Artist in residence - Week One, Nexus Art Cafe

I have just finished my first week at Nexus Art Cafe in Manchester where I am currently artist in residence. I have been settling into the space and letting my sculptures and drawings 'live' in their new home. I always love the beginning of a project when there are ideas buzzing around my head and I feel really fortunate to have a studio space (outside my home) to work in again. For me, ideas flow when I experiment with juxtaposing my drawings and sculptures with the space, with different textures, varieties of materials, and found objects or belongings that have a particular resonence to me. Basically when I play.

Recently I have become really submerged in research around illustrating, storytelling and the psychology of fairy tales and the symbiotic, fearful, transformative relationships between the female and animal characters in these tales .

I studied for an MA in Drawing from Wimbledon College of Art and my degree show left me at a point where I was investigating how I could transform my body through sculpture and sewn costumes/adornments. Since my degree ended I have become a mother and my relationship with my body has altered, I have begun to look more into the symbology of certain animals, and it has ignited memories of fairy tales and being read to which will be a rich resource to draw from. The cautionary, frightening and brutal nature of these tales is more vivid now that I am revisiting these stories as an adult.

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My Five Favourite Blogs #BEDM Day 4

Today's challenge is to write about my five favourite blogs. Each blog provides something slightly different along the lines of illustration, the first two I mention, Lynne Chapman's and Holli Conger's are the staple blogs I always refer to. A good blog should obviously resonate with your interests. My favourites offer that glimmer of hope that becoming an illustrator (with a lot of hard work and determination, and obviously very good work) IS possible. Never Give Up on Your Dreams! An Illustrator's Life For Me I began following Lynne Chapman's blog after she visited our local library during a summer festival that our town holds. Lynne's passion and enthusiasm for illustrating, sketching, sketch crawling and anything creative is completely infectious. She visits a lot of schools and library and talks animatedly and entertainingly about her work. She even drew a Koala character in front of the children's very eyes which astonished them! She is a ...

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Above images by Fiona Meakin 2011 (copyright) Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2012! 2011 has been a productive and busy year, and one where I feel I have developed a way of working that is more disciplined than perhaps it was previously. I have found that I have cycles of productivity, so draw when I feel compelled to, which in turn produces ideas and designs for products such as toys, badges, homewares etc. I think I am making moves in the right direction of becoming a full time artist (or at least even more of a part-time one!). I have begun to sell prints of my illustrations through Chorlton Arts Festival Shop, developed a more coherent range of soft toy characters and begun to send my work out to publishers. At Fi & Me HQ we have upped our presence at craft fairs as intended, taken steps towards becoming self-employed, designed our branding, packaging and ethos. Lucy has master minded the business plan, built a website...

Fiona Meakin Designs - Draw With Fi

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