"Visits to Nannie's"- Project Research Folder/ FMP

Louis Wicks FMP Research Folder

• Project themes and ideas Ideas and concepts research that form my main project idea.

DISNEY’S COCO

The narrative in Disney ‘s ‘Coco’ brings to life vibrant and relatable characters s the center is Coco, the matriarch of the Rivera family, “Mama Coco” whose dete vances the plot in touching and unexpected ways. The story weaves together a heritage, and the fragility of memory.

Miguel, the center character of the story ,discovers more about his family’s past itage. “Día de los Muertos”, is a mexican celebration that focuses remembering l passed on and thats very much played into “Coco”. Central character Miguel rus preserve their spirit, as Mama Coco, his great grandmother’s memory deteriorat memories of her father, who vanished when she was a girl. The only photo the fa with her parents is one with her fathers face missing. In the film, a spirit in the a the living remembers them, if they dont...the spirit can vanish forever.

• Themes: Celebration/ Rememberance/ Human Spirit

spanning generations. At eriorating memory adpowerful tale of tradition,

t and his Mexican herloved ones that have shes to help his ancestors tes, she begins to forget amily has of mama Coco after life is alive, aslong as

• Miguel falls into the afterlife where the spirits of loved ones exist. There she m to show place Hector’s photo with the rest of photo’s in the family shrine, so h Miguel gets back to his family and is able to make his Grandmother remembe the emphasis on shrines and photographs within the story of “Coco” not only touches on how delicate the mind and memory is. Many of us hold dear old ph people we loved, who are no longer here anymore, without those objects, how

meets Hector, Mama Coco’s father. Miguel rushes to get back to the living world his family can remember him and his spirit can live on in peace. Ultimately, er her father again, after a lifetime of confusion and pain over his disapearance. gives light as to how other cultures remember past on loved ones, but also hotographs and belongings of people that have passed on, to remember the w would we be able to keep those memories alive?.

Shines and Memorials-

Grayson Perry: Rites of Passage Grayson Perry’s “Rites Of Passage” documents how different cultures and communites around the world marking monumental life moments such as birth, marriage and death and what they mean to different people . I watched this early on, as at this time, I have been focusing on the aspect of how we remember and “ritualize” people who have passed on.

In the first episode, he focuses on that great taboo, death. What emerges is a profound, and profoundly moving, exploration of the nature of great loss.

He meets Roch, who’s had motor neurone disease for nine years and who feels it’s time for him to die, and the family of 17-year-old cyclist Jordan, who was killed by a drink driver. Jordan’s mum has made a shrine to her son in the living room. Perry devises means of giving Roch the send-off he wants, and the commemoration Jordan’s family feels he deserves.

Perry explores the landmark events in all of our lives - birth, coming of age, marriage and death - and tries to reinvent them for our modern secular age. This time, Grayson confronts death, and travels to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi to meet the Toraja people, whose ideas about death are very different. Later, Grayson meets a couple grieving the death of their 17-year-old son.

The series opens up discussions of how different societies and cultures and societies deal with topics such as death and birth, but also how important it is to remeber and celebrate, which we all do in different ways.

This series gives a platform to how diverse our traditionals are, but ultimatley, how we all strive for the same means in our lives.

Screenshots from moments of the show:

Matriach’s - Queen Victoria

• At this point in my r and groups. Examp the patriotic symbo

research, I looked into the Idea of “Matricah’s” and figure heads of society’s ples of this that came to mind are monach’s, specially Queen Victoria and ol she was and still is for Great Britain and the common wealth.

Symbols of hirachy and leadership-

• The reason I was interested by Victoria specifically is because of the image with jewels, sashes, emblems and badges that identify her power and pos the country, we can gather that Victoria is someone of high importance. Im bolism of growth and prosperity (Countryside views, Leaves, Flowers, Cou things that make it great. With her titles that include “Empress of india”, Vic nal status with her she was presented and repected. While looking at thes own fmaily members that we consider matrich’s of our own families, and i

ery that exists of her. Almost all of her paintings and photographs picture her sition. In these images, her sashes and jewels assert her as the “Mother” of mages like those on the previous page, Picture Victoria surrounded by symuntrymen.etc.). Victoria is very presented as the “Mother” of the nation and all ctoria is considered the last great monach that represented true power regise images of her, I realized that there are similarities there with photos of our felt like this was an interesting concept to keep in the back of my mind.

