Out of all the big heads talks we've had this year I found the Adrian Johnson one the most enlightening. Although the others were all very interesting, particularly the Glynn Dylan one which I actually found more enjoyable, I felt most in tune with him as a practitioner. This may already be obvious from posts I've made previously my studio practice blog due to how his incredibly reductive/minimalist approach to image making and composition mirrors what I am trying to achieve within my own work.
I found his opinions on the state of illustration as well as how to balance success with an individual creative voice particularly informative. Having had a long career, over two decades, he's seen a lot of fads come and go but has always felt he was on the outside of them but that despite this, in fact possibly in light of this, he has always found work despite not fitting in wiht what was considered 'cool'.
However he also stressed that despite this 'success' he's had various points of creative stagnation that have led to him reinventing and re-evaluating his own practice. In particularly he talked about how creating work that he felt others would like or that would be commercially viable and be able to get him commissions and therefore a stable living led to a complete stagnation in his creative process. This feels incredibly pertinent to where I want to take my own practice as I am constantly thinking about what I actually want from my practice in the future given that I realise I will have to find a niche for my own particular creative voice or risk sacrificing certain aspects of my work and process.
However despite this he did stress that no matter what you define as success for yourself the most important aspects to achieving it are both working hard and being proactive in trying to find opportunities and making things happen for yourself. This last point was something that has been consistently stressed by all the big heads interviewees and guest lecturers that we've had and therefore is something I need to keep at the forefront of my mind as I progress through this course particulalry once we start live briefs.
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