Antwerp Mansion exhibition

Well this was an interesting one. Creative Transit exhibited in Antwerp just off Curry Mile, which at first looked like an abandoned house. There was a lot of work involved on the day of the exhibition, as the night before they had a Zuketh night, and so there were tons of cans everywhere and sick in corners. I arrived at 10am hungover too, but still helped with the lifting of heavy objects, alongside the manager who was also hungover and subsequently knew my friend from work! I had been a designated driver in the previous days carrying stuff down to the mansion. The box that contained my animation was so awkward to carry. We had to strap it down in Lozzy's car with a bit of string I borrowed from Eliza, as it was too big! There was a big worry it would fall out. In the end it ended up being alright, even though it was really awkward to move across the mansion as bits kept falling off, so a lot of making do and hammering went on. In the end everything got sorted out in time. My piece was the caterpillar animation, and I put it in the box 'Beware Wild Animals' that we were lugging around. The theme was 'Growth,' and as you can guess, my piece was to do with the growth of a caterpillar into a butterfly, and also hopefully the growth of child's minds when they learn. (That was who my piece was aimed at.)
 It was such a great night. We had bands on downstairs which brought a different crowd to the mansion, it was a lot of organising but I think everyone had to agree the music & art combination worked well. We all had shifts on the night as well, so I was on the door ripping tickets for a bit, and it was pretty bloody cold being in mid Feb! We had a stall as well which we used to sell some of our handmade work.

Two of my friends from work also came to review the event, as she is part of a group of people who review everything in Manchester- from computer games to good nights out in Manchester. You can check out the review here:  http://pronomo.co.uk/2012/02/28/manchester-art-exhibition-review-evolve/

Anyway enough of the talking, I will let the images do the talking now:

This is what the room looked like in the set up process.

My art piece

The finishing touch!

The stall

An example of some of the work

An example of some of the work.

The exhibition in flow...

A Caterpillar Tale

I decided to animate a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, finding its way in life and evolving as it goes. It was quite a simple idea but quite effective I think, as it teaches metamorphosis to kids; a complex matter; into something quite simple and beautiful. I decided to go down the story telling route as I thought it would go quite well hand in hand. I animated it in the animation suites in our university which took a couple of weeks. The movement isn't as smooth as professional animations, but I think it has quite a charming quality to it and goes quite well. I decided on a narration to go with the animation. The timing was quite difficult as it had to be read at a steady pace and at the right moments.

Here is the video:

Swans

I went to Amsterdam recently for the weekend and came across one of the most beautiful things in nature I came across that appeared out of nowhere. The canals had frozen over and swans had settled there in their not so normal, natural environment. It was strange seeing them on ice rather than in the water. I think another reason I found it so fascinating was because I had never seen them in a different country in the middle of a city. As I was growing up I always used to see swans in their natural habitat in Tatton Park in my home town of Knutsford. I've always loved how gracious they can be. I took photos of them on my digital SLR camera, and edited the layering effect on Photoshop instead of composing random film shots like I have done with my Diana camera of the multiple exposure shots. I wanted to see what the effects would be like if I actually did a bit of planning. And so here these experiments are, for you and for me to look at.