Family Matriach-

Another aspect of Queen Victoria’s story that intriuged me was her relationship with her own family and dynamics that were present in her own family.

Victoria and her consort Prince Albert were passionate lovers with a mutual physical attraction but with seemingly no understanding of family planning.

The result was nine children born between 1840 and 1857. Victoria and Albert were united in the desire that they should not just be a model, loving and happy family, but that they would also set a moral example that would redefine the royal family and be the foundation of a dynasty that would stretch across Europe, bringing peace and harmony to the continent.

Victoria was obviously a pivotal figure within her family, specially in her widow years after her husband Albert died. Victoria was in Mourning in the years following her Alberts death, to the emd of her life, making her insufferable to be around and very controlling over her family. These instances are present in family photo sittings and portraits where Victoria almost shrouds and looms over the rest of the family, seated centerally amongst them . I found these stories interesting, as they gave me an idea as to how a family matriach can control and manipulate the rest of family to fit them.

Visual Influences that look at the role of the Grandmother figure• Artist references that relate to the grandmother • works that influenced my thinking and ideas

Liron Kroll- “LAST YEAR” Instalation-

• “‘Last Year’ is an interactive augmented reality installation done as part of an artisit residency at the EPFL+ECAL lab in Switzerland.

Combining photography and animation with augmented reality technologies. The installation showcases a fabricated archive of objects, found among a woman named Sarah belongings. Photographs, postcards letters and more, all kept as objects of memory. The viewer is invited to look at these objects through the medium of augmented reality and see how, the photographs, postcards and objects come to life and tell Sarah’s story.”

• Liron’s digital instalation presents the photographs and items in a flat spread layout for the viewer can look at flat infront them, Very similar to GH- Green.

“Gan Gan” By Gemma Green-Hope

• “My grandmother Elizabeth (or Gan-Gan as I called her) was a force of natu time or place. Her tiny terraced house in Bideford was full of treasures; hun of her mother tied up in blue ribbon, a tile stolen from the Alhambra, a silk b a knife carved from the wood of HMS Victory, Granny Green’s pince-nez, a helped my father and uncle sort through some of her possessions. I inherit make sense of all the other things that someone leaves behind, the things n alongside images and memories of my own to make this short animation, w

ure; she was wonderful. As a child she seemed to me like a visitor from another ndreds of books, a medusa’s head, Peter the Great’s ivory letter opener, the caul blouse embroidered by nuns, deadly poison, beautiful Pre-Raphaelite artworks, and diaries full of stories from a hard life well-lived. After her death in 2010, I ted some of her clothes to wear, books to read, a bicycle to ride. But how do you nobody sees, boxes full of photographs, and bits of string? I used these objects which I dedicate to her memory.”

Screenshots from the Animation

• Gemma Green- Hope (GH)’s animation pin points perfectly how many people feel when they loose someone close and are left with objects and belongings to go through. The animation itself paired with GH’s commentary serves perfectly together, as the imagery she puts together merges very creatively with her words and her expressions in talking about her grandmother. The body of work itself is very honest and highlights all of the feelings GH felt about her Grandmother, her story and how she feels after her passing...3 key stages that can be difficult to translate into visuals and even words.

Lorna Crabbe- “Unbuttoned : My Grandmothers Coat” • Lorna Crabbe’s “Unbuttoned: My Grandmothers Coat” Is a small artist book I found in the library. The book is actually an A5 piece of paper folded that contains descriptions made by Crabbe about all the things that were found in her Grandmothers coat. This book is completely not what one would imagine it would be. What makes this book so unique is that it focuses on the descriptions of the items, rather than the visuals. We read and look through what we can find if we were search through the coat oursleves and the descriptions themselves almost come to together as a collective to make up to coat. I found this as a piece to be special, because much like Liron kroll and Gemma GH, it focuses on the items themselves and how they make up the person that owned them. I believe this intimacy and detail that Crabbe put’s into what was is in the coat as to the actual coat, is a special and endearing way of looking at what the coat represents.

