My videos inspired by my trips to the Museum of Liverpool

I made a couple of videos in relation to my trip out to Liverpool You can see them all here!

The first video is a summary of my trip, in this video you can see some of the best bits while I provide a speed drawing of the a study I did of James Hanley which was a painting on display. James Hanley was a writer who wrote 'Boy'.

This was his second novel, his "first novel of the sea", was first published by Boriswood as a limited edition of 145 in 1931.

Boy is the grim story of an intelligent thirteen-year-old boy, Fearon, from Liverpool who is forced to leave school by his parents so as to help support the family, by working "on the docks as a boiler-scaler".He hates this job and after being beaten by his father Fearon stows away on a ship. When he is discovered, as the ship is shorthanded, he is signed-on to the crew. Fearon's suffering continues on board where he is sexually assaulted. 

When the ship docks in Alexandria, Egypt, Fearon has his first sexual encounter with a woman, in a brothel, where he contracts syphilis. On the return voyage this disease rapidly develops. The novel concludes with the captain smothering Fearon to put him out of his misery and his body given to the sea. Novelist Hugh Walpole, in a review, described Boy as "A novel that is so unpleasant and ugly, both in narration and in incident, that I wonder the printers did not go on strike while printing it".

Then, when it was reprinted in 1934, in a cheap (second) edition with a "scantily dressed" belly dancer on its cover, Boy was prosecuted for obscenity. See the full wiki source here

 While I was there I got inspired to make to timeline video of all the books that shaped me as a person  after looking at some of the community timelines on display at the Museum of Liverpool.This then moved onto creating a video about what was happening to me as I was growing up at each of those phases in my life. 

I hope you like it! Let me know if you've been affected by any of the same things I'd love to know!

Blogging for Creatives

I’ve recently got a new role at work which has meant a move in departments. I’ve only moved a few feet away from my old department but everyone was really nice and got me a couple of gifts. My line manager handed me a gift saying

‘Many of you know Oly is a keen Blogger, and hasn’t updated a post in Millennia.... so we hope this helps’

I was presented with this great book, this is a link to Robin Houghton's blog/book Blogging for Creatives, which I’ve been studying all weekend. It's full of loads of really inspiring stuff- Go check it out!

Anyway, the gesture was lovely and showed at least some knew that the blog existed, even if it is neglected. At that moment with a room full of work colleagues I also recieved a needed slap across my face as well, which told me- I need to change.

So I’m doing something about, firstly justifying my abandoment with a new page with notes of conferences I’ve attended and the work I submitted for my MA, so at least the work can be looked at by more than just my tutors. It will also make the guilt of not posting more often feel better (yep still holding on to my MA as my excuse for no posts). I want to post more and will make more of an effort to produce more work or at least review other work however; I will have more freedom this time next year once the MA is over!

I have taken my first steps, learnt how to upload a PDF using Scribd and even manged to link my twitter feed to my blog. It might be a small step but it feels like progress.

So if you’re thinking about doing an MA, (I would encourage anyone it’s been an remarkable experience so far) click on University stuff, Conferences and Notes to see the type of work you could produce if you want to study Arts Management.

Or just check it out if you're curious about conferences by organisations like Tate Modern, Lighthouse or AV festival.