

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The idea started with a dreamcatcher. More precisely, the name l gave to the paper boat that l had assembled and perched on top of the words Every journey begins with a first step – printed on the cover of my new blank sketchbook. 

Seaglass is on the move, sailing to its new home alongside Looking Glass — where they will burn brightly together, like a lighthouse.

After creating a visual to capture this change, I happily turned to Patricia Vila Nova for another rewarding creative collaboration. Together, we worked to translate the new Seaglass message with simple paper-play charm and metaphor.

The animation itself reflects the newly explored shores of visual storytelling. As a graphic designer, I enjoy the wonderful sense of excitement and growth that learning new skills can spark — and the challenge of capturing a client’s voice and story in a creative, engaging way.

Consolidating Seaglass visual communication and the creative inspiration captured in Looking Glass feels organic — and like the realisation of a beautiful dream.  

And so, buoyed by the flow of nature, Seaglass is sailing on. I invite you to keep a look-out for new and exciting stories, side projects and updates.  

 

creative orange studio

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Innovation is a common term in business today, some say overused, and often mysterious. Taking a look at the current Innovation landscape and one theme will dominate: ‘technology’. Today when we talk about technology we talk about computing, electronics and all things digital.  However, ‘technology’ used to be associated with ‘useful arts’ and included things such as printing, beer making and leatherwork.  Interestingly the root of the word technology identifies with craft and skill, with no mention of electrons at all!

What if we put the idea of ‘craft’ back into innovation? What value can craft add to innovation? I propose it can add a lot of value if we look at how innovation is done rather than focusing on the what. In his 2016 book “Innovating A Doer’s Manifesto …” MIT’s Luis Perez-Breva proposes that innovation is something that can be learned:  “The process of creating what eventually becomes an innovation is something you can learn and become better at through practice.” This is exciting because it helps to de-mystify innovation and make it accessible to everyone. 

Here is where the idea of craft can be useful. If we look at how a craftsperson works-we could say their practice, we can use this idea of ‘practice’ to learn how to innovate. Peter J Denning & Robert Dunham, innovation & entrepreneur writers also suggest that innovation is a personal skill that can be learned and advanced through practice in their book “The innovator’s way”.

In April 2019 I was pleased to help organise an event called the Craft Innovation Salon which brought together a diverse group of people from the worlds of craft, industry and academia.  This event was made possible by the collaboration of the UK’s Crafts Council and University of Arts London. During the day we explored this idea of How we do things by thinking about mindsets and skills, and later how these might be applied in partnerships between craftspeople and industry. 

Some of the themes from the day can be seen in the illustrations by Josie of Studio Jo Jo shown above. Participants enjoyed hands on activities to promote discussion, and the diverse mix of people.  Overall there was a lot of appetite for further discussion in the area of Craft Innovation. So next time you hear the word innovation, perhaps you can think about the role that craft could play?

Looking Glass while digital in approach has been curated with the intention to showcase craft across a wide platform of mediums – reflecting creativity, innovation and inspiration from a variety of visual perspectives. This ethos organically led to a conversation with invited guest writer – Ann Marie Newton.

 Ann Marie has a career spanning over 20 years in the Textile & Fashion industries, this includes roles as a scientist, designer and technologist. Her career has been based in the USA & UK but has included travel to many countries in Asia.  Having just completed her MA in Innovation Management at the renowned Central Saint Martins college in London, Ann Marie is now pursuing her interests in workshop facilitation, writing, weaving & all things creative including setting up her freelance company Creative Orange Studio which reflects her love of the colour orange. Ann Marie would love to hear from you, please email her at AMC@creativeorangestudio.com.

Name that tune…

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Music has the power to evoke memories – be it a riff, a lyric, the sound of a certain instrument, or vocal, a song has the magical ability to conjure up a visual in the mind…transporting us back to a moment in time.

Combined with curiosity as to the creative process of other designers, and my love for music l feel totally captivated by Katrina McHugh´s project and subsequent book – “Pop Charts: 100 Iconic Song Lyrics Visualized”. With a artful mix of poetic understanding and visual positioning, Katrina draws us in to ponder on a song title – in all its playful beauty.

