Mind Invasion

I recently took part in a large scale group collage show which showcased the work of many local and international collagists. The sheer variety of approaches on display was awe inspiring and ranged from the traditional to the bizarre. I found myself drawn to the weirder ones. Most of the Mazhari clan contributed, my mother Bunny and my brother Alex submitted their own collages. It's the closest we've come to having a group show.

MA2015 Show

My final project in the MA Show emerged from the vast subject of my Research Report. Five earmarks of visual 'disorder'; apophenia, horror vacui, repetition, obsession and synesthesia. Before I settled on the scroll form, I was intent on making a series of concertina books as a departure from the long, run-on canvas. I ultimately went with what felt most natural and is most conducive to long streams of visual information.

A closer look at the scroll,

The scrolls, sketchbook, concertina, animations and captions put together at last. It took towel rack holders and a large piece of electrical tubing to put together a solid fitting for it.

The scroll in progress, I actually managed to put time into this while commuting. I enjoyed the side-eye from fellow passengers.

Sorting out the monitor for the animation element involved lots of cables and stress.

A short stop motion embedded into my final installation at University of Brighton MA2015.

Intoxicated Invention: MA final project work in progress

I'm working on my current project; Intoxicated Invention: New systems of visual thought due to be installed in the Brighton MA show 2015. The private view is on 18th September 2015, be there or be a geometric shape. 

Rough Test Animation

Concertina Sketchbook

Open Arts Animation

Open Arts is an amazing organisation. It's; "an art studio upstairs at Brighton Open Market, where we run visual and performing arts courses, gallery exhibitions and a pop-up art shop.

The project is a unique collaboration between Autism Sussex, Grace Eyre and Impetus, designed to bring arts opportunities to people with Asperger’s/ Autism or Learning Disabilities."

I've been co-running the animation course there with Rosy Marshall. Our students have had great fun coming up with ideas and playing around with creative techniques to make them stand out.

Animation with Rosy Marshall & Lucy Mazhari

Day: Tuesdays

Time: 10am – 12pm

Course dates: Tuesday 2^nd June – Tuesday 7^th July

Cost: £30 for 6 weeks or £5 per session

To book online, click here

Animation by Alex at Open Arts

"Come and make your own animated film. Animation is about choosing a story to tell and then turning that story into a film. You don’t need any special skills. You will be given a visual diary that is yours to take home and fill with ideas. Bring it back each week and use the course to bring your stories to life. This is your opportunity to experiment and have fun with cut outs or ready-made objects; to draw; to do some model making or even animate yourself! We will help you express your ideas and show you how to turn those ideas into a film. At the end of the course you will leave with a CD of your finished work."

The summer courses have begun but spaces are still available, check out the rest of the courses here.

Collage Mug

I made a transfer for this mug using a mixture of collage and hand drawings. The broken handle is care of my butterfingers sister.

Skullface dude with granite jawed comic book professor type

Random 1950's teenagers with leopard print.

Superman just chillin'

Credit Card Imprinting Press

With minimal intervention I've modified a Datacard Addressograph credit card imprinter to be able to print very small linocuts and etchings. The initial idea came from an article by the artist Sarah Whorf but the result was far better than I expected. It's portable and convenient so I can make prints on the train (barring public outcry.)

I've improvised a stop to prevent slippage with mount board and split pins. I plan to pack the baseboard to even out the print.

At the moment instead of my usual caligo safewash oil based printng inks, I've been using Versafine oil based inkpads which work beautifully.

Rumpelstiltskin Concertina Book

This is the result of a brief for the visual narrative project in which we had to retell the Rumpelstiltskin fairytale and interpret the story using our own visual style.

For the cover I cut out the lettering by hand and glued it to a prepared gold coloured board.

I used a mixture of print and collage inside. I wanted to simplify the sequence by using a consistent medium and chose to not use text to elucidate the narrative events. I wanted there to be room for personal interpretation.

I find the concertina format allows me sufficient freedom to continue an ongoing story allowing the viewer the choice of focusing on a single panel or the entire sequence.

I assumed the viewer's prior knowledge of Rumpelstiltskin for the story to be recognisable as that particular fairytale.

Ceramic Work

12" x 12" Ceramic floor tiles sprayed with glaze and collaged with ceramic transfers.

