Emily Catherine Illustration: March; Springtime Bloggo! HUZZAH!

Hello all and welcome to the March edition of Emily Catherine Illustration's blog. This month is jam packed full of things to get excited about so without further ado let us begin!

February 17th kicked off with The Anti Gallery turned 1 year old and they celebrated in true style at Rough Trade Nottingham. I had another exhibition on this day so I couldn't attend but I exhibited my WOMAN series along with the other amazing artists that Saziso Phiri, founder and Director of The Anti Gallery promotes and supports. I even sold a print to a wonderful patron through this exhibition. TAG; may you enjoy your second year thriving and succeeding. Thank you for promoting us fringe artists and inspiring us and helping us reach our true potential.

Saziso Phiri and Laura Rossi infront of 'EXPECTATION' at The Anti Gallery's First Birthday Party at Rough Trade Nottingham. Photographer Svitlana Kolesnichenko.

On 5th March I got to play with my market stall set up- a little pop up stall at the amazing Tiger Boe holistic centre hosted by 2ndDress. I hadn't until recently really invested a lot into my aesthetics for my pop ups, so I went all 80s and Tron and bought a giant pole thingy, some luminous pegs and wire and went to town. The whole stall flashes in low light levels, so I'll be well equipped for any night markets etc. The real joy though was working with wonderful people: 2ndDress Boutique, Aloe Sugar, Bras Not Bombs, Posy Chocolatier, Skin Elixir all at the marvellous Tiger Boe. All the stallholders were independent traders with genuinely wonderful products. There wasn't one awkward moment or silent time everyone was lovely- which is what you want always!

Me new stall set up with my new annoying smile about my new stall set up. Oh no, I seem to be doing it in every shot..... yup.

On the 8th of March it was International Women's Day. Now, dunno if you remember but last year my nomination for fave inspirational lady was Pam Grier? Then, the whole month I posted an Instagram series of Body Positive illustrations? Well, this year I knew I couldn't really top that... until I stumbled across a video posted by the Grime artist, NoLay. Now, I've been following Nolay for a while and had always been a fan, but she posted the most moving video about Domestic Violence called 'Dancing With The Devil' and I was staggered at how brave that was, and how positive it was that she was using her music and time as a vehicle to promote an awareness of this issue. Then I realised that the track was itself one of the best I'd ever heard from her. I was really inspired. Then I watched an interview with her talking about the video and track and music in general, the things she was saying about equality and her frankness about the way that the industry is geared towards women being pitted against each other and gender division was a point so well made. So I drew and painted NoLay!

Not only did she respond on every social media that I posted the tribute to, but she shouted me out and wrote a piece about how much things like that mean to her, more than pay cheques and awards. If there was anything that could have solidified my utter respect and love for her, her reaction to it was priceless. Her new album This Woman is out now and is already receiving a lot of warranted attention in the States.

NoLay 350gsm paper. Pencil and Watercolour and acrylic copper for International Women's Day 2017

Talking of women, I recently made an addition to my WOMAN series: a new, quite different illustration to NO, REFLECTION and EXPECTATION - part of a series which explores the everyday lives of what it is to identify as a woman. The piece is called INTROVERSION. I submitted it to this year's Draw The Line exhibition at Surface Gallery which opens on 8th- 22nd April 2017 and out of over 300 submissions, I'm extremely happy to have been chosen with 49 others artists. It's the largest submission Surface have had for an exhibition like this and it was an overwhelmingly tough decision. It really does make me feel very lucky indeed.

The WOMAN series came about by my wanting to represent the everyday lives of women using Laura Mulvey's seminal essay The Male Gaze as an anchor of inspiration. The essay argues that female subjects (typically portrayed in film but also upon the page) are exactly that- a subject. With this new piece I wanted to marry the Jungian theory of Personality Types into the mix. His basic principles of Introversion and Extroversion have given rise to an even more rigid and inflexible view of human behaviour. Sadly, Extroversion is societally seen as a positive mode of behaviour, whereas Introversion tends to get a bad rep.

I'm interested in producing images of women that ask the public to look at the female form and identify with their experience rather than their image.

