Visual diary

Let's see what ocurrence do I have today

[anawithanm]

adsa

[anawithanm]

First I had to create the content I wanted to portray. I investigated several magazines and articles and created my own two articles. The first one talks about meditation: “5 powerful tips to meditating”. The second one I’m going to create is “Falling in love with oneself”, an article about how we perceive love, relationships and self-concept. The another three articles I mention in my cover but I’m not building up are “Intuitive eating? Let’s have some!”, “The science of Buddhism”, and “10 crafts projects to do during quarantine”.

As I explained in my magazine proposal, I wanted to create an inspirational, artistic and healthy space and I consider these topics enshrine such concept.

[anawithanm]

“Nipples, nipples are”

(The illustration is from the peruvian cartoonist Rocío Diestra. Check out her IG for more illustration like this one, she is an amazing artist working at the moment in several projects such as comics, posters, book covers, magazines... )

Yep, I agree on that. Why the women nipple has to be censored while the man’s is completely unnoticed? Is it because the size of the breast? Or the size of the nipple? Or even the colour? Because I have seen a lot of guys with a wide range of breasts and nipples more eye-catching than mine. Is it just because the feminine body has always been censored for being considered an “object of lust“? Would the different platforms, like IG or FB, allow pictures where every woman nipple was covered with a man's? Would they notice the difference?

“Artist Micol Hebron posted this image of a nipple on Facebook, with the comment: “Here you go – you can use this to make any photo of a topless woman acceptable for the interwebs! Use this ‘acceptable (male) nipple template’, duplicate, resize and paste as needed, to cover the offending female nipples, with socially acceptable male nipples (like a digital pasty). You’re welcome.” Link to the whole article.

Definitely, a measure to be considered.

[anawithanm]

“Run the water along the river,

lonely, sad and violent

because the sky abandoned her during a stormy night.

There is no one else for her

no one but those fishes who play and swim in her flow.

She asks to someone who is passing by to take her

with him in his barrell and being poured in a fountain.

The man does.

But now there she feels agitated by the pipes,

troubled by the trees leaves.

To a woman who was washing her face,

she begs for being taken to her house,

and being poured in a jar.

So the woman does.

But now there, she feels trapped in the darkness of a clay jail.

And she cries, cries and cries; while dreaming about the sky,

the river and kissing the seaside”.

The text is a poem I wrote in spanish years ago. It sounds different and better in my language (it rhymes), but I still think it also fosters that concept of nostalgia and beauty in english.

The illustrations are from a italian artist, Malena Bozzini, who I admire a lot. Her creativity is breathtaking. I love the confusion, fear and dizziness she transmits through her artwork. At least that’s what it transmits me. The vivacity of the colours, the beauty of the blurry outlines, I love her style.

[anawithanm]

“Sometimes it is hard to remember how things were, how little I appreciated them, how much I miss them now and how bloody stupid I was. How I wish to be back three years ago, when life seemed much simpler, when everything was expecting for me to get discovered and harnessed. And now I’m trapped between these four walls, waiting for something to happen, whatever that breaks apart this drowning routine that is erasing my colours somehow.

There is no blur on my cheeks anymore. I’m grey, like my days, like the ashes from the last cigarette I smoked or that sweater I wear lately. Because I’m only wearing tracksuits or sweaters. Anything that requires me some neatness is put aside. Colourless, aimless and ragged. Wanna spend the evening with me?”

I took this photo almost three years ago. I was with a friend in the old Bernard Shaw pub. I remember the place was crowded (how weird for a friday night) and we both were having fun, taking pictures, posing, shooting videos and chatting. I had never thought, three years later, things would be that different. I wrote the text inspired by all this crazyness we are living in. There are some days when I get really anxious and another ones when I feel grateful for this break. I think I’m learning loads, but I think the joke is taking too long.

[anawithanm]

Here I am, another day, bringing another sample of another breath-taking artist such as Alpay F. I tried once to copy one of his works, not too bad but not as good as him even in 1000 millions of lives. I love the colours, the light, the shapes, the themes, the messy painted background that overlaps with the figures… I love everything. It has an amazing style, inspires me a mix between craziness, colour and accuracy at the same time. Beauty wherever you look at.

