The competition

The competition I chose after spending hours upon hours and days searching for was "Wildlife artist of the year". I decided to take the plunge and go for something that's very far away from my comfort zone. I have never been interested or inspired to create art work based on animals, because drawing and making work that's realistic isn't really my thing. However, I was up to the challenge and was feeling confident with where I was at in my ceramic journey that I was open to possibly trying out a more sculpture like style of ceramics.

"Wildlife Artist of the Year is an internationally renowned art competition and exhibition often referred to as the ‘Oscars of international wildlife art.’ Each year, the competition welcomes entries from hundreds of talented artists worldwide, in a celebration of outstanding wildlife art.

Shortlisted entries are invited to exhibit and sell their artworks as part of our annual Wildlife Artist of the Year exhibition.

50% of the proceeds from all sales support David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) and our ground-based conservation partners across Africa and Asia.

Wildlife Artist of the Year is a very special initiative for DSWF which has attracted more than 11,000 entries and raised more than £1.2m since 2008. It also plays an integral role helping to maintain David Shepherd’s legacy of ‘The Art of Survival’ and wildlife art giving back to wildlife.

Entries for Wildlife Artist of the Year 2021 close on 15 February 2021"

There are 7 categories in the competition and I was drawn immediately to the idea of creating something relating to the ocean. There were 2 categories that had an ocean theme in them :

1.2. Earth’s Wild Beauty: This category welcomes submissions which celebrate wild landscapes and seascapes and all that live within them. From lush, leafy rainforests to harsh deserts, from the highest snowy mountain tops to isolated frozen tundra or the depths of the oceans, every inch of the world is inhabited by life in some form, whether massive or minuscule.

1.5. Into the Blue: Artworks entered into this category should illustrate the wonderful world of water – be it ocean, seashore, wetland, river or stream – and the incredible animals and landscapes within them. It is more important than ever that as humans, we work to care for and appreciate the water on our planet, preventing more pollution and cleaning up the mess which has been made for decades, before the richness of life underwater is lost.

January Edit: I've decided to add this category to my list, as through my glazing and lustring discoveries I created something that resembles an oil spill and could work well for the human impact category.

1.4. Human Impact: Environmental activists like Greta Thunberg have demonstrated that children and the younger generation are ready and motivated to make dramatic changes to the world around them, giving us hope for the future of our planet. This category is specifically for artists aged 16-22 only. We would like to see work which makes a statement through art on how humans are having an impact on the environment.

I had debated to continue my theme from my last project (specialist practise module) and stick with the parrots and tropical theme but, I felt like I needed something fresh to explore. When thinking through my first ideas, I really wanted to do something with the coral reef. The colour and textures of a coral reef seemed like the perfect idea to create pieces on but after making a few samples I was having trouble on seeing where it was going. After feeling stuck I began looking at sea creatures that also live in the coral reef and after much research I decided on a turtle. I had ideas of creating a turtle sculpture with a coral reef on it's back and so on, but once again I started to feel stuck with idea and where to take it next. I think the whole 'making a sculpture' part wasn't really inspiring me and forcing myself to continue with it wasn't getting me anywhere.

Therefore I re-thought and relooked at other sea creatures and I kept coming back to the jellyfish. There is something so majestic about these dangerous creatures in the way they move, live and look. I had dabbled a bit in making wall hangings in my last project and the 2 ideas came together to create the project of making jellyfish hanging pieces. This took out the 'sculptural' aspect and allowed me to work in a very different way that's out of my comfort zone.

My brief for myself for this project is to create a collection of ceramic hanging jellyfish, that incorporates movement, colour, transparency and sound.