“Grandma, Mom and I’- Wasana Sriprachya- Anunt

• “Grandma, Mom and I” is another Artist book I found that in the library. This her mother and grandmother. This book serves as a collection of interviews the book, we get a picture the dynamics between all 3 women and a peak i this into my research is because this is a strong example of documentation bers co-exist in life. These accounts are present in Interviews between Was when she was a teenager. Altogether, this is a coherent exmaple of docume

s book Wasana Sriprachya- Anunt chronacles the relationship between her, s recorded and images taken by Wasana of her mother and Grandmother. In into their lives and how they all influence eachother. The reason I included n book that delivers insight into how different generations of fmaily memsana and her grandmother when Wasana asks her what her mother was like enation book that captures living relationships between family members.

Image: Alice Welligner- Mixed media Illustrator

Grandmother’s Coat

• Alice Wellinger is an illustrator that develops her personal art that deals with the troubles of daily life and her own childhood memories. Her paintings often feature florals, animals and abstract, organic shapes while portraying a story of womanhood and female issues.

• A specific reason Alice is included in my work, is because of her “Grandmother’s Coat” illustration. The image itself is something that fascinated me while I was putting my Proposal and visual references, as I was looking at illustrations and visuals that are inspired by grandmothers, I came across this image that Welligner had painted that was inspired by her grandmothers coat, a similair subject matter to Lorna Crabble’s artist book. the text reads : • “ When my Grandma died, she left behind a small, sad coat. It was the kind of coat that makes elderly women invisable. I unbuttoned the coat and the lining showed me grandma’s wonderful, complicated life.”

• I found this to be a really “Lovely” but inviting piece to look at, as a visual, it does so much, the small details, like the flowers, Plants, Birds give the idea of growth and prosperity, the way these objects are being placed, almost like they are popping out the unbuttoned coat and flourishing to come out. Text aside, I feel that as a visual, the viewpoint goes directly to inside the coat, Inviting whoever looks at the image to come forth into Wellinger’s grandmother;s “ Wonderful, Complicated life.”

Mommy- Burnout

Stepmom

Representations of grandmothers in picture books and storybooks

Research into Storybooks, Comics and picture books that feature the grandmother/ guardian character trope within the narrative.

“Maia and What Matters�- Kaatje Vermeire

“Maia and what matters” is a book about the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter in the face of illness and aging.

Maia is a young girl who experiences loss in many forms at a very young age. She experiences her grandmother having a stroke, resulting in the loss of the grandmother she knows and loves. Maia also witnesses the passing of her grandfather and watches her mother arrange the funeral, all by her grandmother’s side while this happens .

Although presented as a children’s book, the text captures the realities of aging and death through the eyes of a young child. Themes of grief are very present in the book as we follow Maia and her grandmother navigate both grandfather’s death and ultimatley grandmothers decline too.

Grandfather’s death is presented as matter of fact and easy to comprehend, in comparison with grandmother’s decline, which leaves her body physically unchanged, but the reader is aware that there is a barrier in place that prevents her personality from shining through.

Through the challenges that they face, Maia’s relationship with her grandmother is central to this story. Their friendship sees them running around the garden, eating cake, telling stories and climbing trees, enjoying the time they have together.

• Although it can be argued that this story wouldnt be considered your cont the health of older relatives and the way aging can impact relationships be Grandfather and the hospitalisation of Grandmother could also spark imp in their own lives.

• The Illustrator , Kaatje Vermeire, used a range of strategies to convey the range of emotions experienced by Maia in this story. Each page throughout is different from the next, told through various layers of colours and techniques. The textured paintings of pastel pinks and greens represent life, joy and friendship. The use of collage, together with warm browns and natural hues represent friendship and sadness. Black, white and grey silhouettes represent confusion and loss.

All these layers of marks and colours coinside to express the different moods and feelings that young Maia is feeling.

tentional children’s story, it opens a conversation about etween children and older family and friends. The death of portant discussions with children dealing with these issues

“Don’t Call Me Grandma”- Vaundra Micheaux Nelson

“Great-grandmother Nell eats fish for breakfast, she doesn’t hug or kiss, and she does NOT want to be called grandma. Her great-granddaughter isn’t sure what to think about her. As she slowly learns more about Nell’s life and experiences, the girl finds ways to connect with her prickly great-grandmother.”

Nelson’s “Great-grandmother Nell” isnt portrayed as the warm fuzzy conventional grandmother architype, she is scary. and cold. She also does not hug, or kiss, or chase her great-grandchild for fun. Nelson’s Grandma character also has a vanity full of mysterious perfumes, lipsticks and memories as sharp and painful as the day they were made.

