Dieting in The Lockdown

 During the first lockdown, the process of cooking was a pleasant activity and a pleasurable diversion.  If we couldn't eat out, I cooked in and the pounds have crept on until the limit was the fact I could not fit into my clothes.  

Therefore I have to diet.  I have yoyo dieted all my life ever since my mother asked me to slim down a size for my wedding dress but that's another story.

BUT

The activity of dieting lowers my mood and the angry scales watching me from the main bathroom follow me everywhere in the house, I go to bed with gnawing hunger pains and acid reflux after my tablets.  I experience so much discomfort on 1300 calories with very little result

I decided to record and illustrate my frustration - image one - a pretty dress hides the truth May 28th 2020.  My birthday meal is not excessive but for me everything in my mouth puts on weight.

To express my anger with myself, here is image 2/3/4

I have been on diet five days and lost 1 lb. I have 18 months to go if I stick to a diet to lose correct amount of weight.  I have discovered that the BBC do free Keto recipes.  My son came over  and we had a nice chat, my hunger is irrepressible. Tim suggested that I try Keto with no carbs and lots of protein and veg for five days a week and have the weekend off with calories counting but some carbs. I am dancing to Michael Blube ten minutes each day, He is a the most sexiest and nice man and I am a  fan and that lifts my mood.  Tim suggests I walk with John when he goes to get his paper ,The Guardian and I get The Daily Mail  and arguing with John might fritter away the lockdown and introduce another exercise.  I might become part of the celebrity culture and get more followers on Instagram, who knows.  Tim is a great source of amusement for me as he has a great sense of humour.

So Week one weigh in 25/1/2021

I have lost 1 1/2 pound

I have to keep to my resolve,  I am cross with myself for having put on half a stone during this latest lockdown.  I have been eating chocolate biscuits which is a great no no for me.  The way forward in my opinion, is to give myself treats of some kind.  I like shopping so at the end of the week I shall go shopping. We went to the coop and food shopped  and then went to Chaplins where I bought some wool.  I am going to knit a large teddy, I did one before and it was a good success and they raffled it at my mother's  care home.  Maybe I can raffle it or give it to Jakub.

This might take my mind  off food in the evening when I am too tired to do very much.

I cant believe I knitted this six years ago! I hope the next one turns out as well.

Newsletter for the New Year

 

Newsletter from Zoe Ainsworth-Grigg  - new beginnings

 

January 1^st, 2021

 

During the last year Zoom has revolutionised relationships and social get togethers including zoom parties, quizzes, singing, art etc.  Part of studying with Falmouth University last term was to really look at skills sets and decide the best way forward. For example : I have in the past self-published my books.  It was suggested in a tutorial that people might look at how much energy expended and  how many results  there are from self-publishing and instead try to approach publishers with their work instead using the same amount of energy.

Domestika taught me that publishers now require a print ready photo of illustrations.  They taught me how to set up a light box and produce what is required.  Many illustrators go digital so that doesn’t require this photography process but publishers are tired of flat digital images and are turning to analogue images.

During the last year I have been practicing my Person-Centred Art Therapy skills with college students in America.  I was contacted by a friend to experiment with this and I was gifted not paid. However, it became very successful via zoom.  I now offer Person-centred art therapy session via Zoom via my website www.artythingsplus.co.uk

People know that I have for several yearsI have  offered creative writing skills in groups. This too has moved to zoom and sessions are also available on my website. www.artythingsplus.co.uk  I also offer a critique for writing under 2,000 words.

A friend of mine  Claire Jeanes who taught mixed media at The Brewhouse now offers online zoom art courses.  You can contact her at Clairejeanes@hotmail.com  for more information.

 

Please forward this to anyone who might in your opinion be interested.

 

Many thanks for your attention

 

Zoe Ainsworth-Grigg

Newsletter from Falmouth Illustration MA

 Falmouth University - Illustration MA

Term Two

Well I have completed my second term and put in the portfolio and report and await my results. I think I have done enough but one can never be sure. Nine people failed last term.

This term as stated we had to make an artefact which reflected our theme.  After some reflection a children's book was not going to be applicable.  Instead I decided to invent a board game.  It reflected my work in that it had a psychological framework and was a journey and a story around a villae.

The game was called 'The Happiness Village Game'.  Based on Norton Fitzwarren I took photographs of the village and they became the perimeter of the game.  I illustrated the centre piece by doing an Ariel map of the village locations. Using a dragon ( Somerset    Wyvern) players went around the board throwing a dice and encountered instructions that pertained to happiness.  The object was to collect happiness tokens and pocket money each time they passed HOME.

In addition I included a zine* which told some interesting historical facts about Norton Fitzwarren.  It is aimed at children aged 6-11 and their families.  

I hope to crowd fund for the professional publication of the board game when it has been tested.

It is hoped that it will be available on my new website www.artythingsplus.co.uk priced £19.99.

