9th March 2016
During a break between 2 classes, I gave further thought to his project. i rewrote,scribbled and doodled some ideas, over the notes i had take earlier. I thought of what information I had, and what themes I wanted to work with, and what possible questions I should ask, whose answers may provide me enough information to create entire narratives for the portraits. I tend to get obsessive and compulsive when it comes to my project. so I actually came up with a lage number of questions to regulate the conversation we would have when we next met. And when we did meet, the next Saturday, I jotted down the answers next to the questions I had in blue ink and gel pen. The questions were written in black ink and gel pen.
12th March 2016
Some of the questions and answers were:
- What are your favourite characters in the books or movies you like.?
(I believe that in the day and age we live in, we are so surrounded by media and in constant consumption of it that, we can very well be defined by the media we consume. It constitutes layer of personality. Also the characters that we relate to the most, or leave a lasting impact in our minds, speak volumes about what interests and affects us most.)
- Do you have a physical, or mental happy place?
- Is there any object/shape/texture that disgusts you?
- If you were an object what would you be?
- Do you have a favourite or prized possession?
- what do you fear?
- what is your favourite art movement/piece
- Do you have a favourite person?
- What fod do you feel strongly about?
- What is a smell you associate with home?
- If you were a flavour of ice cream which one would you be? I guessed something lavender or cream in colour. and turns out that as a child in Australia, his family would take him to a farm where he would always get lavender ice cream. Moreover he told me that he loves the smell of lavender and sleeps with a sachet under his pillow. And also that, as a child he would pick flowers and lavender from his garden and make flower arrangements for every room in his house.
- What are your opinions about memory and introspection
The next time, We met in his room. I was blown away by the ambience of his room. The colours, textures, personal objects, even smells, I thought gave a great inside into his personality. The elements that particularly caught my attention here:
- A hat hanging on the wall
- post cards and mini copies of famous paintings like the scream by Edvard Munch
- The blue carpet
- the fact that everyone walked barefoot in his room
- A large poster screaming “fuck you”
- A humidifier by the window
- Incense sticks cocooning the room in their lovely homely smell
- The large flat monitor and his laptop
- Muted warm colours
- A sheet hanging of the wall, with a print of a Tiger on it done in line art and only 3 flat colours: orange, black and dull yellow.
- A really pretty string of fairy lights
- A personal printer
- scrapbook of sorts (“for interesting images, patters and bits of paper”)
- Map of the world
- two small transparent cases containing polaroid pictures.
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Then I rewrote all the answers to the various questions I had posed Nicholas in a more compartmentalized structured way so that I could make sense of it, and think over it. I also printed these pictures of his room and placed them inside a paper bag from the cafe, I had a bought a cookie from, when we hung out that day. I did this so that the pictures would serve as some sort of visual vocabulary of his style and the paper bag would also serve as documentation of the meeting.