Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Art...And That (special anthology brief)


Attention all Paper Jammers - the PJCC is collaborating with Empty Shop and the DLI gallery in Durham for their forthcoming hosting of the "What Are You Like?" exhibition in July. The exhibition contains work from an impressive array of artists and illustrators, including David Shrigley, Eric Carle, Jan Pienkowski and Quentin Blake.

As part of Empty Shop's involvement, they are providing complete funding for a brand spanking new ...And That anthology to be sold at the DLI and any additional events. I shouldn't need to hammer home how good an opportunity this is to get involved in the larger North East artistic community and spread the good name of Paper Jam to a new audience.

So, without further ado, the brief for the next anthology is...

ART...AND THAT

It's quite simple. Pick your favourite artist, artistic movement or piece of art and do a comic about it. This can include anything from paintings, to photography, to sculpture and be about classical or modern art (and everything in between). Go as wild as you like with it. However, bare in mind that this is being specifically produced for a mainstream art crowd. So...

1) Keep it clean. No swearing or sex. If you're doing a piece about Botticelli's Venus, then it's understood that there'd be a nude lady in there. Just keep it tasteful.

2) Keep it accessible. I know we're all comic fans, but let's not have an anthology full of comics about Jack Kirby or Chris Ware, please. It's going in a mainstream gallery and hoping to appeal to a mainstream audience, so let's look to classical or modern art first before dipping into back issues of Fantasic Four for inspiration. I know this will wind up a few people and likely kick off a "comics as acceptable art" debate, but tough. We can do a "comics as acceptable art" themed anthology some other time.

Other than those restrictions, your submission can be as irreverent and off-the-wall as you like.

There's only ONE PAGE per member this time, instead of two, but as usual you can collaborate with others to raise your page count if you wish. The whole thing will be A4 and B&W, with the aim to have a colour cover. The funding is limited, so we're trying to do as much with it as possible (hence the limited page allocation).

This anthology brief will be verbally announced at the next meeting on Thursday 3rd June and the deadline for submissions will be at the following meeting on Thursday 17th June. There is a tight schedule on this one, so there will be none of the late allowances given on History...And That. We're giving you a week's bonus time right now, so that's three weeks to do one page.

Could you also submit the credits for the piece, along with a web/e-mail address (at your discretion) for inclusion along the bottom of your piece? Ta, muchly.

Andy Waugh is the go-to guy on this project, so if you could e-mail any submissions to him here, that would be most helpful.

When you know what your subject is, please post it as a comment below, so we can see how things are shaping up on the project. Now...LET'S GET CRACKING!

UPDATE: Carlo at Empty Shop has suggested that if anyone is stuck for inspiration, then it might be an idea to check out the famous artists/designers/illustrators/photographers who are taking part in the exhibition and do a strip about one of them. Some of them are on the site here, if you want a look.

13 comments:

Britt Coxon said...

Oh my. Let the rants begin.

For this I shall have to visit my books. Alternatively I could just do Takashi Murakami. Not sure where to take it but yeah, that's my idea.

And yes, it does count as modern art, highly consumer driven, random, modern art.:D

Britt Coxon said...

Also considering The Great Wave off Kanagawa... Hokusai being a bit more mainstream than Murakami (although Hokusai never had his designs on a handbag)

thismeanswaugh said...

The Great Wave (or at least an original print of it) is on display at the Laing at the moment. It's lovely.

Britt Coxon said...

Oh yeah, I saw the posters for that on the Metro. Was planning on heading down there next week to see it.
:D

Gary said...

Yeah, it's amazing, as is the Lucy Skaer show which is in the next exhibition space. That was my highlight of the Late Shows.

Murakami is without a doubt one of the most amazing artists currently alive today. When this period is written about in years to come, Murakami will be remembered as fondly as any of those shoddy modernists from last century.

Geordiegreenlantern said...

I'm doing about Gustave Moreau's "The torture of Prometheus". It's a pretty safe choice in that A. the subject is part of Greek mythology therefore important to classical art, and B. is created by a symbolist painter.

Cuttlefish Comics said...

I bags Henry Moore & Piet Mondrian.

thismeanswaugh said...

Good good - this is what I want to see!

I'm dithering between a rather puerile piece about the Italian Renaissance painters or a slightly less puerile (but probably funnier) piece about MC Escher's 'Relativity'.

And I swear it won't be something lame like turning him into a rapper.

But then again...

Anonymous said...

Just did Aubrey Beardsley's deathbed letter...

Oscillating Brow said...

Kinda obvious, and I know we don't want to be rattling on just about comics, but I think we have to do Lichtenstein, and I have quite a nice idea for it, mostly spurred on by several recent blatant comic swipes by 'appropriation' 'artists' (see Bolland/Erro/Tank Girl), buncha talentless hacks.

L said...

Leo Hunt here, I just finished a strip about Damien Hirst. No swearing or anything.

Can we use grey tones? And what file format should I email it in?

thismeanswaugh said...

Lichtenstein is a great idea mate - you go for it. Wish I'd thought of it first.

Leo - SO glad someone has tackled a well-known modern artist. Brilliant! Grey tones are fine - basically, anything that can be photocopied.

If you can e-mail it as an A4 300dpi JPEG that'd be lovely. Ta muchly.

thismeanswaugh said...

I've changed my mind - I'm doing Ron Mueck. I've got a story sorted and everything.