The story itself focuses on Grandma Nell’s character traits and how her great- granddaughter tries to connect with her and understand her and why she is the way she is. For a childrens book, its very intresting that this book touches on topics such as heartbreak, memories and the past, in a way that makes it navigational for young children to understand. Grandma Nell is a character that isnt necesarily found in most childrens books, Her prickly nature may well hide a “broken heart” she mentions at times.

The book touches and alludes to nostaliga as it takes us through three distinct memories of her past, but it’s a single wordless two-page spread that probably says more about her than anything else, You find yourself speculating about her life. The book offers a unique take on a grandmothers relationship with her grandchild and I found that this is explored very authetically through different combinations of imagery. Vaundra Nelson works heavily with collage and patterned surfaces in her work to convey an emotion and aesthetic within her stories. I specifically found the art work present is what communicates these emotions of the characters and essence of who they are. Patterns on dresses, furnature, Jewelery is what gives the characters their personal stamp and thats very important if you are created something that’s wordless, which Nelson do effectively are certain points in this book.

•

This double spread pictured above depicts Grandma Nell’s dressing table, liike about this spread is that eventhough it is accompanied by description and focus and i think that is what is effective about this page. There is an e book and that it a concept that has heavily intriuged me the most about my

where we see bottles, makeup, trinkets and photos scattered around. What i s and text, The textures of bottles, and perfumes is what really captures the view empasis on how objects and belongings communicate an individuals spirit in this y early ideas and even my own fondest memories about my own Grandmother.

Themes of memories present in Vaundra Nelson’s “ The Legendary Miss Lena Horne”

• These images taken from Nelson’s book “ The Legendary Miss Lena Horne” looks at the backstory and family history of Lena Horne. I included these images along with Nelsons’ “Dont call me Grandma” , because the subject matters are very similar.

Most of Nelsons’ work touches on human connection, history and different generations of famillies. Nelson plays on the idea of nostalgia and memory through photographs and physical objects, which paired with her illustration style, makes for a really heartwarming body of work. Topics such as family connections and relationships can be complex subject matters for childrens books, but i feel this is where the art style of these books is so important. As previously touched upon, Nelson uses a collage style which is made up of different papers and paint marks when putting together her images. As a result, her methods envoke a playful and vintage body of work. The illustrations themselves remind me of Lauren Childs’ work in “Charlie and Lola”, where Childs uses the similar tactile collage style, which has been very successful and effective when working in childrens books. The mixed media use of papers and prints add a raw and playful edge to the story being told and I feel it adds another layer of personality and relatability to the story being told.

“Lena Horne Family Tree”

“The Mitten”- Jan Brett

E t hel & Er ne st - Raym o nd Brig g s

The Narrative:

Ethel & Ernest tells the story of Raymond Briggs’ parents’ marriage. Lady’s maid Ethel and milkman Ernest, from their first chance encounter in 1928, through the birth of their son Raymond in 1934, to their deaths, within months of each other, in 1971.

Generations and Historical Context : Told in Brigg’s unique strip-cartoon format, Ethel and Ernest live through defining moments of the twentieth century in Great Britain : the darkness of the Great Depression, the build up to World War II, the trials of the war years, the joy of VE Day and the emergence of a generation from post war austerity to the cultural enlightenment of the 1960s.

The book itelf is focused around Ethel and Ernests relationship but wrap’s around the story around events happening in the in world in the background, resulting in the narrative being very transitional fast paced. Although the story is written and illustarted by Raymond Briggs himself, The vocal point is very much on his parents, Ernest and Ethel and thier story and experiences in life.

Both Ethel and Ernest often fail to grasp how the world works but have a strong sense of right and wrong. Progress largely passes them by, and they’re puzzled by and suspicious of the new. This story is a heartfelt elegy to Briggs’ parents, through Raymonds eyes..

