THE BIG DRAW 2011: Fantasy Faerie World! with Pui Lee; at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, Sunderland. (28/10/2011)
The magical appeal of faeries and the realm of the fantasy knows no age boundaries. The notion of these mysterious creatures enchants both the young and the old. I aimed to recreate the magic and wonder that surrounds them, and to encourage imagination through drawing, offering the maximum accessibility across all generations. Inspired by The Truth about Faeries exhibition, museum visitors were invited to help the artist create a big fantasy Faerie World picture to celebrate The Big Draw! this year. The Big Draw! takes place annually in October and is an initiative, which is designed to get the whole nation to engage with the act of drawing.
Participants were given the opportunity to draw their own imaginary Faeries and Elves using a range of drawing materials. They then added their own unique scenery features to the Faerie World landscape, such as weird and wonderful foliage or shiny Faerie Skyscapers from the future! -The possibilities were endless!
Informed by Pui Lee's practice (working with scale and process) and her interests in public interaction, the drawing event took the form of a game and the participants took inspiration from “The Ideas Generators” to evolve the overall drawing as the day progressed. This was particularly effective because it added an element of controlled unpredictability to it and it also encouraged creative problem-solving skills. "Instructions" from "The Faerie/Elf Generator", "The Faerie World Landscape Generator" and "Pot Luck - The Random Idea Generator" were designed to stimulate imagination and to help generate ideas in a fun and accessible way. These consisted of a mixture of thematic ideas and technical suggestions.
The big drawing was continuously added to and its contents evolved throughout the day, expanding when necessary. Alongside the growing Faerie Fantasy World big picture, there was also a separate board (The “Story-Board”) to pin up short stories about what is happening in the picture, which created potential for creating imaginative narratives too. By the end of the session, there was a very big colourful collaborative artwork to be proud of. Feedback from all the participants was extremely positive and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves..
[more images from the day to come shortly!]
THE BIG DRAW! 2007 - The "I am..." Project with Pui Lee
"I am..." formed part of a drawing project, entitled, "Demographics", which was conceived in conjunction with The Big Draw nation-wide event, as part of West Walls Studios. The project was fundamentally about making art more accessible to the general public, offering a platform for wider engagement and active participation. In this case, the project explored themes of identity and helped to celebrate cultural diversity and individual differences.
The project involved drawing your own life-size self-portrait to add to a giant paper chain for inclusion in a later exhibition, which eventually took place at West Walls Open Studios event months later. Ideally, As part of this project, I organised for the project to take place at local schools and venues in Carlisle, so that we could reach a wide range of audiences. I also co-ordinated the "I am..." public drawing event in Carlisle City Centre, which saw the local residents, young and old, take part in this drawing frenzy.
West Walls Studios are well known for their role in community arts and have been winners of The Big Draw Drawing Inspiration Awards in 2003, 2004, 2005 and were runners up in 2007 and 2008. I also played an active role in their projects: "Draw Your Own Dinner", "Spiritual Currency" and "Haven". These exciting and innovative drawing projects have allowed individuals of all ages to express a vision, an idea or an opinion through the medium of drawing.