As an artist, author, creative director and co-founder of Flight Design Co . Katrina started her work while participating in “The 100 day project” – undertaking a daily practice of visual creativity. How inspiring that this path would organically lead to the development of “Pop Charts”.

l love the idea of dissecting a song and reflecting it in a visual capacity. Fun for the eye and uplifting for the spirit. The approach to weave elements of nature into the piece highly resonates – as l am a graphic designer who finds the natural world balm for the creative soul.

l warmly invite you to further explore the project, its thought-provoking origins of visual inspiration, and to happily discover the answers to the diagrams above – personal favourites of mine.

Wishing you plenty of joyful “name that tune” moments.

D is for…dream catching

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Every journey begins with a new step. l find this statement exciting, it carries a heady sense of exploration, possibility, and promise. This carefully chosen note-book sits perfectly aligned with the origami wish-boat, instinctively named ´Dream Catcher´.

With a joyful feeling of renewed creative buoyancy…as the year unfolds, l wonder where my dreams will take me ?

l love the idea of catching my dreams (even dreams still to be realised) – with imagination, meaning, curiosity and insight as my fellow travellers. Naturally visualization (in its various forms) plays an integral and creative role – my daily tool at play.

Wishing you all sparkly dream catching.

A rich infusion for the visual eye

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Intricate. The prime adjective that leapt to mind when l initially came across the paintings by Ruby Silvious. l was immediately struck by her attention to detail, notably given the nature of the chosen blank canvas – the teabag.

Much to my creative delight, l discovered further art and books dedicated to the teabag. “363 Days of Tea: A visual journey of Used Teabags” is a daily record of a mood, a moment – captured within one year.

l love the idea of capturing a moment with a day-to-day approach – pushing one´s creativity each and everyday. The book reflects a rich understanding of application and execution – delicately and artfully expanding the purpose of the used teabag.

Here l have chosen three images which l feel in different ways capture my first impressions of Ruby Silvious´ teabag art. Detailed, playful, artistic, and richly inspiring.

Enjoy.

Left:26 Days of Tea in Japan / Day 21 Tsuru (crane), watercolor, ink and watercolor / Centre:26 Days of Tea in France/9 Dressed to a Tea, ink, watercolor, collage / Right:Extract from the website/363 Days of Tea

Copyright © 2018 Ruby Silvious  All rights reserved. 
No images may be copied or used for any purpose without consent of the artist.

Three photographers, one planet, many stories…

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The planet we inhabit has many a story to tell.

My invitation to the team at PlanetVisible included a request for each member to select one photograph which they felt captured the essence of their project. The response – three powerful images encapsulated with poetic and heartfelt words.

The collaboration between photographers Jean-Luc Grossman, Justin Hession and Pascal Richard sets out to explore, document and share photography stories from around the world.  Together, they travel across the planet – vast and hugely rich in its beauty and complexity. The collective passion for their craft is highly reflected in their work!

´Cape Verde Kids running down the Sand dunes´. ” The children of Cape Verde are an epitome of ´zest for life´.  At Salamansa Bay on the island of Sao Vicente, a large sand dune and a few old tires are enough to delight a whole horde of children. “Um, dois, três, shouts the elder, and soon everyone is whizzing down the slope at a blinding pace. Tirelessly, they climb the dune again and again with the tire over their shoulders. And every time they have the same happy smiles on their faces. “Sodade” is what they call this feeling, which means the longing for a beloved place, a loved one, or both, that seem inaccessible. We feel safe against it. But soon after returning home, it also affects us and the feeling will not disappear until the next trip to Cap Verde is booked.

´Burning Man photo of three whales and a bike´ “We are all on a journey, an inner journey…experiencing Burning Man from a photographers perspective was both challenging and rewarding. Leaving camp and wandering out into the desert sandstorms where 70,000 people could just disappear before your eyes leaving nothing for one to see but an impenetrable wall of sand. The reality mingled with fantasy and l loved that feeling…There was an inner peace in me. A time in which the essentials become visible to the heart…this is how the series of the “Silent Burningman” was born”.

