KEY MOMENTS

I'm starting to feel a little emotional looking back at this module. It feels like such a long time and now it's almost over. I've compiled some of the key moments in this presentation just to highlight where things changed and what the biggest influences were on me during this module. Where things began, where they've taken me.

I'd almost forgotten that I was considering studying other authors... Poe wasn't the only option but since I've invested so much into learning about him, it's weird to think that it could so easily have taken a completely different direction had I not made that decision. I hate decisions and this is probably why - how something as tiny as picking Poe over Gaiman/Carrington might've changed my life - one little decision affects so many other things and had I not made that decision, I would have come out of this module with the different work, different experiences...

So I guess choosing Poe was the main KEY MOMENT. There was a lot of initial research and making and sketching and pondering before that point, but it was the act of saying "POE" that began the journey, that's when my invested responses to his work began.
But I also think the reasons behind me choosing Poe were important too, the obsession I've developed with crows (they're following me), the insistence I had that Poe was speaking to me beyond the grave. I've not moved on from that, I still do think I had some kind of spiritual awakening when it came to tumbling into the work of Edgar A Poe (please don't take me seriously, even though I'm very serious. I know I'm crazy).
Just reading Gaiman's work, Kafka's fiction, Carrington's novels will have changed me in some way. Maybe I started to fall back into children's horror (Coraline) when I read Gaiman, and that probably influenced the approach I took to Poe, making his work visually enticing for younger readers.

Surrounding myself with spooky/Gothic art by the likes of David Roberts and Edward Gorey helped me to visualise the tone and atmosphere of Poe. Realising how it can be achieved and appreciating similarly themed illustrations was a turning point for me, finally jumping out of the research and onto paper with inspiration to draw.

Visiting lecturer Louise Lockhart presented her prints and it demonstrated to me how print exists in different contexts, how I could push the boundaries of this brief to make something that was printed but not necessarily a print.
I was so nervous about printing but a transformative moment was when I found a way to make it suit me and my way of working - cutting up the mono prints and 'building' with them.

Making moving pictures gave me confidence that I can animate things myself. Re-watching animations from my childhood drew me back into that world and I applied the storyboarding skills Fred taught in his lecture to deconstruct them, discovering what makes them successful.