I Have Arrived

Last week, I started a course called Stress Control which is helping me, and many others, to learn about ways in which we can take control of our anxieties and to help us overcome them, step by step.
I have been to two sessions now, and things are making sense! I have been doing a lot of jogging and running (much to the surprise of my family) as a way of not just building up my fitness levels, but as a way of promoting my own wellbeing. It really is helping; I feel more focused, I'm sleeping better at night and most importantly, I feel way better than I have done for a long time.

This is only the beginning though.

I recently had a conversation with a huge inspiration behind my lettering work. Her name is Sarah "Inkymole" Coleman and she's awesome. Her work was bought to my attention when I was studying at BCU as my tutor Clive is incredibly proud of her and he suggested I look to her for inspiration. How right he was! Her work is so fluid, so natural and yet so refined, a world away from the work I produce.
Sarah left some comments on a few pieces of my work, which really lifted my spirits. To hear from friends that your work is good is nice, really nice, but when you have a woman like Sarah with such talent and such commercial experience say that your logo is gorgeous is far more of an incredible feeling!

I have always described myself as an amateur. I believed that I would only ever give myself a "proper" term like Lettering Artist after I felt I had earned it through working or through commissions. I've never really thought much about it before now, but when Sarah said to me "I think it's time you stopped describing yourself as 'amateur'!" and she disagreed with my view on becoming a professional saying:

"Professionalism is what you demonstrate, how you work, conduct and present yourself, and is reflected in your work ethic. I am not sure you need a commission in order to 'be' professional; maybe to be 'a' professional?"

It just clicked. In hindsight (a common theme for me recently) I can see that has been very negative and in some ways counterproductive. I have been working really hard on my lettering, not so much recently but over the last few years I've really taken it seriously. I know where it is that I want to be in terms of my skill level, I know that my ambition is to have my work published one day, and by taking a step back and looking at my efforts and my progress I can see that I am no amateur. Yes, I do it for the love of doing it, but I am so driven to do it and to reach my goal that I suppose, I am professional.

Sarah also stated that: "There’s a time for modesty and it’s good to stay humble but there is also a time to acknowledge you’ve arrived!"
As I said before, this is just the beginning. With this course, Sarah's comments and my drive to succeed, this next six weeks is going to be pivotal. Not just to my mental health but to my professional practice as well.

With all this in mind, I think it is safe to say that I have arrived, even though my journey has just begun.

Getting blue, and getting back up again.

I haven't blogged or lettered in quite some time now. Why? A lot has happened over the last few months: money worries, dealing with mental illness and a failed relationship. I don't talk a lot (or at all) about my mental state and I should. The cobwebs have gotten thick and a window needs to be opened, I'm hoping talking about it more publicly will help.

For a long time now I've suffered with depression and anxiety, I never really did anything about it, even with those closest to me urging for me to seek help. My anxiety has prevented me from going to PrintHaus for months because I feel inadequate around the other artists that are there, while my depression has stopped me from focusing on the creation of new works and the finishing of current ones.
I didn't ask for help because I thought I could deal with it and I couldn't. In the end, that was partly how my relationship failed. He tried to help me but I pushed it back out of pride and stubbornness. I wish I had accepted his help sooner, but hindsight is a wonderful and sometimes painful thing. For now, I have to grieve. It takes time, I have to get out and play. Do what makes my heart happy again! I am thankful for what I have experienced and now I can base all my future opportunities on the mistakes that I have made and move forward with them, as I urge anybody reading this to do.

As with all art, mistakes are often made to beautiful works (sometimes these mistakes make them better) but ultimately we artists and designers are to learn from these errors we make and strive to correct the original or to create better, more wonderful things.

Over the next few weeks I intend to make more use of the facilities I have available at PrintHaus and to use my experiences to move forward with my lettering work because hey, my portfolio won't fill itself! 

I'll leave you all with this passage by Jelaluddin Rumi:

"This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor...

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond."

Crappy days are part of the journey, part of the process, but suffering is a choice. It's time for me to get back on the path.

Late Night Printfest

I said I'd post when I started printing, so here it is! It was quite a late session because I'd been at work all day, but it was nice to just wind down with some printmaking after a day sat in front of my computer. It was a little eerie being in the workshop on my own, but it meant I could just get on with it and not worry about being in someone's way or having to book the vacuum bed! I think that's probably one of the best things about my PrintHaus membership is that I can go any time I like.

Anyway, the prints! 

Not too sure about the colours, but they look fairly nice.

The photographs above are some of the first test prints because I haven't quite decided on the final colours yet. The yellow and pink gradient is in reference to the first test print I made a few years back for my anniversary piece, by doing so I'm able to see how far my lettering has come in the two years since I finished at BCU. 

I've got to say, the colours have grown on me (the yellow is much brighter in real life)  but I think I'm going to have a play with some metallic colours for the final, maybe a nice copper and gold gradient? I was thinking of more natural colours like green and yellow so that it felt peaceful, I also want to have a go with different coloured paper but I can just keep playing with it until I'm happy.

I'm not particularly keen on the fact that the 'AND' has disappeared a little, maybe I've over exposed it? I don't know. Overall though I'm really happy with the progress!

Hopefully this will be the first of a few new prints, I want to build up more of a portfolio so I can apply for print-based internships eventually as well as having some nice things to sell.  Which reminds me, I need to sort out my Christmas card designs...

Design Revisit

I've been fairly quiet on the blog front since the Seb Lester talk a couple of weeks ago, but in my defence, I've been working on revisiting a design I started back in June last year. While I liked what I'd initially come up with, I didn't think it was quite, "enough".

