Initial Thoughts
"Be the change you want to see in the world!" This brief really excites me as someone who always tries to help others and has done a fair bit of charity work for Henshaws, Guide Dogs, RNIB, Action for Blind People and East African Playgrounds. Because of my disability I have seen intense polar opposites in people every day, which has been a rollercoaster to experience since being matched to my Guide Dog 2 years ago. When introduced to someone new I don't know what I'm going to get from them! I want to be able to consider what I can do for the world as well as the acts of kindness would I like to see more of as someone with a disadvantage in a sighted, abled world.
Very recently, I purchased a birthday cake, two bunches of flowers, a vase, a card and some candles for my Mum's birthday and ran out of cash in order to get a taxi. As well as two full bags of shopping, I had my violin case and my Guide Dog with me. Lots to carry! There is a phone box in Morrisons where you can press a button for a taxi to be delivered - but I had to stop my assistance from taking me as I'd ran out of money to be able to afford one. A very kind gentleman stood behind me had overheard the conversation and gave me £10 in order to get back home without struggling! He really saved my beans and I was so, so grateful that I reached up and gave him a huge hug. It's acts of kindness like that, that really restore my faith in people and wanting to help out people in need. I've had people offer to help me cross the road through busy traffic and people going out of their way and offering to take me to a place when I am unsure of where I'm going.
On the flip side, I have had young people threaten to throw rocks at me and my dog - for not fitting into the norm, whatever normal is! - have had taxi drivers refuse to take me to university making me incredibly late and emotionally distressed, people comment on why I am bothering with getting my degree when I can barely see, people ignoring me and walking into me on a daily basis, bashing their bags into Tami's head as they rush past, and a general feeling of not being welcome in many places. I deal with obstacles on a daily basis and find it extremely hard sometimes to exist with so much ignorance. A lot of the time it is down to lack of education around disability.
I want to be able to convey some of my experiences, both good and bad, and will need to explore visual ideas rather than just pictures. I will work primarily with shape and reduced forms and need to consider the arrangement and composition of shape - reminding myself to keep it simple!
Very recently, I purchased a birthday cake, two bunches of flowers, a vase, a card and some candles for my Mum's birthday and ran out of cash in order to get a taxi. As well as two full bags of shopping, I had my violin case and my Guide Dog with me. Lots to carry! There is a phone box in Morrisons where you can press a button for a taxi to be delivered - but I had to stop my assistance from taking me as I'd ran out of money to be able to afford one. A very kind gentleman stood behind me had overheard the conversation and gave me £10 in order to get back home without struggling! He really saved my beans and I was so, so grateful that I reached up and gave him a huge hug. It's acts of kindness like that, that really restore my faith in people and wanting to help out people in need. I've had people offer to help me cross the road through busy traffic and people going out of their way and offering to take me to a place when I am unsure of where I'm going.
On the flip side, I have had young people threaten to throw rocks at me and my dog - for not fitting into the norm, whatever normal is! - have had taxi drivers refuse to take me to university making me incredibly late and emotionally distressed, people comment on why I am bothering with getting my degree when I can barely see, people ignoring me and walking into me on a daily basis, bashing their bags into Tami's head as they rush past, and a general feeling of not being welcome in many places. I deal with obstacles on a daily basis and find it extremely hard sometimes to exist with so much ignorance. A lot of the time it is down to lack of education around disability.I want to be able to convey some of my experiences, both good and bad, and will need to explore visual ideas rather than just pictures. I will work primarily with shape and reduced forms and need to consider the arrangement and composition of shape - reminding myself to keep it simple!
Small and personal: educating people on disability, visual impairment and the important work of Guide Dogs.
Local area: Reducing litter and pollution.
Global actions: Helping with reducing global warming and pollution, bringing people together rather than focusing on our differences, equality, sustainability, education, food and clean water for all.
Social, ecological, cultural, silly: I like the idea of having a silly visual pictogram but with a serious message. I think this will give an element of charm and allow me to be playful with my ideas.
Reduction Workshop
This workshop was such a turning point for me in terms of realising how much my style has changed since starting the illustration course! Just 6 months ago, back in September, the tone of voice in my illustration was to be as realistic as possible - showing that my visual impairment may be an obstacle and something I have to work twice as hard at in order to complete a drawing, but I can do it nonetheless and just as good as a sighted person. Now I have let go of that feeling of needing to please myself and a sighted audience by being as accurate as possible, not wanting to show mistakes and therefor failure, and have become more playful, more relaxed and more experimental in my image-making. I didn't feel as comfortable drawing in the first way anymore and much preferred the simplicity of the negative space and the cut paper - still being able to tell the same story but with a charm and a crafting to it.
Acts of Kindness Ideas
| My Acts of Kindness | Others' Acts of Kindness |
|---|---|
| Feed the pigeons | Move your bags and chairs out of the way! |
| Drink less coffee | Watch where you're going! |
| Give flowers to nurses | Respect rodents |
| Educate people on disability | Don't litter |
For my next steps, I now want to explore visually some of my initial ideas and experiment with basic forms, shapes and colour. I always need to attend each and every Illustrator workshop as I am pretty underconfident in using the software at the moment! The pen tool seems really difficult to use and anchors and handles are rather fiddly. I need to get used to these and develop my own systems of learning in order to be able to draw reduced shapes.
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