This is a spreadsheet I created to catalogue all of Nana's objects for my collections project. I get the impression my tutor thinks I'm a little bit crazy, but that's a compliment, I think in the strange and mystical land that is illustration.
I've been very confused through much of this degree, wondering when they were going to teach me how to draw like an illustrator, but they never did. I'm nearly at the end of my second year and I've just realised they're trying to teach me how to think like an illustrator. Wish I'd realised this a year ago.
Due to the time require to get to know the residents I wasn't able to caryy out my previous idea in the time available. I will continue to do this but in my own time. I've now unearthed a box full of my nanna's old things and will be using this as my collection. One of the things I found was a beautiful autograph book belonging to my great grandmother Violet Taylor (nee Ball). I'm thinking of doing something with this for my exhibtion and have included some images below. The book was started in 1900.
This post is just to introduce my latest project brief which is developing a Personal Identity using collections. Although there are a number of things I already collect, most of them aren't intentional (odd socks for example - I keep hoping the other will turn up) and don't inspire me. I'm more inspired by living things and growth. I thought that everytime I went to someone's house I could ask if they had a plant that I could take a cutting from, then make a record of the date it was given and it's size etc.
Although I still like the idea, I decided to follow up something I'd wanted to do for quite some time, which was to collect snippets of wisdom or anecdotes from the elderly. Yesterday I went to visit a residential home in Leamington to discuss my ideas with Mark, the assistant manager. He was incredibly helpful and enthusiastic, and now I have the outline of plan to begin sketching and interviewing these people. When I was explaining the project to one gentleman, he told me that I must remember that when you're old you forget and that he didn't know if he'd collected any wisdom because he'd forgotten! |