Steve McCurry Exhibition

Steve McCurry

Yesterday I went to visit the Steve McCurry exhibition. He is a photo journalist who takes photos of wartorn countries. His work is absolutely incredible and shows the true emotion and suffering of human beings who have been through unimaginable pain and heartache. His most famous piece is 'Afghan Girl', which is known throughout the world. The exhibition is being held at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until 17th October 2010. I would highly recomend anyone to go and see it as it is so good.

(Photos taken from Google Search engine)

ArtsFest 2010

This weekend I have been working at the arts festival in Birmingham, 'ArtsFest 2010'. The festival ran for three days and showcased many talented singers, dancers and artists of all kinds. I worked for two days of the festival. On Friday, I helped out at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and today I worked in The Council House. Each experience was both enjoyable and interesting. I particularly enjoyed working at the museum. I worked with a range of acts who had many talents including singing, dancing, piano playing and martial arts. To be able to work alongside these people was amazing and incredibly inspiring. It has made me want to learn more because there is so much out there to do. The other volunteers who worked at ArtsFest were lovely. I cannot wait to be ble to hopefully take part in it again next year.

Two acts that really caught my eye was a band from Tamworth called Carousel Circus and a piano player called Rich Batsford.

Carousel Circus- http://www.carouselcircus.com/

Rich Batsford- http://www.richbatsford.com/

On a design note- I am currently looking for jobs in the art and design market so fingers crossed I get something soon. In the meantime, I am keeping myself busy with personal projects such as designing wedding invitations for a friend.

Garden of Creativity

Last week, I helped out with an arts summer school, with a group of children from Years 4-7. The goal of the summer school was to help create and develop the 'Garden of Creativity' within the Education Development Centre in Rushall. I worked alongside Ian Preston who ran the summer school, as well as Kirstie Hannam who was another helper.

Each day of the week, the children and the leaders were split up into groups and worked on a different section of the garden. This included drawing, colouring, painting, spray painting, creating sculptures and many more exciting things. The children were constantly busy and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I really loved this week and it made me realise I would like to continue working with children as well as doing art. The children I worked with were lovely and I was sad when the week came to an end. The 'Garden of Creativity' was a great success, everyone worked really hard including the people in charge. Visitors who come to see the garden really enjoy looking around and seeing what has been done.

Thanks for reading,

Jenna

New Designers in London!

Last week, I exhibited at New Designers in London. New Designers exhibition is held every year in Islington, London and lots of different art and design graduates come to show their work off. Many design companies from all over the world come to visit this exhibition, hoping for something or someone to catch their eye. I enjoyed exhibiting here and was lucky enough to have some interest from different companies. At the moment, I am currently doing some design work for a competition that I was asked to enter so fingers crossed it all goes well. Will keep you updated on how it goes.

Many of the students in my course had interest from different design companies and one in particular, Tom Phillips, won the Tigerprint award. His work is really good and he deserves all the success in the world. Me alongside all my classmates and tutors are really proud of him.

Write soon,

Jenna

Degree Show!

This week in the degree show I have been working as a tour guide alongside several other students at my uni. We have been taking Staffordshire schools and colleges around the show, showing them the different courses which are available at our university ranging from animation, surface pattern, graphics to fine art, media production and 3D crafts and ceramics. It has been a pleasure meeting so many children and adults who are also interested in art and design and seeing their reactions when taking them around the degree show.
Each of the courses have been in charge of looking after their own spaces. Within each course, students have agreed to times when they are going to look after their section of the show.
Tomorrow it will be and my friend Gemmas turn to look after our show in Surface Pattern, alongside our tour guiding. We will be there from 10am to 6pm, so feel free to come along and visit.

On a side note, my friend Gemma is also a surface pattern designer. Her work is intricate and detailed specialising in designing for surfaces such as cards and baby wear. She has started up her own blog, gemmalarkin.blogspot.com. Check it out!

Write soon,

Jenna

Photos from opening evening of my degree show x

For my final project I created a banner and a wallpaper based on a Circus theme. Alongside two other projects- floral ceramic designs and wedding card designs. To be able to view mine and all of the other designers work in person, the degree show will be running until the end of the week, Friday 18th June.

Staffordshire University Art and Design Show 2010

Tomorrow evening is the opening of my degree show alongside my fellow surface pattern designers. It has been a long time coming but I am very excited about it. I get to show my final pieces of work alongside sketchbooks and design development. I have thoroughly enjoyed my course and I think it is shown in my final years work. I am going to be a tour guide for the degree show next week and having already looked around the different degree courses work, I believe it will be an amazing show for all those who are coming to view it.

Here is the link, if anybody is interested in coming to see it.
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/faculties/art_and_design/showcase/art_and_design_show/

There is a catalogue for the show, which viewers are allowed to have I think. Each course has a section in it, including mine. Within each section, each of the designers display an image of their work and a little bit of information about themselves.

Here is the link to mine-
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/schools/art_and_design/degreeshow/DegreeShow10/surface-pattern/mullins-jenna_surface-pattern_ds10.html

I look forward to tomorrow night and hope that all who attend will enjoy it.

Write soon,

Jenna

Welcome!

Hello,
My name is Jenna Mullins and I am a Surface Pattern Designer. Whats that you may ask! Well I design for all different types of ‘surfaces’ such as cards, fabrics, wallpapers, banners and many more. I am currently in my final year at Staffordshire University, about to graduate. Looking to the future, I hope to continue to work in the field of art and design and be successful. Here, I have decided to create my own blog, to document my journey after university and also take note, of all that is inspiring around us.
Hope you enjoy my reading my adventures and feel free to leave comments!
Jenna