Artstyle of the Book

• The back and forth of comic book style panels and full page spreads gives the pencil marks used at times can be high in contrast, there are also mom delicate emotion to the more softer moments in the book. The novel itself i a simple life but lived through some very extraordinary times, which is a bi

• Visually, the artstyle and colour tones are very simialr of that to Brigg’s work in ‘the Snowman”. The book features heavily shaded drawings with warm rich coloured tones that both add and enhance the mood of the scene being told. The raw pencil marks and rich tones of the colours remind me very much of the classic beano comics, But also give the novel a realistic and striking style. I appreciate the harsh fonts used, specially when we see Ethel and Ernest clash and bicker with each other, I believe it gives the book even more character and personality.

s a nice flow to look at as you navigate through the book itself. Although ments in this novel where the pencil marks are soft and gentile, which gives is a very emotional homage that looks on the lives of two people that lived ig influence I carry with me when I tell my grandmothers story.

Robin Shaw’s animation adaptions

For the feature adaptation of ‘Ethel and Ernest’ , Illustrator Robin Shaw had to establishing a look for the film which would both evoke the sensitive drawing style of the book and yet be practical and affordable for animated movie. Shaw’s efforts resulted in a film that captures both the delicacy and rawness of Brigg’s mark making, but bringing it into modern technology.

The method: For the characters, Shaw devised a system of compositing the linework with light watercolour washes whose tones and hues would then be affected by using the line itself to generate adjustment mattes. This had the effect of providing subtle changes in the textured colours as if they were hand-painted on paper whilst removing the need to draw too many matte layers at the assisting stage.

Establishing the setting and Enviroment: To minimise the amount of work involved in painting and drawing the backgrounds ,Shaw came up with a system of ‘papering’ the walls with textures of hand-painted wallpapers and paints and lining the floors with carpet, lino and tile textures. This provided not only consistency but also a little more time to spend adding bespoke painted lighting and shadow effects to each scene in the style of the book.

One of the main tasks for the backgrounds was to make the house almost as much a character in the film as Ethel and Ernest themselves, as well as establishing relationships between different spaces within the house in order to add an extra cinematic dimension to their environment.

My Thoughts: After reading the novel first and then watching the animated film, I was very impressed as to how well the delicacy of the original illustrations by Briggs translated so smoothly into a moving animation.

The setting of Ethel and Ernests’ Wimbeldon Park home is very central in the story and plays a key role in how the audience connect and idenifty as to who the couple were. These details like chairs, tea pots,mugs, china plates and living room decor...are all captured so effortlessly in a way that brings to life the pages from the graphic novel into the moving functions of an animation.

I am nspired by the concept of how all these small details like plates, flowers and cups really make a narrative. I think the empashis on the setting and architecture that is present in this project is very clear and partly what makes this story to relatable....as it appeals to generations of people who remember those times. After viewing Robin Shaw’s portfolio, His drawings and rough sketches of the living room, bedroom and garden alone really capture the esence of the people who live there and use those spaces. The drawings themselves dont have people present in them using those spaces but still communicate a sense of endearment as I feel they capture a strong amount of nostalgia and glimpse into that period of time.

“Stan and Nan”- Sarah Lippett

Themes: Love/ Loss/ Memory/ Nostalgia/ Rememberance In “Stan and Nan”, Sarah Lippett memorialises the lives of her maternal

grandparents: Stanley and Joyce Burndred. The story follows their lives as they navigate the world around them and the challenges that life can bring. The story was inspired by Joyce , who wrote Lippett a series of letters. They detailed the life of Stanley who died long before Lippett was born but lived on in the artwork and ceramics that decorated her Grandmother’s house. These handwritten letters inspired Lippett to tell her Nan’s story, and in- tern Stan’s.

T he Na rrati ve-

The novel unfolds in sections, but starts with lippett herself having a discussion with her Nan over tea, as if her Nan is the narrator of the story’s that we are about to hear . Nan starts with Stan’s story as she describes Stan’s humble beginnings, moving onto their courtship and marriage, the arrival of children, and eventually Stan’s premature death. Very much like works previous, such as Raymond Briggs’ “Ethel and Ernest”, Lippett paints a moving picture of an average working class couple who married young and quickly with high hopes for the future together. As Stan’s part of the story ends and the story moves on, as does life for Joyce.

The second part is Nan’s story without Stan. It begins on the day of her funeral, as friends and family reflect on Joyce as a mother, a grandmother and a person. It leads up to the final day of her life and the aftermath of her death, revealing the family she leaves behind, united by sadness but comforted by the idea that Stan and Nan are together again. it’s a notion that obviously brought comfort to Lippett, as it does to many people.