I hope to produce images which essentially break the 'fourth wall' and ask the viewer to challenge their norms when viewing art.

The piece depicts a woman who is pulling a jumper over her head. The jumper is painted lime green in watercolour paint and a secret message painted in Glow in the Dark paint is within the jumper.

When the audience cloak themselves and view the illustration under low light, Glow In The Dark paint reveals her internal monologue. I am asking the audience to physically replicate the act of cloaking themselves just as the subject has done and identifying with that internal monologue, rather than seeing her as having a deficit, or the subject of something pitiful, or sexual. Instead she is a human in a fleeting private moment living her everyday life and within that life, we see flashes of her everyday normalised struggle against the societal norms imposed upon her, in this instance her sexualisation and her 'personality type'

Please go and see the exhibition and please take a minute to look at my piece and let me know what you think!

Here's all the info you need! :)

On Mother's Day it was also Nike Air Max day. Now here at Treehouse HQ we've been busy trying to create a little line of gifts for you boggers. To kick off.... geddit? I've released a super duper rare fresh to death postcard collection of trainers, sneakers, crepps. They are available to buy now on the website and already pre-orders are going well. There will only be 50 boxes printed. They are the first releases of the most classic kicks in a top ten, boxed and come with a free pair of Fat Laces in a lucky dip colorway. Here they are:

boxfresh...

fresh tissues...

bursting full of that fresh crepp goodness....

free pair of fatties in every delicious box!

This month I also saw two plays. I know. I'm well not like that. But these plays were actually good! Mainly the bestest one was Touched which starred Vicky McCLure and Aisling Loftus and was about Nottingham in the war. Sounds dry but it WASN'T! Mainly because the ridiculously talented and mainly unsung Nottingham heroine Sarah Beck Mather was playing a part in it. Here she is:

Sarah Beck Mather far right.... but not part of the far right

Do you recognise her? No, probably not. Why? I don't bloody know; but I have a feeling it's because Nottingham has been sleeping on the fact we have produced another homegrown badass actress to be honest. She's just starred in her first independent feature film (due out soon), she has starred in soaps, been funny on numerous adverts and she did it all without Television Workshop! Instead she went through NET (a kind of nineties version of children's acting workshops) and she's still working and successful today. She's also a sensational abstract painter. Her new website is http://sarahbeckmather.com/ so check out her wares and then check yourself as to why you don't rep her acting skills.

Right FUN:

I went into an abandoned house and took pictures. It was beautiful and a bit spooky but I was quite thrilled. Look at the stained glass?

This one really tickled me because......

And I was being curious!!! ahahaha!

Coming up in April:

YOU CAN SEE ME AT THE NOTTSMAN LAUNCH APRIL 9TH OLD ANGEL MICROBREWERY FROM MIDDAY AT MY POP UP SHOP. NOTTSMAN CELEBRATING ALL THINGS NOTTS, DJS, POETS, ART, DANCING, DRINKING, GENERAL UTTER BRILLIANCE. FACEBOOK LINK:

https://www.facebook.com/events/367245207007918/

YOU CAN SEE ME AT MUD PRESS'S MUDFEST LAUNCHING 'WOMAN' (THEIR NEW ANTHOLOGY) FOR NOTTINGHAM POETRY FESTIVAL 28TH APRIL 5PM-8PM AT COBDEN CHAMBERS WHERE I WILL BE LIVE ILLUSTRATING YOUR POEMS OR RHYMES OR LITTLE STORIES! FACEBOOK LINK:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1868262933462761/

YOU CAN ALSO FIND ME AT THE SYNDICATE MARKETPLACE 29TH APRIL 11AM - 5PM AT SURFACE GALLERY WHICH IS A VINTAGE A COLLECTORS STREETWEAR FAIR. I WILL HAVE A POP UP SHOP UPSTAIRS WITH THE OTHER BADASSES. FACEBOOK LINK:

https://www.facebook.com/events/584320888359231/

PS Got new goggles. look how pissed off I look? I'm not. Obvs. I'm pleased I can flippin' see again!

Signing off from Treehouse HQ,

PEACE! X