Exploring the Physical  –

I have spoken a few times now about my desire to move my work into a more physical form. Starting this process has actually been quite difficult for me. However a few weeks ago I was given a wonderful opportunity to change all of this. One of my fellow students Shirin Majid was embarking on a really exciting project and asked our WhatsApp group if they would like to participate.

She explained briefly about her idea and I felt that I would love to join in.   Shirin had made some postcards for us all to complete. Her design would be on one half of a side and we were to finish the card by adding ours to the other half of the side.

I am a massive fan of abstract art and Shirin’s work is certainly no exception.  She produces strong bold colourful geometric shapes that really resonate with me.  When my little postcard finally arrived (delayed due to postal strike), I was super excited!

Just like everything life soon got in the way and it took me a while from receiving my card to completing it.  One of the biggest problems I faced was actually starting it.   The card was beautifully painted/printed on textured paper and I particularly liked the colours. Unfortunately I was scared to begin drawing or painting it in case I ruined it. I popped the little card at the very front of my diary so that I didn’t forget the task.  Each day I wondered about how I might make a start.  After a few weeks it dawned on me that over the course of my MA, I have been producing little drawings to act as featured images for each of my zoom meeting blogs.  Perhaps one of these drawings might work? I began to try some ideas, but then I threw them in the bin – only to rescue them later in order to show some of my process.  Below are stills from the project and a few little designs that I tried just for fun.

Initial Ideas

These were the initial ideas that I rejected.

The finished Postcard

Here are shots of the finished postcard. Shirin’s work (half of the postcard) is in colour and my work comprises the black and white swirly lines.

Additional Ideas

Normally, when I produce my little black on white drawings for my zoom meetings I run them through a version of Abobe Illustrator to smooth the edges.  Below are some designs that I put through this process.  I produced the images below just for fun and to experiment as I wondered what my smooth edited drawings would look like next to Shirin’s design.  Unfortunately I couldn’t colour these but they give an idea of what I was aiming at.

Wallpaper

I was interested to see what the above would look like as a wallpaper or as gift wrapping.  I think that there’s some interesting potential.

Wrapping Paper with Original Design

As a last experiment I placed the wrapping paper next to the original design in black and white.  Ideally I would have liked to have digitally cut the wall papered side to mirror Shirin’s design. This could be an interesting future development.

Conclusion

I thoroughly enjoyed responding to Shirin’s postcard!     I think that the simple geometric shapes of Shirin’s designs are both bold and beautiful.  They afford so many possibilities.  I am also excited to see the results of her project!  In the end I was so sad to see the postcard go. I’d enjoyed looking at it for the last few weeks each time I opened my diary.  However, on receipt of the returned card, Shirin sent me a lovely gif she made of opening her postcard.   This meant a lot to me – it made my day!

Shirin’s Postcard Gif – please click link to play.