Explore the mind of

Holley Wilkes

Your now inside the mind of

Holley Wilkes

Welcome explorer I would like to firstly thank you on picking up this book and intend to draw you in curiosity through it’s pages. I will now take you on a journey through my most creative work explored during my five years studying Art and Design and specifically Graphic Design at The University of Creative Arts. My aim is to intrigue you reader to show you what I have learnt through exploration of my course. Any taught rules I may have I abided by, I have learnt to demolish, I was then able to reconsider materials, methods and concepts. I no longer consider that a pencil is just for drawing or a clock’s only use is telling the time. I feel free to reconsider, destroy, dismantle and reinvent to open new ideas and possibilities and to reconnect to my imagination.

To first give an example of my fresh look on something which already has a learnt use is this image, which was created with bubble mixture. Without being prompted this would not be considered as a media. I took a childhood favourite into consideration, the mix of ink allows the mixture to become a media, which I could then “paint” with. The method of blowing the bubbles onto the page does not allow me to have any control over the final image created. This is a strange method as the media dominates the final outcome, which becomes unpredictable.

Destroying rules

Everything I create I always intend to take it further, this enables my work to become a series of unique images. I also find it a challenge to push my ideas in every aspect of my work. On the right again the bubble images have been taken into Photoshop and experimented with. I intended to mimic a microscope with the images in the circular pattern and through the use of personification I saw a face in one of the bubbles. The shape, colour and subtle stars in the background I intend to send the message of the ‘man in the moon’ to my audience.

Pushing ideas

(Ma

n in

th

e M

oo

n)

Photography is something which I enjoy, I consider it a useful skill as my work often takes a 3D form. Capturing nature is my first choice of subject however I feel deprived of the creation of the subject. I feel photography is a technique I use rather than a final outcome. The image below also portrays a jagged mouth with the bright orange flesh it is clear a pumpkin has been photographed.

Capturing

I find advertising a challenge and believe my fresh look on matters which I believed deserve unique design and new ideas create interesting advertising campaigns. These posters and storyboard portray an adult seeing child abuse, the message clearly explaining that tights and superhero powers are not needed to rescue a child, all that is needed is pick up the phone and call the help line and the child will be rescued, by you the hero.

Design Matters

These advertising posters all use the same technique to highlight the highly negative effects of drinking including vomiting, loss of judgment and violence. The posters on first glance seem to be advertising an object which would attract the desired audience, on closer inspection once the audience has been drawn in, it then highlights the warnings about drinking irresponsibly, combining a shocking twist to remain remember able to the audience.

Twist

A project which I consider to be one of my most successful was a third year project titled time. The only brief we received on this project was the word time, with no further guidance in direction other than this word. I thrived on the independence and the challenge to create a broad project from one word. I thought about the life span of an object, especially the time in which it would come into contact with someone and become property. The original purchase to the point where a person has no use and it is donated to a charity shop. This is when I would come into contact with the item and would dismantle and destroy the unwanted object and reinvent it to prolong its life span giving a it a new lease of life.

Project: Time

The right object is a dismantled clock which I considered the speed the minuet and hour hand circled. I then bent the clock hands vertical and attached an earth to the hour hand and a sun on the minuet hand. When the clock is wound from the underside, this then enables the earth to spin in the centre and the sun circles the earth. Mimicking the actual movement of the planet earth and the sun. The mechanical daisy was created from dismantled parts of a computer mouse. A sharp contrast is created when photographed against the organic flowers, with the strong clash of bright colours and man made materials it also cleverly catches the eye.

Experiments of time

These are the small parts of the mechanical items which I dismantled during my time project. I found it very interesting to line these items up and to study them and display them in this way. Some of these small pieces would not have been seen before as they live inside items which unless opened or broken won’t be seen when the object is used.

Collection

During my foundation year I created this illustration style including the use of household objects such as food and other creative materials such as paper. I created this dolls house to portray the horrific stories which have been delicately depicted in film. The illustration style I have discovered though my education is the combination of paper illustrations and real object and small intricately created scenes of morbid tales.

Illustration style

Collecting old objects is something which interests me, the collection of glass objects with spaces inside them lead to this project entitled trapped. I drew these small simple paper illustrations of children and trapped them inside various glass objects. This again combines my illustration style of 2D and 3D materials to keep my audience guessing how the image is created.

Project: Trapped

Much of my work is simple but I have developed a certain style to them. These simplistic drawings were threaded through the top of the bottles and a lamp was placed underneath the bottle and shone through. When photographed in a dark room the inside was lit up revealing this slightly macabre image. Simple technique with an interesting outcome.

Simple

My project then progressed onto a deeper level, the trapped children in bottles went on to symbolise a child’s feelings towards having an alcoholic parent. These emotions entailed being isolated and blocked from the outside world with no help and the only freedom would be to smash the bottle and break free. Much like the feelings of isolation of a child when this illness being present in a family member.

Depth

For my Final Major Project I chose the subject of nursery rhymes, my research in this subject shaped the format of my final pieces. Children’s nursery rhymes can be traced and linked to times in history, these reveal blood shed, religion, royal plots all horrific in truth. The contrast of the innocent characters and the truth is the most successful part of my publications.

Project: Truth in rhymes

These illustrations below where created by simply adding a clear material with a simple drawn face onto as spoon and a dish, the affectionate look gives the message of male and female lovers. Relaying the message from the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle, when the dish ran away with the spoon. The image on the right portrays the materials which I use to create a scene from my books.

Revealed

Background Black Paper

Ice Cream Cone

Herbal Tea Bag Parts

Cinnamon Sticks

Green Painted Paper

This is a double page spread from my final publications showing the double sided story. After exploring many indifferent ways on telling the historical and the fictional stories , including censorship, cut out gaps, acetate pages and various other methods the change in type then allowing for a parallel reading I chose for the final publications as it was the clearest combination of both stories told together.

Concept

It couldn’t be mended because

of the sheer weight of the cannon.

The soldier’s tried to put the fallen

Humpty back on to the city wall,

underneath many men had been

brutally crushed, together their

strength failed and the fallen weapon

could not be raised once again.

couldn’t

putHumpty

together

again.

couldn’t

putHumpty

together

again.

Is this really goodbye?

I hope I have intrigued you with my work and my individuality, I hope I have impressed you as I am currently looking for work. I am looking for a job which will challenge me, so that I may be able to further explore and engage with my creativity. I am also considering publishing my three final books as a creative venture.

Contact me at: holleywilkes@hotmail.co.uk

The end of my beginning