This story serves as a story about human connection and hope. Through her simple and heartyillustrations, Lippett is able to perfectly capture what it’s like to say goodbye to an elderly loved one forever – I believe this tackles the double edged sword of grief and relief people don’t often talk about when loosing someone and the mark they leave in our lives.

A r t sty le and Si m i la rit ies w it h “ Et h el a n d E rnest” Stan and Nan is very reminiscent of Raymond Briggs’s Ethel & Ernest.

Lippett’s drawings are much more rough and childlike than Briggs’s, but she has his eye for the textures of ordinary life: a kettle boiling for yet another cup of tea; a suburban garden as neat as a folded handkerchief; a pot plant on an old-fashioned sideboard. Her story brims with love. through Lippett endearingly captures and portrays her family story through textured pencil marks and paints, which I believe adds another layer of intimacy and softness to the book.

Much like Brigg’s book, The conversational aspect is there, conversations interwave around the block images that give them an extra sense of flow and continuation. The reader can follow nan’s descriptions that are paired with the images, which is very similar to Ethel and Ernest’s comic like style.

• I believe Lippett’s choices of colours and the use of those colours is what put combinations of Turquoise, Oranges, warm Yellows and White that Lippett us childlike feel. Lippett uses the bright and warm colours spiradically throughto the most attention. The actual illustations are boxed in the traditional graphic brings forward the simplicity of the drawings. I also think the differentiation o just looking at solid squares on every page.

ts this apart from other novels that tackle the same subject matter. The primary se in the novel, paired with her stylised drawings, give the book a quirky and out the book so the readers attention is directed at parts that perhaps require c novel borders, with a clean white background, which I feel enhances and of boxes on the pages gives the reader that looks at the book a breather from

“Mary and Agnes”- Cathy Brett

The Narrative:Cathy Brett’s “Mary and Agnes” is inspired by the true story of Mary Ann MacLeod/Trump and Agnes’ friendship.

In 1926, The two women became pen pals as teenagers. 70 years on, at a reunion in a London hotel, they reflect on their lives; lives full of joy and grief, wealth and hardship. But, neither Mary nor Agnes would have guessed where their story would end. The intriguing and very personal elements to this account lie in the identities of its two lead women. Agnes was Brett’s grandmother while Mary Anne McLeod was the mother of Donald Trump.

The opening pages depict the two women meeting up decades later in London to reminisce about the past, Very similar to what Sarah Lippett did with “ Stan and Nan”, there is this element of working backwards and dwelving back into the past to tell a story. From the initial joy of reunion to emotive recreations of the past surrounding the two friends, the wordless opener speaks to the reader and observer in ways that dialogue or narration never could, creating a wistful nostalgic yearning for the decades that came before and bringing us as the observer along for the ride that is Mary and Agnes’ memories.

• Bretts use of the layering of images and materials I found, give the Illustratio found are so rich with texture and care, that they could serve as artworks al aspects of the comic is the writing paper and ink style type that Brett uses a trations into the “Comic Book format”, I also think this adds to the nostalgia the book to narrative being told, which is centered around Mary and Agnes’

• What makes this particular comic unique is that it takes on a scrapbook like approach with Brett illustrating Agnes’s own account surrounding them becoming penpals and their subsequent letter-writing between her home in Dundee and Mary’s on the Isle of Lewis.

Brett contrasts their different lives through single images and a collage style use of photographs from those years, allowing us to observe the two as theirfriendship blossoms and then slowly fades, as life moves on and Mary’s new life in America takes hold.

ons deph and dimension. The details within in the illustration themselves i lone, aside from being part of a comic. However, I think one of my favourite as the text over the illustrations. While I think this is what ties together the illusa and aesthetic of the time period seamlessly, While also linking the visuals of ’ back and forth letters to each other over the years.

Cathy Brett Email InterviewA compiled interview between myself and Cathy.

1) What was it about the colour blue that you liked? Was it a choice you made early on to use that as the main colour scheme? Does the Blue aesthetic influence the story in multiple ways?

Cathy: The Mary and Agnes mini-comic is part of a much bigger, more complex series of works, so everything in it developed from other projects.

