Sketchbook Bloggin'

Just some starting points, trying to get things flowing again.

Get A Grip on this...

I have just finished a weeks placement with Get A Grip http://www.getagripstudio.com/
(With Thanks to Kay & Sam!)

I helped out cleaning the plates, making & reclaiming screens, drying & packing t shirts and printing some Get A Grip leaflets.

It has been great to see different ways of printing, esp textile/t-shirt printing which i have little knowledge about. More importantly I have enjoyed seeing the ins and out of setting up your own business in screen printing.

I really admire Kay & Sam for their motivation in setting Get A Grip up off their own backs and showing it is possible to make it successful.

Below are a few pictures of the studio and everyone hard at work.

A few things to inspire...

A few bits and bobs from itsnicethat.com.

http://hasisipark.com/

^ Hasisi park homepage layout, love the geometric shapes & patterns in black & white.

^ Hasisi Park photography, entitled 'Perhaps'. Colours, overlay/reflection, mystery work so so well together.

Ghazaal Vojdani
http://ghazaalvojdani.com/

^ Love the repetition, order and mundane quality of the photos, also the black and white shot with red. Quite like that the red is stamped text too.

Although this is primarily a design piece, i really love the colour used on the white.

Miles Donovan http://milesdonovan.blogspot.com/

Attracted to his modern Rauschenberg style screenprints (?)

Drawn to shop fronts, square shapes, colour and repetition.

Margaret Durow.

Some really beautiful photography here http://www.flickr.com/photos/margaretdurow/

I'd like to pick a favourite but they're all very nice. And she's 20 which makes her annoyingly beyond her years.

Just to add - A Rachel Whiteread piece I was shown a few months ago.

Afternoon, American Beauty.

'...it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life...'


In a lecture we were told as artists we have great power in capturing magic and beauty.

I love that it is all around us if you look for it.

Inspire Me Quick!

After having cracked a little of my exercise motivation with walking, swimming and cycling so far (this week) and DRAWN is long gone... I am now in desperate need of some new motivation where my sketchbook is concerned.

I found some gorgeous new but old postcards in an antiques shop in the small town, Knighton (I'll upload them asap) and have taken some photographs of the surrounding forests with intention to make some work by combining the two.

Just now to do it.

Prints for Sale.

Here are a few prints I currently have for sale. (Apologies some are posted on here landscape)
Some of these featured at the print sale at DRAWN (see below)

If you are interested in these prints, would like to see more photographs or would like to contact me about my work, please email me at megs_hopkins@hotmail.co.uk

DRAWN Snaps.

A few snaps from my event DRAWN held for one night only in Wolverhampton on 2/7/10.

With many thanks to everyone involved.

Myself, Lizzie Raby & Faith Limbrick setting up the room.

Faith Limbrick - Intermedia Art, Edinburgh College of Art

Ian Bird - Stafford College Foundation > Visual Communication, Leeds College of Art.

Amy Marsh - Illustration with Animation, Manchester Metropolitan University

Megan Hopkins - Fine Art Printmaking, Brighton University.

Lucy Read - Fine Art, Central St Martins College of Art.

Lizzie Raby - Graphic Design, Birmingham University.

Ann-Marie Rayney (animation) - Fine Art & History of Art, Goldsmiths University.

Jiten Patel - Fine Art, London Metropolitan University.