Photograph by the wonderful photographer and fellow potter Lucy Tanner. @lucytannerphotography @lucytannerstudio
Black clay sculpture as WIP and after firing.
I have been spending a lot of time in the Ceramics studio. Here are some early Ceramic pieces… and some more recent ones behind me in the as work in progress.
Here is a trailer for the three films I directed for Małgorzata Dzierżon and Fertile Ground. Great fun to work on this project with a lovely team of people, see full credits below.
Somnium
Created and produced by Fertile Ground
Concept: Małgorzata Dzierżon
Choreography: Małgorzata Dzierżon in collaboration with dancers
Dancers: Esmée Halliday, Ellie Marsh, Lila Naruse, Beth Veitch
Film director and editor: Filipe Alcada
Editing: Filipe Alcada and John Antony Thadicaran
Music: Oliver Coates
Lighting Design: Christopher Swain
Director of Photography: Fabio Calascibetta
Somnium is a Dance City 2021/22 Commission and is funded by Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants, Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland Didymus CIO, the Barbour Foundation, The Leche Trust and The Percy Hedley 1990 Charitable Trust
It has been a while since I have worked with film in the dance world. Very happy to be back in this environment, as always it's creative and great fun. Thanks Gosia, for inviting me back in. Here are some Production shots I took while we were shooting three films that I am editing at the moment and will be released later in the year.
Somnium a project by Malgorzata Dzierzon for Fertile Ground
Choreographer: Malgorzata Dzierzon
Dancers: Lila Naruse, Esmée Halliday, Ellie Marsh, Beth Veitch
Photography: Filipe Alcada
Lighting: Chris Swain
Most jobs tend to have at least a couple of days, towards the end, that feel like you have just entered the 'Twilight zone'. The work gets more and more intense as the deadline gets closer and then... comes the rendering. The day or days where you are just rendering all of the separate elements to be comped. You go from a 100% to just staring at a progress bar that moves very slowly.
That is when the doodling starts, while you wait for the ping at the end of another render. The drawings always seem to have a particular quality that I can never seem to replicate on normal days. Exaustion mixed with a touch of boredom channeled through a directionless demented pencil.
Here are some examples from a recent job.
Everytime I visit Lisbon I tend to obsess over some or other architectural detail. This last time the ironwork won me over. It is easy to overlook it as you walk around and the city's many charms compete for your attention... but there are intricately crafted details everywhere.
Days off in London are such a treat.
Last year was a great year for travelling and I took hundreds of photographs. These are some of the best shots as well as some other, random shots, that are a bit older but that I still really like.
Playing with the Iphone crossing Loch Lomond, on a beautiful foggy day.
Let's look at the twirly moustache. The sheer ratio of moustache length to body mass of the Emperor Tamarin leaves no doubt in anyone's mind that the proud tache,... the glorious lip-toupée,... the flavour-saver crumb-catcher, tea-strainer, lower-brow is no godly machination, Mr. Tickler is 100% monkey!
On creationist myths, believe what you want... you can Adam and Eve it, Brahma the hell out of it, or if you want to be more obscure, Unkulunkulu it but when it comes to the Hipster there is no doubt! The Hipster comes from the Monkey! And the proof?... The proof is in the hair.
The Golden-Langur is another prime example. To this day, it proudly displays mutton-chops that would be the envy of any Victorian gentleman.
Dear hipster look and learn! Fine, golden and naturally coiffed.
If you need any more proof that sideburns are a simian masterpiece let's look at the Chimp. You can grow and groom your sideburns all you want but the casual grunge sideburn of the Chimp is a hard act to follow.
The monkey is born with it!
...If you still have any doubts that Hipsters are the proof that the 'link' is no longer missing, have a close look at the beard of a Mountain Gorilla.
No monkey is so naturally Hipster... You can put him in any expensive coffee house around the world or in a log cabin full of lumberjacks and the Gorilla fits right in.
Dear Hipster, our forefathers are follicly inspirational but they are now in serious trouble due to habitat destruction, poaching, exotic pet trade, etc...
Let's band together to save our ancestors.
Avoid products with palm oil, only buy wood that has Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, cycle, buy organic stuff, recycle and re-use, plant trees and don't forget your ancestors when you twirl your face-carpet.
For the past couple of months I have been drawing with a Pentel brush pen, I had to forget how I normally draw, the pen is so responsive that you have to consider every mark,... it is a very unforgiving tool. Nevertheless, it has been a fun process,... to re-learn how to draw,... the main image is a recent drawing and the other drawings are all early attempts. A slow progression to the main image.
I am also working on a new set of drawings with the pen (a bit more controlled), that I will use on the next posting (just painting them at the moment).
Up until now I have only uploaded fairly quick drawings, here is one where I actually spent some time on it. It is an exploratory drawing, the first of a series of drawings that I have been working on for a while now...
When i-phones and i-pads started having drawing apps I tried a few. They have their limitations and drawing with your finger on an i-phone takes some getting used to but after a while I started enjoying the results and I think it took my drawing into very different directions. Here is a small selection of some of the doodles and sketches that I produced using drawing apps.
I always carry a moleskine sketchbook with me to write down ideas or to make a note of things I see and like while I am walking around. They are often a great resource for Illustrations and ideas for films and animations.
I also use them to sketch obsessively and over the years I have collected dozens of sketchbooks full of drawings that are stacking up in my office. I have noticed that they are mainly heads of people I see while commuting. They are not really portraits, I tend to use the drawings as a way of dissecting what I am seeing (...an unusually long neck, the shape of a head or the direction of a person's hair and their double hair crown). So most of the drawings are really fast sketches on shaky trains. Still, I really like some of them, for different reasons, the mark making, the simplification of a shape or the looseness of the line.
These are a sample of those drawings a quick trawl through a few sketchbooks.