We have seen during lockdown wonderful kindnesses from people facing adversity.  Psychological research indicates that happiness is achieved by giving acts of kindness on a regular basis and being an active part of a community. I hope that my board game will illustrate that to the children that play it.

In addition this term I constructed my new website and started to produce craft items such as pin brooches out of shrink plastic and also develop craft kits for sale.

Zoe Ainsworth-Grigg

* A zine is a small handmade book usually A6 or A5.  They are collectable and offer art produced affordable craftwork from writer/illustrators. 

Illustrations by Zoe Ainsworth-Grigg

Update on Falmouth Illustration Course

 

Well I passed the first term and it was very difficult.  Trying to find out how to use all this new technology for me was a nightmare.  I suppose the youngsters found that bit easy!

This term we are onto Professional Practice and I am enjoying the things that I am learning.  Fortunately I do know how to make a youtube film and my rendition for a presentation is below.

We are designing things too this term and we have to make an " artefact" my artefact will be one of my books.  I published two of them last term based on the course.

I am designing a new website so please watch this space.  I hope you enjoy my presentation:

presentation

Final illustration for first term Illustration

The Princess and the Pea

 

"The Princess and the Pea" (Danish: "Prinsessen paa Ærten"; literal translation: "The Princess on the Pea") is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson about a young woman whose royal identity is established by a test of her sensitivity. The tale was first published with three others by Andersen in an inexpensive booklet on 8 May 1835 in Copenhagen by C. A. Reitzel.

(ref 62)                                                                                                     

 

There are several versions of the oral tradition of this story, one of which dates to the 11^th Century in India when a Prince undergoes the test on a straw mattress.

 

There is dispute as to whether there was an oral tradition of folk tales (63) but Jungian analysts believe that they contain deep truths about the psyche.

 

“Fairy tales are the purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious processes... They represent the archetypes in their simplest, barest, and most concise form ... [and] afford us the best clues to the understanding of the processes going on in the collective psyche.”  — Marie-Louise von Franz (63)

 

As an explanation of what Carl Jung term, the Self means:

 

Self. The archetype of wholeness and the regulating centre of the psyche; a transpersonal power that transcends the ego.  (63a)

 

To consider the story of the Princess and the Pea in this regard is to look at the relationships between the characters. The Prince wants to unite with a bedraggled girl who might be his equal. The girl represents his shadow side that he has the desire to unify and psychologically become whole with his consciousness.  The parent, mother in this case devises a test.  The Prince as yet has not separated from the mother.  In Freudian terms, he is still inveigled in the Oedipus situation. The girl passes the test (which is improbable in reality.)  Is she proving nobility? This is largely discounted. Or is she the shadow side of the prince that will bring him to wholeness and that he subconsciously wants to acknowledge.

The test allows them to marry and unite. The marriage does not represent a romantic notion but a psychological message of a spiritual nature. The Animus and the Anima unite. The prince is the animus and the girl the anima, the two major archetypes in Jungian theory.

 

In this image the top represents the journey of the anima and the animus. The bottom right is the test of the bed mattresses and the pea and the left image represents the marriage and spiritual union of the couple.  I have used Asian imagery to show that the earliest reference to this story was in India.  In India the bridegroom journeys to the wedding on a white horse.  There are references to India in the bedstead and the anklet on the girl’s foot as she lies awake.  The three are united in a stained-glass window to show a spiritual unification. I have used acrylic and collage.

 

First Term at Falmouth University Illustration Course

Falmouth University - 1st Term of MA Illustration online course

I feel as though I have been through a washing machine and hung out to dry.  I have never had so much information given to me in such a short space of time,

Firstly we were asked to read A LOT /every week.

Then chose the marks we were going to use in a series of images.  We were restricted to twelve so we had to chose very carefully.  The images were chosen for us e.g

The wedding; the chicken; a portrait; a landscape.

Then we had to make four drawings of our own choice and then draw around them, after placing the drawings on a blank piece of paper.

Researching and looking at other illustrators has been fun but the academic work has been challenging.  This has added to our efforts to make the images really work. I have been very conscious of prejudices in our culture following the BLACK LIVES MATTER CAMPAIGN  and have endeavored to take account of ethnicity and social and cultural divides.

Images really sculpt our unconscious mind and if we are aware of what we portray then perhaps society will change for the better.

I have been very conscious of the technology involved with modern illustration and art. I cannot at this stage learn new technology such as Corel Draw, and Humaans or even photoshop.  I have to use traditional methods and made an articulated template out of cardboard for a template for one of my story characters. the lack of technology skills nearly has been a game breaker for me.

One illustrator I found that was very useful was Alex Deacon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeFYHtWc2Vs





I am now very aware of 'happy' colours,  An artist in the Observer supplement this weekend:

Yinka Ilori

What I have learnt is that illustration is about the status of Auteur, a recognisable readable style that complements and illuminates the words that it acompanies.