Mums

Nell waking up... or dreaming

I like drawing old ladies. They have character and no-one expects them to be beautiful or graceful...although they often are. They are full of interesting wrinkles and contours, never bland. Full of stories and symbolisms, usually they embody someone - a Mum, Great Aunt or Grandma - who is important.
My own mother was ill last year - queue panic, what's app group flurries and early morning motorway dashes. False alarm, but it made me think of how people we love never die, so long as we hold them in our memories. But how does that work from their perspective? And how on earth do you indicate in a drawn animation the idea that someone (Nell) is living in another person's memory? Are they conscious, or just a movie which plays? Can they affect the rememberer, or are they just trapped in a time-loop? How frightening to suddenly jump from being 30 in a maternity ward to being 80 celebrating some anniversary. From first date to deathbed and back. Maybe it's like dreaming. Maybe it would be easier to write this as a book! So much, always so very much more to learn...

Be More Shed

nobody puts shed in a corner

Well I did. I wrote and drew not 365 but 366 sheds for The Daily Shed. Lockdown continued. Then I wrote and drew The A-Z of Sheds (so hands up if you knew what a xyst was?) The pandemic continued, so I did 2 picture books of 1-10 interestingly random alliterations inspired by Mervyn Peake. And then 10 more, but sheds. Everything still closed so I continued to search for inspiration by tramp the newly litter-encrusted footpaths of my "semi-rural" locale; Used Facebook to cheer up my chums and myself with comic illustrations, and photos, whilst creating depressingly nihilistic animations. Worrying about the state of the world, about money and bills, joining protests whilst mentally hiding under the bed waiting for the grown-ups to come home. Brooding on the nature of creativity and the meaning of it all. Obsessing about loo rolls, petrol shortages, and Normality...and finally launched into a picture story book about 3 sheds. And then adapted it to an animation. Massive amount of work. Fiddly drawings, 7 1/2 minutes. 

How the hell do you animate a shed helping another shed to make itself a pair of legs, when neither of them has arms to work with...or a face? Why did I write such a difficult story? Because the story was all about words, rhythms, creating images in people's minds...yes, let them worry how to get those legs on. It took so long I stopped and made a joyful 1 minute film (Be More Shed) half-way through, just for fun. This is a privilege.

So now - we still have brexit, corona virus, war in Ukraine and the cost of almost everything is doubling. I still don't have my pension. Enough. I decided to try to use animation to save the world. Maybe you cannot change the world by drawing it, but you can certainly try. Impossibility should never be a barrier to dreams. I will animate the Struggle, the Joy, the Outrage. I will do what I can. I will try to become my best me. I will try to Be More Shed