Drawings – Karyn Easton

Feb 14

by Karyn in Drawings, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: Drawings, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 16

Professional vs Unprofessional – This week we looked at a short article that was discussing what it was a to be professional/unprofessional as an artist. We went into our breakout rooms to discuss this. The consensus was that the article could be perceived as somewhat offensive. The comments were also very interesting. Somehow our conversation moved to positive discrimination and whether or not this was a force for good in society. Again the consensus towards it was negative. Time really did seem to fly this week!. As well as Zoom day it’s also Valentine’s Day today and as a gift I received a really interesting book called ‘Machines Behaving Badly – The Morality of Ai’ by Tony Walsh. I’m really looking forward to reading it. I really do welcome any insight into this fascinating area. I will blog about this as soon as I have read it. In the meantime I have updated my Zentangle gallery as usual. Updated Zentangle Gallery

Feb 07

by Karyn in Drawings, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: Drawings, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 15

Open Ended Questioning – This week was a very interesting week because we broke off into small groups of around 3 people per group. Our challenge was to have one of our group members explain what they were finding challenging in their practice at the moment. Once they had explained their most pressing issues, everyone had to take turns in asking them open ended questions. I really enjoyed this exercise. I felt it was very useful being able to have people listen to my work problems and then respond to me with open ended questions. I also liked the people in my group and I found their ideas and work very interesting. Jonathan also gave us some insight into the Quakers. This was revealing to me because I’d always thought of them as fervently religious and very frugal in their approach to life. At the end of the conversation I can quite honestly say that their approach to life sounded so much nicer than ours. The notion that everyone must agree on something before proceeding with any plan also seemed like a good idea. At this point it very much reminded me of Brexit – how is it […]

Feb 01

by Karyn in Animation, Books, Drawings, Videos, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: Animation, Books, Drawings, Videos, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 14

The Art of Seeing – This week we ran a really interesting exercise. We were asked to look at a photograph and then look again more closely and then keep repeating this. It is amazing how much can be missed with a cursory glance at something. Our group discovered so much by analysing the image over and over again. The little details gave away lots of information. For example the police officer in our image was wearing a red poppy. Instantly we knew that the photo must have been taken somewhere in the UK in November. The poppy is synonymous with Remembrance Day which happens around that time. This week we also did another 5 minute free writing exercise. Our task was to look around our immediate surroundings and then say what it all meant. I talked about all of the disruption in my front room because of having the room below it plastered. We are extending the house and everything seems quite chaotic at the moment. One thing which I found absolutely fascinating was the idea that my salary will actually be the same as my salary averaged across the salaries of my friends. Even more interesting was the […]

Jan 27

by Karyn in Drawings, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: Drawings, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 13

Ducks in a Row – This week’s session was a really nice blend of both finalising the requirements for Unit 1 and another free writing exercise. I find the free writing exercises very relaxing – it’s almost hypnotic when it is done continuously for around 5 minutes. This week we joined Zoom breakout rooms which allowed us to discuss exactly what was being asked of us regarding the Unit 1 learning objectives. We were tasked with adding our thoughts to a Miro board which I found very useful. Having reassessed the 3 learning objectives for the Unit 1 project, I feel that I still have quite a few gaps to fill so that the criteria is fully met. I would like to experiment further and I would also like to conduct more contextual and primary research in response to what we learned today. As usual my latest Zentangle heads up this blog post along with the updated gallery. I have kept this blogpost brief so that I can work on my study statement which has the looming deadline of February 6th 2023. Updated Zentangle Gallery – Luckily I still have time to post my updated Zentangle gallery with all […]

Jan 17

by Karyn in Books, Drawings, Food for Thought, Hand Written, Handwriting, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: Books, Drawings, Food for Thought, Hand Written, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 12

Steal Like an Artist – For a long time now I have been aware that in the art and design world it is very difficult to find something that is completely new. There are elements borrowed from one piece of work that may be copied or changed to make a more exciting piece of work. Even in my own practice it feels like there is ‘nothing new under the sun’. I find there is nothing more frustrating to think I’ve found a great idea, only to research it and discover that actually I’m way ‘behind the curve’. However in today’s talk this became even more pronounced when we had some examples quoted from artist Austin Kleon’s book titled: ‘Steal like and Artist’. Kleon decided to research into his own style of art. He found that over the centuries there had in fact been not one but three other artists working in a similar way. These were namely Brian Gysin (1916 – 1986), Tristan Tzara (1896 – 1963) and Caleb Whitefoord (1734 – 1810). Apparently they had all been doing something similar. When this is seen across the ages it really does show that nothing at all is ever new. Indeed […]

