Post 13

early morn...5.35am


Chapter 9, Conversation 1...Basquiat Influence.

This is the first meeting between Stillman and Quinn, at Riverside Park. mid afternoon, biycicles and dog walkers.

Quinn begins by staring directly at Stillman snr ('burns hole in Stillmans skull').


Picked up on Stillman seeing NYC being '...the most folorn of places, the most abject...brokeness everywhere...each day I go out with my bag and collect objects that seem worthy of investigation.'

I've been drawing objects onto the paper, half thoughts, Basquiat in mind.

I tore up the images/words out of the page and proceeded to put them into envelopes.

I cut up the envelopes and am thinking about creating ground level city maps.

NYC...home of Basquiat.

Envelopes used for categorising.

Teletext, muzac, tired eyes...it's 05.49

----------------------------

'they think of words as stones, as great immovable objects...'

Stillman aims to create a new language 'a language that will at last say what we have t6o say. For our words no longer correspond to the world. when things were whole, we felt confident that our words could express them. But little by little things have broken apart, shattered, collapsed into chaos. and yet our words have remained the same. They have not adapted themselves to the new reality. hence, every time we try to speak of what we see, we speak falsely, distorting the very thing we are trying to represent.'

Post 12

Chapter 9. Conversation 1. Stillman and Quinn.

> Painting on canvas in style of Basquiat, influenced by above conversation.

> The colours used so far...pink and brown. Why these colours? I feel that it alludes to Stillman senior, or Peter Stillman. I get the sense of something that seems ill...pink flesh with the white hair.

. Thinking about Basquiat...he uses lots of geometric forms, a framework on which to hang text, figures, scrawls amoungst other imagery.

> I've enjoyed the feeling of painting again. Its reminded me how different an experience it is compared to drawing.

> I've worked on the current work for about 2 hours and am now waiting for it to dry to move onto the next stage.

> shapes possibly ref buildings, human forms or entities...Stillman, Quinn or something else? I'm trying to work to more of a feel for the conversation...

Post 11

> Notes from supposing a space: The detecting subject in Paul Austers 'City Of Glass.'

.'Quinn himself seems to dissolve with the final words of his red notebook...'

'It was as if he were somehow living a posthumous life.'

. Role complicated by the "triad of selves that Quinn had become."

The centre is everywhere, and no circumstance can be drawn until the book has come to its end.

. "detective is the one who looks, listens, who comesw through this morass of objects and events in search of thought..."

. "The world is a text laid bare before the eyes of the master reader, the detective."

Project: Take chapter 9 of City of Glass + produce 3 peices of work....eg- sculpture, painting, print.

> Take 3 conversations in the text...interpret...

> Steal 3 artists...

> Choices...e.g: serious, whimsical, grim etc,,,

Deadline...16th of November.

1st choice artist: Basquiat.

Post 10

thinking about...different...different...things, toast...something on toast with indigestion tablet wrapper eyes...

Post 9

Thinking about chapter 1....New York is an 'inexhaustible space, a labyrinth of endless steps...'

Repetition, motion...thinking about ways that I'd interpret the novel with illustrations on the pages. Again finding it difficult, I'm finding that the images I'm producing are less 'natural' and 'flowing' than I'm used to working. I need to find a way of working that feels natural whilst at the same time adding something to the passages.

Post 8

I'm up to page 87 with my initial draft of a pictorial response to the 'City Of Glass.'

* 'The question is the story itself and whether or not it means something is not for the story to tell.'

I've decided that I will try to represent the complete story by storyboarding from one page to the next. It is a page by page instant response to the story. I've decided to stay committed to following this through from beginning to end, setting myself a definite agenda. On some pages I've drawn more images than others. I feel that I can get an essence of the narrative by meticulously documenting it and hope the images that I produce will give me a starting point to build upon.

A difficulty that I've found in working this way is somehow marrying the 'feel' of the book along with the narrative. It seems to operate on so many levels that I'm aware of the fact that I'll need to be experimental to find images that will work alongside the text.

Pages 3,4 and 5.

Why does Quinn claim to be Auster?

I've found that my characters have morphed into shadowy silhouettes, entities. Is this an intention of the author or my subjective response to the story so far? Is this my way of 'simplifying' the multi layered written narrative with less complex images...?

I'm interested in the idea that Quinn had a successful 'old life' as a writer with a wife and child. It puts across the sense of place, grounding. It suggests that there was once a time when the character of Quinn could have been placed, pinned down. Now, it seems, he lacks a real sense of place...

'Motion is of the essence...'

Pages 3,4,5...