It’s kind of ongoing too, as I’m working on a longer biographical comic about Agnes. The blue aesthetic developed from cyanotype prints and collages of family photographs that I made a couple of years ago, using household linens I’d inherited from Agnes. Handkerchiefs in particular, because she was always dropping them about the place, and like most women of that generation, she had some really lovely lace ones.When I started to create the comic, the collages were a great starting point and the textile element felt appropriate in telling a female story - themes of domesticity, fashion, romance, affluence and poverty could all be reflected in the use of the antique linens.

2) I noticed that in the comic, you used what looks to be digital drawings, photographs, layered text etc. I think your use of multiple media’s is very affective in this case. There must have been a big experimental process for you. What is your creative process like? Do you work closely with your sketchbooks? Does inspiration come quickly to you when putting images and material together?

Cathy: I work in sketchbooks all the time, and try to make observational drawings every day. The inspiration thing is pretty much a constant ongoing process, experimenting and trying out ideas all the time. Some things work but far more don’t. One idea inspires another. Everything develops and evolves. I’m usually working on 4 or 5 different projects at the same time - comics, paintings, prints, etc. - so they each will share techniques and themes. I do a lot of writing, too.

It’s a discipline I learned from publishing my children’s/teen novels. I always write a script, scene by scene, with story arcs, key plot twists, detailed character profiles, and then create a ‘pagination’, making thumbnails of each page or dps. It’s a really good habit and makes the job of making the comic so much easier.

3) What advice would you give me from a researchers standpoint, was there anything in particularly research wise, that you were looking for when putting together the story?. Also, did you feel any pressure to “ do your Grandmother justice?”, while portraying her and mapping out how you were going to tell this story.

Cathy: Mary and Agnes was actually produced quite quickly, but was the culmination of YEARS of research! I inherited my grandmother’s archive (boxes and boxes of stuff, including about 12 photo albums) back in 2001, and I’ve been working on ideas for telling her story ever since. But the Mary Trump element developed into a major project in 2015, when journalist Torcuil Crichton wrote an article about my small collection of Mary MacLeod photographs. The story grew and grew, at one point being pitched as a TV drama, but eventually became a BBC Alba documentary, The President’s Mother, which I worked on for 3 years with Torcuil and film-maker/director Calum Angus MacKay. It was first broadcast last September and has been on iPlayer a couple more times since.

Anyway, I created Mary and Agnes over the summer of 2019, while principle filming was taking place in the UK and US, so that I could publish it to coincide with the broadcast. It was hard work and I didn’t quite finish by September, but I launched the comic at Thought Bubble last November.

Trump’s Mother’ Mathair A Chinn-Suidhe’ Title design

Your question about ‘doing justice’ to Agnes’ story is very astute. I think the reason I’ve taken so long to develop the project is that it’s a true story and many of the ‘characters’ are still alive, and I must make sure they are happy with the result. This was one of the hardest things about making The President’s Mother and Mary and Agnes. It was important to me that my family were ok with everything. In the end they loved both! Phew!

4) What are your fondest memories of your Grandmother Agnes? Did you learn many things about her that you didn’t already know while doing this project?

And also, do you find pride in that you have been able to tell her story to many through the comic and film?

Cathy: I’m still researching and I learn new things about Agnes all the time. In some ways I wish I’d known more about her when she was alive, but it’s been fascinating discovering. The most interesting research I did for Mary and Agnes, was working out what each of them would have been doing at key historic moments, one in America and the other in Europe. The similarities and differences in their experiences are fascinating.

The original 7 photographs Sent by Mary to her pen pal Agnes

Fallout and my Thoughts on Cathy’s responses:• Cathy and Agnes was such a a pivotal part of my research in terms of establishing my style and visual ideas for my own work, I found it specially necesary to reach out to Cathy with questions of my own to ask. My intial thoughts were how pleased i was that Cathy agreed to answer my questions and how receptive and detailed she was when answering my questions that I had compiled. My two main discussions that i wanted to have with Cathy was about her creative process and also the research she had put into the project, as specifically, archival research has proved to be a big chunk of my own project. I found Cathy’s repsonses very endearing and honest, which I appreciated. I had wondered whether she had felt any pressure to “do her grandmother and Mary justice” while portraying them in this book. I found her response of “It’s important that my family were ok with everything” , indicates to me that Cathy took this project on very strongly and didnt take it lightly, which gives me added motivation to do the same with my story.