Jan 10

by Karyn in Drawings, Galleries, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: Drawings, Galleries, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 11

Great to be Back! – It was really great to be back this week. I have really missed our zoom sessions and it was also good to see everyone again. This week was devoted to talking about hints and tips when displaying work in a gallery space. We had a short lecture by Peter Smithson who has worked for many years at Central Saint Martin’s. We also discussed RAM forms and proposal forms. Key dates for both the exhibition and residential have now been more or less pinned down. Zentangle Gallery Update As usual, I managed to produce one of my little Zentangles this evening. The gallery below is slowly starting to build now. I am hoping that I’ll find some use for these small drawings later in the year. However at the moment I am enjoying the development of my style as I go along. Tonight’s Zentangle probably wasn’t one of my better ones but it really doesn’t matter because it’s all a learning experience.

Dec 21

Zoom Session 10

Programming with Processing 😊 – This has to be one of my favourite sessions so far. I love all of my zoom sessions, but the chance to learn a little programming is always a positive for me. Until today I hadn’t come across the programming environment called ‘Processing’. I downloaded the software onto my computer and I attempted to play around with it a little. This was to familiarise myself with it a before the start of our session. I found the tutorials really informative and I very quickly got the ‘gist’ of it. We also had a guest speaker Matthew Edwards, who came in to give us a demonstration and work with us through some example code. It was a very good pace and pitched perfectly for a total beginner like myself. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the results of my little programs. I also thoroughly enjoyed the group conversation afterwards. Jonathan introduced us to GPT chat. This is an advanced algorithmic program that can write highly intuitive essays from user text prompts. It can also write code. This week I’ve had lots to think about and explore. I have updated my ‘Zentangle’ gallery to reflect all of my little […]

Dec 21

by Karyn in Drawings, Food for Thought, Research, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: Books, Drawings, Food for Thought, Research, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 9

Playing Catch-Up – Even though I was only away in London for a few days, I feel there is so much that I need to catch up on! I found zoom session 9 on the playlist and managed to watch it all. Julia Flood, librarian at CSM gave a very informative presentation about the library and it’s services that are available to us. This is something that I want to explore further and I will be documenting this as I begin my research journey. I really do want to take full advantage of what the library has to offer as I felt Julia’s talk was very inspiring! In the meantime please see below for my weekly ‘Zentangle’ Design. I felt a little out at sea this week with all of the information about the library. This is why I chose to produce an image of a boat. It certainly brought me back down to Earth in terms that I really do need need do properly conducted research. CSM has access to all kinds of wonderful resources that I really need to explore. I have already started to do some basic keyword searches and I think that help with materials will […]

Nov 22

by Karyn in Ai, Drawings, Food for Thought, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: ai, Drawings, Food for Thought, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 8

Much Food for Thought – This week was a real ‘food for thought’ week. We started our meeting with a presentation from the Post Grad Community Team, who gave a very informative talk about what they they do and the weekly newsletter they create. I am really interested in a number of the items they spoke about including: a Post Grad Ambassador role and a potential residency. My heart is saying yes apply, but my head is asking how feasible is a residency when I’m juggling both work and a young teen. Sadly, I don’t think she (the young teen) would like it very much if I disappeared for a few weeks especially during her GCSE year. But I’m the eternal optimist so I’ll never say never. Before I begin to work through our session today this afternoon, here is today’s Zentangle doodle. If you would like to see all of these weekly images to date, here is the blog post where I am curating them. Today’s Zentagle Imagination This week much of our discussion revolved around ‘imagination’. In our small group (it was nice to see some familiar faces) we chatted about what curtails imagination for us. […]

Nov 17

by Karyn in Books, Drawings, Ideas, My Work, Patterns, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: Books, Drawings, Ideas, my work, Patterns, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 7

A Little Confession – Before I begin to document our zoom session from this week I have a little confession to make. I heard someone say that this was zoom session six. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that this week’s session was zoom session seven. The reason I’m so sure is because each week I take the time to draw myself a little zentangle. I counted up my zentangles and I have seven. Therefore I think this week is week seven, but of course I may be wrong. As we were discussing ‘active listening’ I thought that now was probably a really good time to ‘fess’ up to my little ongoing drawing activity. I thoroughly enjoy our zoom sessions, I feel it’s a time for me to learn as opposed to teaching, which as a lecturer is a nice concept. When I’m listening I enjoy drawing. Since I seem to be mainly locked in a digital world at the moment, it brings just a small dose of the physical into my weekly meeting. I also find it very relaxing and for some strange reason it seems to help me concentrate more. I set myself a few […]