He can paint from a penguin, to a masked couple kissing, to even a gundam, one of those complex robots from an kids anime (he recognises to have a nerd side).

Alpay is a 33 years old german painter, from Oberhausen. He lives in Germany and has been working since 2011, where his first exhibition took place. He has different platforms where you can follow his art-work, since an IG profile to a youtube acccount where he uploads the process of his paintings. I really recommed to glance over it!

Official website: https://www.alpayefe.com/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/alpay_efe/ 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSAzZRXLCeVYfe5Y5s0YB2Q

[anawithanm]

“We wonder through each others lives Just like the rivers, constant flow And signs of life in all our eyes Keep this city on the go The sun will rise, the sun will set Seven days, five and two From this life in to the next We're all just tryna make it through We're all just tryna make it through In every class, in every school At every desk where time's well spent Waking up to break the rules Waiting for the week to end The same old tale repeats itself 9-5 year on year Thoughts and hopes left on the shelf Escape on Friday Get caught on Monday Escape on Friday Get caught on Monday The sun will rise, the sun will set Seven days, five and two From this life in to the next We're all just tryna make it through We're all just tryna make it through”

-By Zuzu, both illustrations and poem.

Zuzu (Giulia Spagnulo) is an Italian illustrator whose work, even though she is not older than 24, has received many awards, starting for her first comic novel “Cheese”, born as her IED Rome thesis.

At the moment, she is collaborating in another project too called “Fantagirl”, an exploratory photographic analysis about the meaning and boundaries of feminity.

Here I attach a link to an interview where you can read about the mentioned above: https://www.vogue.it/fotografia/article/fantagirl-i-am-the-woman-i-am-zuzu?utm_campaign=likeshopme&utm_medium=instagram&utm_source=dash+hudson&utm_content=www.instagram.com%2Fp%2FB-ZNtIxqPiO%2F

Regarding her art-work, the stories she builds are known for navigating themes such as adolescence, eating disorders and human contradictions through humour, body positivity, feminism and shameless.

Her drawing style sets a chaotic, surrealist and colourful world I love!

IG profile: https://www.instagram.com/sono.zuzu/

[anawithanm]

“Follow me-...- If the teenager woke up suddendly one night and saw himself on the mirror, magically, with the face, with the skin, he would have at his 50′s, he would die. He would puke.

-Is this me? Is this a joke?

But on the opposite, on the opposite, he slips second by second, during years and decades, always distracted by other things.

One day, far away from his teens, he would wake up. He would go to the bathroom, to the mirror, looked at himself and wouldn’t look bad. Not bad at all, he would think.

-Oh. Not bad at all, I don’t look bad at all for being fifty.

That is how wicked is nature and how gentle is our blindness.”

The text comes from one of Gianni Pacinotti comics. It really moved me when I read it.

Above you have a taste of his artwork. He is an amazing painter and illustrator.

Gianni IG profile: https://www.instagram.com/gipigianni/

[anawithanm]

“There is no way to know what is it going to happen. People always try to predict, which is useful in a lot of ways. You know what to do if you get sick, or if you want to get a proper job. You know your chances of achieving that something increase. But that doesn’t mean you are getting what you want. It feels like you always try to figure out what will you want and what does it take. Nobody does. I never met someone who ever did. Yes, they say “I want to have a happy family” or “I want to have my own house” or “I want to be fit”. What really for? What is it underneath those desires? You don’t crave those things but the supposed feeling which comes with them. Supposed ‘cos is a guess you will experience it.

The void is endless when you get where you wanted. I did it myself. I felt nothing”.

Again, inspired by this amazing spanish cartoonist, Laura Pérez. The frame is from her work “Ocultos” (Astiberri Editions, 2019).

[anawithanm]

“It was as if every step back from him, I was taking it towards me. My stability, my mental health. I was wondering for how long I was slept, numb. I couldn’t believe I never noticed how little of myself was left after few years. I understood then how must to feel my mom. I looked at my reflection on cars windows or shop displays when walking down the streets and it was frightening. That tired and sad face wasn’t me. Couldn’t be me. But it was. And the only choice I had was to accept the fact that I was in pieces and I my only choice was to put them back together. By myself.”

