Category: Gower College Swansea
Harvey Childs
My name is Harvey Childs. I have recently finished my studies on the Foundation course at GCS, and I am going on to study a BA in photography at SCA. I regularly specialise in monochromatic photography, primarily digital. I’m also looking to expand my skill set into videography, which I have been experimenting with. It’s an honour to be offered a digital residency from the Mission Gallery and I hope this will help to showcase my work to a broader audience.
If you would like to see more of my work, check out my Instagram page @monomediaaa
In the meantime, I’m looking forward to showcasing some new material and I am truly thankful for the people at Mission Gallery and the Jane Phillips Award for giving me this opportunity.
Digital Residency: Gower College Swansea
Mission Gallery is pleased to announce the 2022 Jane Phillips Award Digital Residency for Foundation Art & Design Students at Gower College Swansea. We are proud to be working with Gower College Swansea and keen to shine a light on the high standard of work being produced by students across all disciplines.
This residency will provide an online space within the Jane Phillips Award website to display and develop work, ideas and research, while offering support and promotion through our networks.
Residency recipients will be selected by Rhian Wyn Stone, Exhibitions & Retail Coordinator at Mission Gallery, Swansea and Jane Phillips Award committee member.
Digital Residency Dates: 01 – 31 August 2022
About the Jane Phillips Award
Launched at Mission Gallery in 2011, the Jane Phillips Award is a memorial to Jane Phillips (1957-2011) Mission Gallery’s first director. The award is intended as a legacy to Jane’s passion for mentoring and nurturing talent, working with individuals at every level – offering opportunities to students as well as artists at the beginning of their journey. Opportunities that are further strengthened by working with Mission Gallery’s team, Swansea College of Art UWTSD and elysium gallery.
The award became international under Amanda Roderick, Mission Gallery’s previous director, and with further assistance by following directors Matthew Otten and Ceri Jones, plus an enthusiastic board, the award is constantly developing and changing.
Z I N E
The past week I continued to work towards a few graphic design projects to include in my zine. In full, the zine is now 12 pages which I am planning to get printed and distributed very soon. This is my first time creating a full product and I am extremely grateful for the use of this blog to promote my work.
The zine lends itself to a scrapbook aesthetic, with the taped down pressed flowers and somewhat diary entries. I believe this adds to the childlike innocence I am trying to convey. I wanted to make an analogous theme throughout the zine, with each page incorporating organically smooth shapes and twisting lines. The idea was to create a fluid motion which brings the viewers’ eyes to all corners of the spread, and seamlessly transports them overleaf.
Have a flick through the E-zine here.
Z I N E
This week I began to develop a series of mock pages for a zine. I pulled influences from 2000s styled advertising and retro computer games because that was my first experience of graphic design growing up. My initial thoughts on colour palettes was pastel pinks and vibrant blues. I wanted to create an iridescent title and I experimented with a myriad of different coloured gradients until I found an effect I was pleased with.
The main concept and story behind the zine is how I have become addicted to romanticising the past. For me, it’s easy to paint my childhood in such a glowing brush that I find it difficult to appreciate current life in the same light. With each major life change, I am forever believing that those were the good old days, without giving value to the present. With these graphics and words in my zine, I am attempting to fall back in love with my current life, rather than only enjoying the moments when they become memories. Forever looking back is no way to live life.
Have a flick through the digital copy of first pages in the zine.
More to come soon.
R A M O N A W H I T E
My name is Ramona White, and I have just finished my Art and Design foundation diploma at Gower College Swansea. I am extremely grateful for the use of the Jane Phillips Award blog, and I’m delighted to be the first from GCS to do so.
N O S T A L G I A
I have always been fascinated by the feeling of nostalgia. A thought of the past floats through your head, instantly filling your heart with warmth while it simultaneously begins to feel suffocated. It’s as though the rose-tinted glasses allow you to fall in love with the past but the bittersweet tinge of reality could burn a hole straight through you. To me, it’s a beautiful and confusing concoction of heart retching aching and carefree love, two emotions which are painfully strong, pulling your heart in two completely different directions. When feeling nostalgic, I never know whether I want to live in the bliss of the memories or to cry forever at the thought of them never repeating themselves.
This photoshoot revolved around the idea of nature and childhood nostalgia.
While growing up, I had a relatively small garden, but it was gracefully packed with overgrown nature. Long grass and wildflowers sprouting between concrete slabs, making a plethora of miniature ecosystems. As a child I would leap face first into this personal landscape. I have always been drawn to nature, compelled by something within me to reach out and adventure into interesting landscapes hidden within the cities I have lived. My inner child yearns to be fully surrounded by wildlife, which is where the inspiration for this series’ look stemmed from.
The makeup, modelling and photography was all done by me, allowing me to have complete creative control over the outcomes. The dried flowers I have displayed on my face were picked from my garden and pressed by myself. The flowers are still aesthetically beautiful and delicate but will eventually become completely stale and lifeless. The knowledge that something will never fully return to its earlier qualities once removed from its original home; that is where the pain originates from in nostalgia.
Digital Residency | Gower College
The Jane Phillips Award has over the last few years offered Digital Residencies to Foundation students at Swansea College of Art UWTSD.
Following the success of this programme, Jane Phillips Award have invited Gower College Swansea to select a graduating student to take over the Jane Phillips Award blog for 3 weeks; posting about their work, practices, results and ideas.
This first residency will take place from 28 July – 18 August 2021.
The selected graduate for this opportunity is Ramona White – we look forward to seeing what’s produced!
Jane Phillips Award 