When I say enough, I mean the overall composition was fairly bland even though the Spencerian inspired letterforms were quite beautiful. That really was the only element of the original that I enjoyed looking at, but I felt like the rest of design was a bit of a let down compared to some of the other pieces I have in my portfolio. So I tasked to myself to recreate the piece, taking inspiration from various Spencerian and Copperplate examples in my personal reference collection.

Left: The original Peace and Light design. Right: The 2016 rework based on flowing Spencerian script.

For the rework, I wanted to draw inspiration from some of Jessica Hische's work and of Seb Lester's early lettering prints.
I've done pretty much the same as I did with my Clive Colledge print in that I tried to fit the entire design within a circular grid, I found it helps me to the overall shape nice and balanced.

The contrast between the Spencerian calligraphy and the serif type that sits in the centre was inspired by the sign for a Better Letters workshop that took place in Copenhagen:

I honestly can't remember when this workshop was, but the sign is gorgeous! 

You can see the influence in the way the letterforms are shaped (my 'a' is slightly narrower) but my lines are heavier. I wasn't sure if I was that keen on the increase in line weight compared to the original but as a whole I'm happy with the visual, it also means that when I eventually print it, the ink will be less likely to dry on the screen in thinner sections.

Anyway, when print day comes, I'll obviously be posting photos of the process. There's a lot that I want to try, like gradients and marbling techniques, plus I got some new acrylic colours for Christmas that I'm dying to use! 

Heroes

It was a few years ago now, but I remember someone saying to me: "Never meet your heroes as they'll only disappoint you". To that person, I say bollocks. Why? Today I met my hero and inspiration Seb Lester and it had to have been (to this day at least) the most exciting moment of my life. I was totally sitting at the front with Clive and Naomi, and by the front, I mean the front.

Earlier this evening I saw Mr. Lester give a talk at the Birmingham City University as part of their Type Talks series, and as I'm writing this on the train home I'm still shaking with excitement (thank goodness for auto correct!).

He covered quite a lot in such a short space of time, starting with a brief introduction to himself and his working environment, which was surprisingly untidy (That's not a criticism, he said it himself but he worded it much more poetically!), to his recent prints and work with NASA.

On a slight tangent, I and many others in the room learned that he's actually a secret Brummy! He grew up in Moseley and went to Bourneville College before heading to London to study at Central Saint Martins and eventually settling in Lewes.

Seb talked about how his prints are separated into those that are to show off his technical ability when it comes to drawing letterforms (top right and top left are images of his Jerusalem print) and those that are to present passages of text (bottom right and bottom left are images of his most recent print which has also been turned into a mural in E17 in London).

Some of Seb's beautiful works 

One of the most important things for me, at least in terms of the research I did into his work and the explosion in popularity, was that he talked quite extensively on how all this exposure came about and how it has effected him.

Surprisingly he's quite an introverted man, so it'd be an understatement to say he's been taken aback by all the views, mentions and followers he's built up in a mere three years (and it's still growing) but Lester was also overwhelmed to be featured by art blogs, BuzzFeed and even television interviews in America and Germany!

As usual for the Type Talks, at the end of the talk they opened it up to questions from the audience.
I hesitated at first, but as this is probably the only chance I'll ever get to see him, I wanted to ask him if had ever faced bouts of depression while he was working and how he overcame it. I've never really spoken out about my depression which was hard enough, but talking to my hero about it with an audience of 200 behind me made me feel even more vulnerable.

He paused for a minute. Then said that for him, his calligraphy was therapeutic and helped him to focus on what he was doing anyway. More interestingly though is that he mentioned that he too was quite hard on himself and the work he produces, making me feel quite at ease with where I am with my work.

He finished my question talking about mindfulness and self belief, which was his closing topic. It's safe to say that even though I was still bewildered and elated, I left feeling confident and focused.

Seb, if by some bizarre chance you're reading this, I want you to know that you've given me hope. Hope that I can make it with my calligraphy and lettering.

Thank you, so much.

Achievement Unlocked

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked if I wanted to submit some work to a pop-up print shop in Newport, South Wales. Initially, I didn't want to because I had nothing to submit, but I sat down one night after work and had a go at sketching, something I haven't done since I started work in August!

I wanted something that was going to appeal to quite a wide audience but also to express the interest I have in the Welsh language,I start working with a few quotes my close friend James (a first language Welsh speaker) gave to me about family and pride, but ultimately came to one that really stayed with me: "Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon" which translates into "A nation without a language, is a nation without a heart".

I should have written about the build up and printing process over the weekend, but I've been so busy trying to get everything together I haven't got round to it. Anyway, today I went down to the Riverfront Theatre where the shop/gallery was taking place and handed over my prints.

A selection of the finished prints, there are six colour ways in total. 

I wasn't planning on making many, I was intending to give the gallery four prints to sell, while a fifth would be made specially for James as a birthday present and thank you for his help. In the end I printed twenty five, all with gold lettering but on different coloured stock; five on black, five on navy blue, five on royal blue (the brighter of the blues above), five on olive green, four on a warm grey and one test on pale blue.

You could say I got carried away, but it was great to test the gold out on different colours. I think the gold on navy blue has to be my favourite, it just looks so beautiful. The gold on black is a very close second.
The olive green and pale blue were a pleasant surprise as I didn't think they'd work. The green feels quite Christmasy, while the pale blue is wonderfully subtle but difficult to photograph!

The Christmas Creatives pop-up shop has its press opening tonight at The Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre is on until the 9th January and also features work from some good friends of mine and fellow members of the PrintHaus Alyn Smith and Catherine Weatherhead.

For some, this whole thing might not seem like a big deal but for me this goes back a couple of years to the career goal setting I did on my MA at BCU. I'll be honest this wasn't something I had even considered back then, but this could well be the first step for me reaching my goal of having my work featured in a book.

Hwyl fawr am nawr!