I woke up today and felt inspired by this beautiful illustration I saw on Instagram. Wanted to write something. It’s a short story that I came up with as long as I was writing. It’s not autobiography but could, because, who has never felt that way because of someone? Anyway, is a short reflection about how sometimes we don’t realise we need to face hard times and to be compassionate in order to come back to our center.

The illustration is from @roxartss, and italian illustrator I followed since long time ago. Love her artwork.

Here I leave a link to her website: https://roxarts.bigcartel.com/

[anawithanm]

This piece is part of a photography project called Guest, whose author, the british artist Chistopher Bucklow, explains as the following:

“The figures are life sized pinhole photographs of a sky with 25,000 suns in it. Old analogue photography... Wet processing. Not digital. If you live to the age of seventy, you will have lived 25,000 days. A sun for every day of your life”.

An astonishing representation which bring as closer to our elementary stardust setting and the beauty of aging.

Christopher Bucklow Official Web Site: https://www.chrisbucklow.com/history/

[anawithanm]

Illustration: Laura Pérez, from the graphic novel “Ocultos”.

“And then, you wake up, as everyday. You expect something will change but, how is it gonna happen if you do the same one day after another? You read that quote somewhere, probably in one of those positivist Instagram posts. “If you want things to change, you have to do it differently”.

-But it’s not easy,- you think- I’m trapped by all these responsabilities and rules. I cannot achieve to have all that I want. Feels like I only can give up and settle for few things. That’s not enough. What’s the point in all this?

Silence. For a brief moment, there’s no more noise within your head. That nothingness hugs you warmly. You feel weirdly comforted by it.

-Wow. How is it possible that few seconds ago this room was a living hell and now... It is just a room?”

I woke up kind of inspired by this beautiful comic strip made by the spanish cartoonist Laura Pérez. Her aesthetic is one of the most unique I have seen, apart from the misterious and metaphoric stories she writes about.

[anawithanm]

Oh, gosh. I’m trapped in a lifestyle loop I didn’t choose... What a scene

This illustration is from the spanish cartoonist Irene Márquez, and tries to depict those anguished moments when one feels trapped by the circumstances.

I love the simplicity of her artwork plus the black humour she makes use of.

Irene Márquez’s comic “This is not okay” is composed by a mix of quaint stories which laugh about the most dramatic, embarrasing and miserable moment of everyone’s life. Who doesn’t like to take things some less seriously?

[anawithanm]

“... An enormous number of people devote their lives to keeping their minds busy and feel extremely uncomfortable with silence.

When you are alone, nobody is saying anything, there’s nothing to do. This worry, this lack of distraction. I’m left alone with myself and I want to get away from it. I always want to get away from myself. That’s why I go to movies, that’s why I read mystery stories. That’s why I go after the girls, or the boys; or anything that you do, or you get drunk, or whatever. I don’t want to be with myself. I feel queer with it.

[...] You are addicted to thoughts. It’s your drug. Compulsive thinking going on and on and on and on. [...] If I talk all the time, I don’t hear what anyone else has to say. I end up in the situation when I have nothing to talk about but my own talking. In the same way if I think all the time, I won’t have anything to think about except thoughts. [...]

That doesn’t get us too far. So in order to think something, you simply must stop thinking.”

I made this illustration based on a painting I finished few months ago. I got inspiration from an Allan Watts speech. This great british philosopher dedicated its life to spread the Eastern teachings all over the western world.

Illustration title: “Do I worry too much?”

[anawithanm]

“Seems time to get all this shoot together”.

I felt like I wanted to draw something, so I made this illustration based on a friend’s photo. I did another version before but I wasn’t convinced 100% and decided to retouch it. I prefer this one better.

It has a nostalgic, sad but calm aura. A feeling I don’t use to wish to anybody while I think it’s necessary to be experienced.

These melancholic moments with myself always happen to clear my mind in some way.