'because he did not consider to be the author of what he wrote, he did not feel responsible for it and therefore, was not compelled to defend it in his heart.' ( upon becoming Wilson).

Am I just an idea? Marc Renshaw? What would happen if I decided to change my name as an artist , the things that I wear, the way I act, the type of work that I produce? I could be 50 different artists all at once....

(Quinn)... seems tom be at some sort of crossroads, has something dramatic caused him to exist in a new way?

'he no longer existed for anyone but himself...'

'New York was an inexhaustible space, a labyrinth of endless steps, and no matter how far he walked, no matter how well he come to know it's neighbourhoods and streets, it always left him with the sense of being nowhere...'

'On his best walks he was able to feel he was nowhere and this was finally all he ever asked of things, to be nowhere...'

'New York was the nowhere he built around himself...'

At this point in the story it would appear he had a place in which to return, the 1 bed flat. He is able to get a feel of being nowhere on his walks but is still able to go home at the end of his day.

'The whole city is a junk heap.'

I was on the tube a few months back, on an above ground section on the way to Liverpool St and was taken by sections of debris mixed in with rusting metal pipes, wires, lagging, litter, paper, broken glass. Its like the city is an ocean washing up its debris to the edges of rail lines.

I'm compelled to visit new places, especially stumbling upon 'gems' close to home. like finding a new stretch of beach recently on the Lincolnshire coast, the anticipation of ascending the escalator at another tube station for the first time...something about the city...characters on the tube. 'Can't give too much eye contact...'

Back to the story....

Quinn gives himself a 'get out clause,' is he either Quinn, Wilson or Auster?

Who is Quinn? He seems to be a non person...a nothing. Does he exist? A figment?

Metaphysics: " Part of a philosophy which is concerned with the understanding of reality and developing theories about what exists and how we know it exists." Collins Corbuld dictionary.

As I'm reading the book I'm already pre conditioned to expect the unexpected...all is not what it seems. It almost sees inevitable that the end of this story will certainly leave more questions than answers.

Is Quinn lonely? does he long for the 'old life' ?

P94...Quinn enters the flat of Auster (the author) and notices the toys and hints to family life...a sense of place that Quinn seems to lose more and more as the story develops.

Post 7

In my studio at long last....'The City Of Glass.'

I'm at the Peter Stillman monologue at the beginning of chapter 2.

'he entered the house at noon, and left in the darkness.' Interesting way in which the author plays with the notion of time.

Image of Peter Stillman is quite arresting, 'Dressed entirely in white, with the white blonde hair of a child...' Quinn thinks he sees his dead son moments later.

Interesting ref: 'The body acted almost exactly as the voice had: machine like, fitful...rigid yet expressive...'

'my name is Peter Stillman.'

'I say this of my own free will...'

I really love the musical sound of the monologue...

Wonderful description of Stillman...

'Everything about Peter Stillman was white...Shirt...pants...socks...shoes...flaxen thinness of his hair...one could see the blue veins beneath the skin of his face, the blue almost the same of the blueness of his eyes, milky blue seeming to dissolve in a mixture of sea and clouds.'

'The caca piles and the pipi lakes...'

Post 6

Meeting with BP...touched on objective and subjective in image making.

Subjective- list of ingredients, sky, hill, sea etc.

Objective- Having real existence outside a persons mind...

Asked why I chose the image of 'Bradda Head' in The Isle Of Man. Why did I chose this particular scene? Why did I choose this image over the 1000's of others to get to be in my current portfolio?

Is it to say 'hey look at this, I can draw one hell of a hill...?'

What about the colours? Do they represent something?

Am I trying to appeal to a certain type of person? Hey, I've picked the prettiest colours in my paintpot? Why digital?

I think I used the same approach that I use when painting...intuition.

The difference between fine art and illustration...what is it?

'One basic difference, however, is that illustration must answer the core questions of who, what, when, where and why for the viewer. Gallery art, and the so called "fine art"- doesn't necessarily have to do this at all.' Exploring illustration, Michael Fleishman, Thomson.

Look at Paul Auster and 'City Of Glass.'

Post 5

I've been thinking a lot over the last week about whether or not I've done the right thing...I certainly hope so.

I've come across another artist who looks very interesting to me...'Raymond Pettibon.'

What I like....

repetitive marks, gestural, uses ink, non-digital, mainly black and white.

- images appear to walk the fine line of having the appearance of control as well as the accidental.

- Hand drawn text, home made quality of his 'tripping corpse' magazine. (DIY).

- Some images have the look of a 'GCSE standard' drawing, a teenage angst seems to permeate his work.

- has a feel of the American loser child (beautiful loser art).

- appears to allude to various literature and philosophy.