´Man standing on isolated island´Solitude can bring negative emotions yet it’s the times of solitude that offer the greatest classroom. High up in the Norwegian Arctic we had plenty of time alone to contemplate the surroundings. Big wide open spaces void of all other humans with just the odd visit from the Arctic Terns. Some days were mystic, some angry, some calming but floating for 15 days like a cork tossed to the sea allowed us to explore our creativeness unhidden by any expectations. 

The carefully selected photographs for this posting reflect three very different journeys. yet all three images have the ability to captivate, and provoke further thought, each reflecting their own distinct perspective – capturing a wondrous moment in time.

For their next project the talented trio are looking to explore social issues, bringing their own visual approach to the subject matter.

With much gratitude, l invite you to explore the world through the eyes of PlanetVisible. Their photography stories may indeed inspire your own travels.

Photograph credits: Courtesy of PlanetVisible

Focus on Marlow Moss

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Top image: Marlow Moss `Composition, White, Yellow, Blue, and Black with Black Lines, 1956-1957, Private collection, The Netherlands. Above: ​Marlow Moss `Exhibition View Museum Haus Konstructiv, 2017. Photo: Stefan Altenburger

Upon first entering the Marlow Moss exhibition at the Museum Haus Konstruktiv, l must admit the work of Piet Mondrian sprang to mind.

However, this train of thought was swiftly swept aside, upon closer inspection of the work and life of artist Marlow Moss.

Layer by layer, the exhibition “Marlow Moss – A Forgotten Maverick”, (curated by Museum Director, Sabine Schaschl and Art Historian, Lucy Howarth), drew my attention to this artist – whose work has been long overshadowed by the famous male artists of the constructivists movement, namely Mondrian.

The exhibition itself allows you to view the work of Moss in fine detail, within a carefully curated contemporary structure. Based on mathematical principles, Moss explored the structural framework of straight lines using blocks of primary colour, as well as black and white, l found the original drawings exhibited in-conjunction with the actual finished compositions extraordinary and richly insightful. As the observer, we get to enjoy her compositions from intricate pencil drawings to full-scale artworks, as well as sculptural pieces, which include wire adaptations of her compositional line work.

The additional art lecture given by Art Historian Lucy Howarth gave further insight into the life and work of Marlow Moss. We soon discovered that the “double-line element (also a well-known element of Mondrian’s work) was in fact invented by Moss…it was (to my dismay, yet not overly surprise) subsequently made apparent that Mondrian did not point this out. During the lecture, their work was presented side-by-side, which l found hugely revealing, as you could clearly see how Moss was aspiring to break away from the boundaries of the black compositional lines.

l rather like the idea of Moss and Mondrian having a ‘double line’ conversation via their art compositions. Leads me to wonder …perhaps Mondrian felt challenged by Moss and her compositional approach.

l was left questioning the female artist presence or more importantly lack of within the art world. Briefly talking to Lucy Howarth after the lecture, l feel that Moss was indeed a true maverick, which l believe came natural to her. She is certainly an artist who requires our attention, and whose work demands to be an imperative part of the constructivist conversation.

l may have walked in thinking of Mondrian, but l walked away positively focused on Marlow Moss.

‘Marlow Moss A Forgotten Maverick’ – All images are courtesy of the museum.

Beyond words…introducing D.B. Miller

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I feel most fortunate to have struck up a friendship with the writer D.B. (Daryl) Miller in the spring of 2003. We met through a magazine project which we were both working on at the time. From the outset she inspired me not only as a creative, but as an individual whose outlook in life carried an air of authenticity and richly cultured prose. The words “raise my game” sprang to mind when l happened to glance over her impressive achievements as a writer.

Blending her passion for music and her gift for telling a story, l believe Daryl’s gig-based essays capture a plethora of heightened emotions that arise when watching a band perform live – in her words “the power of something much harder to name”. Her acute observations allow the reader to truly feel.

Daryl’s writings also extend to other creative individuals and spaces, whether it be a floating theatre, a bookstore or a guitar shop in downtown Zurich, her ability to tell their story goes beyond words. The poetic construction of language which features in her work evokes a powerful sense of truthfulness layered with emotive depth and richness.

As the iconic Glastonbury festival kicks off, l warmly invite you to explore online the published works of D.B. Miller.

Visuals: Elizabeth Hitchman