May 26, 2009
Acclaimed illustrator, Jackie Morris, on entering a room full of keen artists bearing clipboards and sketchbooks and armed with pencils, seemed somewhat surprised at the larger-than-expected audience. Although the fans had been promised an “intimate illustration masterclass”, there were just too many of them for such “intimacy” so the “masterclass” morphed into a talk which did not disappoint.
The artist was surprisingly happy to be openly passionate about her work and in doing so, warmly made her fans feel like friends. From the age of 6 Jackie had known that she wanted to be an artist and despite doubts that she would ever succeed from her peers and superiors, she has proved them wrong and shown that a little determination can go a long way. Although never intending to get involved with childrens’ books, Jackie has now found herself not only primarily illustrating books for children but also writing them.
In shyly displaying her beautifully detailed drawings and paintings from an archive stretching back to her school days, and inviting everyone up to the stage to view them, Jackie revealed one of her secrets of illustration – every detail counts.
Her talk was hugely inspiring to the whole audience, both young and old and an excellent substitute for a hands on masterclass. She seemed to be full of words of wisdom but personally, the words that stuck most were those on her view of learning to draw. “Everyone can draw.” she said “Drawing is learning to see, it is learning a language”
May 26, 2009
As the 21st Hay Festival hits the half-point, amongst the insightful and charming performances of the likes of Stephen Fry and Desmond Tutu, the daily Early Edition provides a welcome retreat to an hour of topical comedy.
The format of the show is simple. Three ’stand-up’ comedians browsing through today’s newspapers (tabloid to broadsheets) and commenting on any possible amusing headlines and stories. Unfortunately, after 20 minutes of reviewing the current MP expenses scandal and problems in North Korea, Andre Vincent and Carrie Quinlan struggled to pin-point any other potentially engaging articles.
In contrast, Brigstocke seemed to select the highlights of the day’s headlines with unalterable ease. His effortless delivery, authoritative cynicism and striking material ensured the large Festival audience stayed interested for the performance’s entirity.
Today’s focus was again on MP’s spending, including Alistair Darling’s revelation that he, in fact, requires tax advice; “this hardly fills you with confidence does it?” commented Brigstocke. Furthermore, the panel argued that the talent used to exploit the current expenses law should surely be used to save Britain’s economy?
In addition, they singled out today’s The Sun’s Page Three star giving her opinion on the current problems in Korea and David van Day’s attempts to become an MP!
Towards the end of the performance, audience participation fortunately sparked off more entertaining discussions concerning the alarming low number of students studying History and unusual conversations of visitors at this year’s Hay Festival. Perhaps this feature of the show could be utilized to greater effect?
Nevertheless, it was a one man show. Overall, although it fails it sustain a high level of entertainment for the whole performance, The Early Edition has revealed one Britain’s most promising comedians, who looks set to scale even greater heights in the future.
May 26, 2009
The concept behind Barford and Dorling’s map is a fascinating one and indeed can be seen to revolutionise the traditional map system. Described by Barford as “mapping the way we live”, the map portrays the world taking into account important and current worldwide issues rather than simply landmass. Each territory is re-sized according to the variable being assessed. In simple terms, areas are shown as large if they have vast numbers of the things being assessed, and small if they don’t. An example is the map of Malaria deaths, where, unsurprisingly, Africa obscures almost the whole of the rest of the world.
The talk was eye-opening and in many ways shocking, however, the pair were obviously keen to keep their feelings subjective, and let the maps speak for themselves. Although perhaps too many slides were shown, diverting our attention to the maps on the screen rather than the talk itself, the presentation effectively highlighted the disasters of the modern world, and the maps themselves can be seen as “incredible works of art”. The sheer amount of data that must have been needed to create these maps is immense, and gives yet more credit to the extremely likable duo in their plight to make the public aware of the huge issues that are ever-present in the world we live in.