- text has strength in its depth. I feel that is something I would like to develop within my own work- hopefully the contextual studies part of the MA with help...

Post 4

My first week of the MA has been about keeping my mind open to a world of opportunity. I've taken my first trip to the library and walked our with 4 books under my arm. The first book to catch my eye under the illustration section has been 'Illusive- Contemporary Illustration and it's Context.'

Although tempting as it may be read the book, I've decided to keep it simple and look at images, illustrators and consider what I like about certain works that I select and why I prefer one piece of work to another.

1. Petra Borner- 'Paper Cuts.'

I like her work because of it's precision and fine detail with the perfectly executed 'cuts.' These perfections give a sense of 'the perfect product.'

2. Dustin Summers- 'Wilco Covers.' I like the way he/she? combines found imagery within the screen print.

- the substitution for the blood vessels in the lungs for what seems to be a cannabis leaf.

- The distressed mono print 'accidents' remind me of the automated Royal Mail letter franking systems.

3. Kosuke Ikeda.

The images depict exteriors of buildings, streets etc.

- I'm interested in the way the illustrator is inspired by the inside of envelopes combined with methodical drawing processes.

- highly detailed with clarity is a consistency within the imagery.

4. 'Masca.'

- uses distressed paper with a worn appearance.

- the good old graph paper.

- democratic drawing marker pens have been used in the creation of the work.

Post 3

I've been asked to come up with a list of questions about the kinds of things that I wish to discuss in my next meeting with BP.

1. How does one decide upon a specific research subject in a world containing so much information?

2. How do you store information? What systems does the professional illustrator use?

3. What are the main rules when working to a brief?

4. How do you get into the position of working with clients?

5. How do you decide upon an agent and do I need one anyway?

6. How do you talk confidently about your work, ideas and philosophies?

7. I only use a PC...is it essential to use MAC packages?

8. How do I make a good website...any advice re. web designers? (Affordable?).

9. What kinds of work, presentation do I need in an eye catching portfolio?

10. I'm on the AOI portfolio's....just one string to the bow...is it worthwhile?

11. Ideally, I would like to approach clients and agents etc from an early stage, is this wise or in fact worthwhile?

BP asked me to consider which area of illustration would I be interested in doing...advertising, editorials etc. Although this is a very early stage, I would predict that my drawing would be suited to editorials. I get the feeling that some of my ideas will change over the duration of the course.

BP also suggested that i consider what it is that I want from my time at the University and the input from the lecturers and where I want to be...

1. To become a professional illustrator.

2. To develop skills in talking with confidence about my ideas, concepts and themes within my own practice.

3. To get advice and info regarding professional development...this is a career move.

4. To understand the context in which my artwork and thinking exists through practical and theoretical modes of study.

5. To explore different practical techniques that would open my mind to possibilities within such an exciting discipline.

6. To find (as HP mentioned) a place for my work in the industry and how I can be accommodated by developing my unique signature.

7. HP suggested that I think about what new skill I'd like to develop.

- Experiment with design based software such as illustrator, latest editions of photoshop etc.

- I would like to explore possibilities within animation...perhaps bringing to life some of my sketchbook drawings.

- Film and video.

- Printmaking.

Post 2

What inspired me to embark on an MA in Illustration?Over the last few years I've produced lots of work but have felt that there has been a bit of a gap....I want to try something new.

I've always wanted to try different things all my life, felt that there is always time for personal development through my art career.

I suppose its natural to feel a little apprehensive

at the prospect, I'm making a committment and worry about feeling out of my depth. I could just as easily not do the course. This is a dream to me and I intend to make the absolute most of the opportunity.

I would like to use facilities on offer at the univeristy and get a chance to be experimental, using different media in my exploration in the world of illustration.

I hope the couse equips me with the neccessary skills and aptitudes required in the professional field of illustration. I have began by joining the AOI and have a portfolio on their website and am also in the process of making a website.

I want to realise my potential, and see the MA as a way to look critically at the work I'm producing and the contexts in which it exists.

Post 1

So what has inspired me to take embark on the MA in illustration with my fine art background?



I feel that my work has got what I would say is an 'illustrative' look, certainly more so over the last few years...with a definate departure from painting to drawing. I feel that now would be a good time to specialise as I've felt that one can feel very out of touch when operating in relative isolation, especially outside an academic setting.



I want to produce work of substance and depth, I feel that I already do so, but am determined to explore meanings and reasons for image making. What am I trying to say and to whom? I realise that there is a difference between fine art and illustration, and would hope that following the path of illustration would inevitably lend itself to my 'personal projects' as well as the potential of working to commission.



I'm excited by the prospect