Hero of September - Sir Ludwig Guttmann

Fitting the present Paralympic Games I've decided to dedicate the Hero of the Month to the creator of these amazing and believing event - Sir Ludwig Guttmann. 

Being a Jew in Germany, Guttmann faced antisemitism, his prestigious career as a renown neurologist suffered from Nazi laws, such as his inability to treat non Jews. He sought asylum in England where he and his family fled to Oxford working in a laboratory, until the War Office allowed him to become a doctor again, anticipating the heavy flow of war injuries. In 1944 he became a Physician in the Spinal Injuries Ward at Stroke Mandeville Hospital, which is the place where the intelligent, charismatic, compassionate and strong man changed the lives of so many. 

The state he found the Spinal Unit in disgusted him. It was more a place for patients to slip into the oblivion of morphine and die, death rate was high (mostly from bed sores or urine infections), moral and expectancy for any life was low. Guttmann completely transformed the place, urging his patients to fight back, making nurses more positive and talking to the patients, taking them off the heavy dosage of sedatives they were all on, getting them entertainment and decor, and most importantly training them in physical activity. 

Guttmann was a firm believer in physiotherapy and that building strength despite paralyses counteracted depression, hence hiring an army physical trainer to get the men fit. This changed the way the men thought about themselves, challenging them, and soon the ward became a place of miracles. An amazing case story is this - A World War one veteran, who had been lying flat on his back for 26 years, came to the Unit to try one of their new wheelchairs. Six months later, he left able to walk with the aid of just a stick. 

This was when Guttmann decided to move his ideas of physiotherapy, healthy competition, and fighting disabled prejudice up another level. A national tournament consisting of physically disabled participants. In twelve years (each year growing in numbers) the first official Paralympic games were held in Rome! This inspiring man was knighted in 1966, well deserving from his numerous life changing achievements. 

Watch the amazing film dedicated to Gutmann still on iPlayer! The Best of Men - A truly great film. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01m1jqd/The_Best_of_Men/

My Blogging Disappearance

It's been too long internet, but I've satisfied both my lazy summer needs by snoozy evenings mouthing the lyrics to "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and eating chicken satay - don't even get me started on The Hunchback of Notre Dame's actual deep message and plot. Maybe, my sxc asses, you'll get a whole post dedicated it, and you'll see my grossly late obsession with Disney.
But can I clarify before you assume I've been getting sofa sores because I'm a boring vegetable, I have been both holidaying and working. Worked at V Festival and at Radio One Hackney, with my much loved, although rather unorthodox, events company. Meeting my managers ballsack before his face was "interesting" (he was drunk and running round the campsite,  I didn't come across it by being a blind slut) but I guess all part of life's rich tapestry?
Stayed once again in my parents Exmoor house, which is the dregs of country life. I have the sad story of innocently wanting a shower when both ran out of water and I ended up in a foetal position in a two inch luke-warm bath, due to it also running out of water. To give the house a setting, it's located down a steep hill that gets treacherous in icy conditions and is a nice brisk 25 minute walk to get up and down. We have 2 neighbours before miles and mile till civilisation. It'll probably be a good resort to retreat back to after my likely mid life crisis haha.
Another marker to my holiday is my family reunion. It is made up of my granny (whom I never actually met) Ms Audrey Vince, and her two sisters June and Judith's families. This made a good 60 of us even with many unable attend! My mum's desperate attempts for me to get "a lovely strong boyfriend" still rage on as she nudged me whenever any boy between the age of about 10 and 30 saying "well he's a bit of alright, isn't he Jess?" and I had to continuously remind her that the fact they are at this event must be because we are related which would be both incest and frowned upon.  Some really interesting family history about The Great War and the mind-aching chance, my great-grandfather life (and every blood relative's there) depended on, a bullet taken by a conveniently placed diary and gas mask.
Anyway I trust you all have had an amazing and filled holiday, and you'll here from me soon.

Golden Slumbers

In a sudden rush of inspiration, the Beatles song provided me with an idea for my developing project fuelled by my interest in the power of the human mind - dreams. Dreams can be beautiful or terrible, showing our true desires in a world that can be based on reality or completely imaginary, a perfect subject (with plenty of room for exploration) to being portray for my final unit! I wanted to incorporate the idea to "open at the close" (to shamelessly quote Dumbledore's snitch riddle) hence the door, and mind unlocking as we go slip into sleep. I think this therefore makes the effect of the eyes being closed much more significant and balances the piece, as the viewer faced with a new "window of the soul." Of course along with the title, my weakness for gold came into play, so I gave in and just plastered my face  in the gleaming colour.

Remembering Amsterdam

I painted this when flicking through pics of Amsterdam, which we visited before Christmas! Heres what inspired me, my work, and my favourite picture of me and my sister Lucy. The painting was an experiment focusing on exaggerated colour break up on the face using warm tones heavily contrasted against the cool blue jumper. I used a slight impasto, delicately with a small brush. I’m pleased with her strong posture and passive facial expression.

Rest In Peace Hugo

A true friend to everyone, cheeky chap and a absolute nutter, you could always give a grin. I still miss youuu old bean xxxx

Nudes

Bit of sketch book work from our lovely live model Sharon, my first experience with a live model which felt surprisingly natural and I didn't feel awkward at all, probs because she was just so confident! I think it's amazing how i then perceived her as much more beautiful because of that confidence. I once heard this actress on the radio, who said when she sometimes had to play the "hot blonde" and the "less-attractive weirdo," but the only difference she made was the confidence her posture, voice and gait, which i thought was ver interesting and was never truer for lovely Sharon.

First lesson about block colouring, i used in these pencil, willow charcoal, and acrylics.

Creative Collaging

Decided to have a go at some new ideas at how to collage using secondary sources from photos and magazines. Found it helps give me new ideas for projects by placing images I would have never imagined next to one another! Here are a few samples, I especially like my idea of images and moods trapped in a pill packet! I think there is a way of developing this further but I'll have a good ponder as to how!

Los Angeles Times you Artful Dodgers

I was just browsing through the internet and I came across the Los Angeles Times' photo galleries which are AMAZING! Proper National Geographic style photos, and free to view! Have a flick through, absolutely beautiful. http://framework.latimes.com/2012/01/23/pictures-in-the-news-353/#/0

Experimental Backgrounds

Inspired from Gerhard Richter's exhibition I decided to have a go at some wacky and textural backgrounds using glitter, impasto, acrylics, inks, oils, wax and paper.

More of our inspiring Takahiro Kimura

Here are a few transcriptions I made of some of my favourite works by the man himself. However I don't do the man justice, but I aim to try and incorporate more of his quirky yet stunning style into my own works. These are done in acrylics or water pencils with added fine liner for definition. These are part of his project of 1000 broken faces and are 288, 191, and 2000 (not sure if the last is part of the collection sorry!)

The Man and His Mind

This was my finished exam piece, a portrait of a fragmented mans face, with experimental and extreme use of colour, especially with the colour of the background colour. The gold represents the thoughts bursting out of his head resembling his inner self meeting his external. I used small cut out silk flowers to and the colour gold to show how treasured and important the soul is.