This week I received my copy of Breath Magazine which was a pleasant reminder of one of the many reason why I love editorial projects. It’s been a while since I completed an editorial commission that was going into physical print, so I forgot how lovely it when you get delivered a copy a few weeks after completion; it’s also a great excuse to immerse yourself in the illustrations and writing of other artists, away from a screen, something particularity prevalent within the essence of Breath Magazine as they are very focussed on mindfulness and wellbeing.
For this commission, I responded to the words of Angelique Hechavarria, celebrating the Italian tradition of eating together. I created 3 seperate illustrations to fit with 3 different peices of text. The first and largest being a long wooden table ladle with fragrant foods, feeding a group of family members and friends. The foods shared on a table include, tortellini pasta parcels with a red tomato sauce, a Medierrean salad with houmous and avocado, beef tomato and mozzarella salad with basil, and garlic bread and red wine. The second illustration features two women enjoying alfresco dining, and the third and smallest of the 3 illustrations includes a salt and pepper grinder and a glass bottle of olive oil, to accompany a sweet potato quiche recipe below.
Although this project was unfortunately not very well paid for the amount of time and effort I put into it, it was carried out during a difficult period of burnout, and now that I am thankfully feeling a lot better, I’m glad I pushed through and now get to enjoy the end result. It’s also acts as validation for myself. I struggle to create illustrations without context. I love being given a brief, being inspired in that way enables me to create things that remind me how capable I am of doing so, as I would not have drawn the image otherwise. Additionally, as much as I adore work in print, I don’t enjoy printing, so it’s even better when that part of the process is done for you. This along with a few other factors has defiantly given me a little kick of motivation to push for more collaborative printed work, as it’s a reminder of how satisfying it is at the end. I’m feeling encouraged to vear my focus a little into bigger projects such as books. I’m finding my practice quite isolating and also fairly same-y at the moment, and I’d really love to work on something for a bit longer, with a small team. I think I’m craving more substance, collaborative creativity and enthusiasm, and that deeper sense of satisfaction that comes from bigger projects.
As always there’s still some bits going on in the background (I can’t ever focus on just one thing), including personal projects and the admin of showcasing my work online, small scale commissions, pushing products to shops and new market audiences. But I’ve certainly ignited a spark to try reach out of more collaborative community projects and possibly push for publishing opportunities too. However both of these areas require some much needed research and I doubt will just fall into my lap in the same way smaller scale/ one-off commissions do…