This week:

Monday: I spoke to Jonny about the initial statement of intent for my FMP on Monday. When I mentioned creating posters, he wondered how I was going to tie the three proposed authors, to advertising a product or event. Jonny suggested a Poetry Society for the writers, maybe a female author appreciation event, or an anniversary of one/all of the publishing dates. At that point I had partly read the introduction on 'To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf, I noted down part of the passage that described Woolf's writing style. 

Hermione Lee says that a lot of the story is happening in brackets, silent gestures -'(She glanced at him musingly)'. 

Lee asks 'What is more 'important', the death of Mrs Ramsay, or the fall of a green shawl in an empty room?'. Lee then goes onto asking 'Is the life of the Ramsays in the garden and the house enclosed by the outside world as if in parenthesis, as the lighthouse is surrounded by the sea?'.

Instantly upon reading that, I quoted it and had the image of a watery painting of a lighthouse encased in bold brackets. I told Jonny about this image and he suggested looking at a book called: The Lighthouses of Trinity House. I plan on either loaning this from the library or buying it but it looks fantastic. Whilst searching for this book I found a website that has listed all of the lighthouses in England and Wales, it can be found here. 

I found there are 5 lighthouses in the Hampshire area, when I followed a link to a certain lighthouse I felt a sense of excitement but also foreboding, I'm not sure if that is because I have a fear of the sea (as well as incredible fascination), or because lighthouses are to guide ships away from rocky sea beds and to help with navigation, if they were not built there, some ships in storms would have met unfortunate endings, (a main reason they were built to avoid anymore ship wrecks). Regardless of how I feel I look forward to drawing certain lighthouses or 'Lights', as they completely vary in shape and size and even placement on the coast.

Jonny then went onto to tell me about Charleston house near Brighton, it was the house that Vanessa Woolf lived in and where other authors including Virginia Woolf visited. I then went onto tell Jonny that I had been researching visiting Hogarth House in london and Monks House where Virginia lived with her husband until she committed suicide in 1941. 

We then spoke of how I would go about illustrating this project, Jonny seemed to understand that I want to dive into the subject and told me not to worry too much about the finished project, but expressed interest in perhaps moving away from posters feeling I wouldn't gain that much from producing them.

Tuesday: I spoke to Pete on Tuesday whilst cutting into Lino for the upcoming Bargate exhibition, like Jonny he seemed to think that posters were not quite right for the project asking 'What are you advertising'. 

He also said to decide on what exactly I plan to illustrate from the text, is it going to about the authors? The actual text? Or a mixture of both. This is something I hadn't actually thought about in that much detail. 

Suddenly the idea of choosing three authors and having to create final imagery for them seemed a daunting task. I hated the thought of rushing or overlooking important details. On the spot I decided that, as Virginia Woolf was initially the only author I had looked in detail at, I would carry on with her work as my main focus. 

As soon as I decided this my mind felt slightly clearer, feeling that what I envisioned was more achievable. 

Pete also spoke of a previous student that had illustrated a direct repsonse to thirteen of Sylvia Plath's poems, having the poem on one side of the page and the image next to it corresponding to the text. He wondered if I could directly produce images taking straight from the text, Pete encouraged image making rather than set posters. He also said not to worry too much about the final show or finishing line but to enjoy the experimentation in and out of the print room.

Wednesday: Wednesday I spent the whole day cutting medals out of Lino for the bargate exhibition, this is a process that I discovered at the end of the second year. A visiting lecturer (Mireille Fauchon) said - when I showed her my neat Lino - that I needed to stop being so careful with the way I cut into the image. 

I will forever be thankful that she said this to me as I now completely agree, the process is not one to be afraid of and mistakes need to be made, often they make the picture rather than ruin it. Whilst making my hands sore from gouging out the detail on the medals, I felt that it was a process I had really enjoyed and planned to use again in the current project.

Thursday: I inked up the medals and printed all day, swapping and changing the composition regularly.

Friday: I collected the prints from the studio and carefully took them over to the (freezing) Bargate, where I then hung them using bull dog clips for the upcoming private view on Monday evening.

Army Dreamers