“Vie? Ou théâtre?” - Charlotte Saloman

Backstory: Charlotte Salomon was a young Jewish German girl born in 1916 and murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. As a refugee in 1939 in the region of Nice, she witnessed the suicide of her grandmother. Salomon then discovers that she comes from a maternal line marked by suicides for several generations. Confronted by her origins with the double threat of Nazism and a family tragedy, Charlotte Salomon respond to it by creating a graphic novel titled “ Vie Ou Théâtre”. “ Vie Ou Théâtre” is composed of 781 plates and several hundred layers of mixing gouache paints, texts and musical annotations - presents the history of her family from the First World War until 1940.

Pages that stand out to me:

Artstyle and Composition As a graphic novel, the whole presentation is striking, especially since it was composed only from the three primary colours. Salomon produced many hundreds of images in gouaches, in which she re-created her life in a sort of painted drama. In order to do this, Saloman invented a very unique way of compositioning these events onto paper. Pictured are these tiny vinettes that Salomon creates in her painting that I believe is very similar to medeval manuscripts and even ancient Eqyptian mancuscripts. Saloman layers and builds up her images which can range from quite simplistic, spaced out images, to dramatically bold full page spreads, Much like the spread featured on the left.

The example included on the left is a page filled with multiple painted rooms, the way Salomon painted this gives the reader a birds eye view into what is happening in all of these little rooms. This ditches the idea of having turn the pages on each page to see what is happening in each room, as Salomon piles and stacks up these different scenarios ontop of eachother, which is an overload of information.

Saloman creates an open flow that invites you into her world and story that she tellling, I think another reason that this translates this way, I because Salomon weaved in the text and annotations in the drawings, almost like the text works around the images, not the other way round.

There is a sense of vigorousness and passion behind these paintings and I believe that is what makes this such an emotional piece of work.

Small details such as brush stokes and marks that Salomon makes gives the work extra means of expressiveness.

Artist Reference: Melodie Stacey

• Art Aesthetic and Style influences

Melodie Stacey Email Interview

1) Who/ What inspires your creative process? what are your favourite subject matters to draw?

Melodie : My Favourite thing to draw is the human form. Sometimes from life or my imagination. I get inspired by so many things but I really like vintage photography at the moment. I do have a real interest in history so I think that influences these portraits too.

2) I have noticed that strong women seem to be the subjects of choice in your drawings , specifically your portraiture work. I have also noticed that most of these women are from different points in history?

Melodie: Yes, Edwardian is a favourite right now...

3) What is it about women from the past or even just women in general that inspire you in these portraits?

Melodie: I collect vintage photographs but I also own some from my family. I like the poses and compositions of 1930s photos in particular. I find the female form the most interesting shape to draw though I have been drawing men more recently, which is new for me. I guess the 1930s was a turning point for women and women’s rights were starting to be taken more seriously. I like to draw strong women.

Blue Pencil drawings 4) A specific element of your work that I have been Inspired by for this project, is your blue pencil drawings of women that you have been doing, which I think are exquisite.

I love the shades of blue you use and how delicate and soft they are. What inspired you to do this series of Blue drawings? What is it about the Blue that you like?

Melodie: I love the colour blue and I find that it works particularly well with these portraits. I guess it conveys a softer slightly melancholy mood which I like. I paint a lot with the colour blue so I guess that’s why I gravitated towards it.

Also, I know that you like to use different paints and pencils.

5) Do you have a favourite method of working? Do you find one medium is more effective than the other at times?

Melodie: I prefer Gouache to all other paints at the moment, but that may change. I love using coloured pencils much more than just pencil, I guess I just love colour.

Pam Smy Sketchbook pages-

• Pam Smy’s Sketchbook Pages have always influenced me and my creative process, I always admired how she is able to study and capture these characters that she creates for her stories in her book on paper and see the work that goes into the production. Her pages inspire me to focus on compostion and figures when I plan my own pages and settings.

Primary References • F a m i l y P h o t o g r a p h s • F a m i l y A r c h i v e f i n d i n g s • P r i m a r y p h o t o g r a p h s o f family heirlooms and belongings

• Figures that belonged to my Nannie, I remember these being favourites of hers.

• Archival images of my Nan in her youth along with my grandad.

• Scrapbooks that belonged to my Nan, when she kept her