Animation Experiment

I've worked primarily with cut out animation techniques but have recently been experimenting with 3D plasticine figures.

Heinrich the dirty naked caveman with malformed hands and feet.

I started by making rudimentary person shapes out of pipecleaners and milliput plumbers putty. I overlayed the basic skeleton with plasticine 'flesh' and googly eyes.

 

I made this short film with objects I had to hand to get a feel for the process. Heinrich's left leg fell apart, his genitalia was fatally squashed by a gorilla and he had difficulty standing unaided. Needless to say Heinrich requires extensive rehabilitation.

RCA Secret History

This is a selection of my many submissions for the annual RCA Secret exhibition which I've taken part in for over a decade.
 

2008

2010

2011

2013

2015

Surprise Project

This was the result of a brief from MA Sequential Design/Illustration to plan and deliver a surprise to the rest of the MA group. Since the objective was so broad I was overwhelmed by the possibilities. I kept returning to the basic definition of surprise (To cause to feel wonder, astonishment, or amazement, as at something unanticipated) instances when I'd been surprised, what I think of when I hear the word surprise. What I finally I hit upon is the notion of winning something.

After the PowerPoint I presented these £1 lucky dip toys I bought and carried out a lottery, pulling names out of a pot which meant there were three 'lucky' winners. It's the purest notion of surprise that I have; the immensity of pre-gift potentiality the moment before curiosity is satisfied. The image you build in your mind which is invariably greater than the actuality.

RCA Secret Postcard Timelapse

As part of my current MA research I decided to make a short timelapse film of myself drawing a postcard and analyse it objectively to see what it would reveal about my decision making process.

 

I found that I'd somehow flipped the image of Tommy Steele I'd been working from without realising or intending to. It was interesting watching myself work as an onlooker would. I'd made no prior sketches or plans but I was surprised how deliberate I seemed with my choices. Once I'd put pen to paper the image seemed to resolve itself without any active intention.

The image that resulted; one of my submissions for RCA Secret 2015

Andrew Foster Labour of Love

I finally got to see the work of Andrew Foster up close at the Camden Image Gallery. On display were drawings, paintings, sculptural pieces and in the corner played the unnervingly quiet recording of children's voices. His work is caught between the desire to convey personal information overtly, the exacting demands of commercial illustration and a strong fine art sensibility. I love that it straddles different visual worlds outside of easy categorisation. It's a rare quality that can be hard to find in an industry that relies on ready demographics and styles that are provably populist.

His scroll is longer in person, spread across four walls. It tells the story of miscarriage and the ensuing unfulfilled dreams of fatherhood, the toys, birthdays and summers that won't happen. Fantastical imaginings of the silent milestones never to pass. Foster employs scale and vivid colour deftly, creating a panorama of cheerfully sad scenes of unspent life in which those lost live on forever.
Of the sculptural pieces I enjoyed the pleasantly grotesque pool inflatables, their shiny smooth surfaces made sinister with glued on hair. They had a tactile appeal despite their looks and joined two inevitable facets of life, a meeting of childish and adult concerns.

Andrew 'Foz' Foster gave a short artist's talk about his methods and inspirations. I particularly enjoyed his sketchbook filled with beautifully detailed drawings of the growth patterns of pubic hair. Each individual strand is rendered with reverence. It's a meditation on pubes which is not something I ever thought I'd find so moving.

I was inspired by the passion and control evident in Foster's work. It is innovative, meaningful and beautiful. It is executed with mastery. Foster gave a talk at Brighton in which he played a clip of the All Blacks performing the haka at a Rugby match. He used it as an example of passion that's channelled, honed into a precision rather than a blunt instrument and I find that idea so relevant and useful to my own work.

Heart Etching

I made this etching by mentally reversing an image of a human heart which was a lot harder than I envisaged. After etching the lines I overlayed it with several gradations of aquatint.

I worked texture into the shadow of the heart.

The final print.

New Work In Progress

An attempt to tie together various influences and bring colour into my frenzied drawings. I was concerned that colour would confuse the image further.

This is the centre panel of a triptych on goatskin parchment. I used a magnifying glass to draw faces on every person.

Review of Work day Presentation