OUIL406 Initial response to Persons of note & Reevaluating Practices and Methods

Person of Note....Catherine the Great

• Catherine the great is a prime example of an influential  matriarchal leader who reshaped the way the country of her rule (Russia) was seen at the time.

• She represents both the positives and negatives of being a woman ruler as well as being part of a bourgeois system which bases itself almost entirely of the monarchical system of power.

• She seemed, for the most part to have a sense of ownership over her own sexuality and was not ashamed of it.

•  However because of this it has caused her reputation historically to be tarnished because of  the misogynistic patriarchal society which both writes history, ergo dictating how history will view you. 

How I am going to approach this Brief 

• I've been struggling with looking at other ways of creating illustration recently that isn't just drawing and character design.

• I'm wanting to push the boundaries more within my work and after going to an evening with Scott McCloud where he says that sometimes he feels like a rumba stuck in one corner of what illustration can be, unable to get out. 

• I have had to reevaluate the way i approach the work I do and question if I am truly making work that amazes and excites me. And the answer at the moment is no. I don't feel like I'm pushing myself enough within my work.

• I am going to use this project to push my boundaries as well a revisit past methodologies such as embroiders as newer ways of testing my creative practice.