‘Women In History’ Cartoon Exhibition
February 22, 2019 in Events, General, News
Poster cartoon by © The Surreal MCoy
The PCO is putting on an exhibition in collaboration with Idea Store at Canary Wharf to tie in with Women’s History Month. ‘Women In History’ is an exhibition of cartoons and caricatures based loosely around the theme and also looking more widely at issues affecting women.
Our patron Sandi Toksvig writes:
“Cave paintings were really the first cartoons. The latest analysis of them suggest they were done by women. Perfect! Let’s celebrate Women’s History month with cartoons done by female artists following in the footsteps of the very first art.”
Cartoon by © Sarah Boyce
The show has been curated by PCO committee members The Surreal McCoy and Sarah Boyce (office admin by Glenda Marshall).
Sarah writes:
“We are delighted that Idea Store has given us this space to showcase the work of women cartoonists. It’s been a tough job narrowing down the long list to those that will be on display. We wanted to get a broad range of voices and styles in the exhibition and make sure as many women cartoonists as possible got a chance to participate. Hopefully visitors will enjoy the talent, diversity and humour on display.”
‘Victoria Victorious’ by © Cathy Simpson
Women’s History Month started in schools in California in 1978 to enhance understanding of all women’s contributions to history and society. It centres around International Women’s Day, originally celebrated in 1911 and now a fixture on 8th March. Women’s History Month is now an annual declared month in the UK, USA, Australia and Canada.
Illustration by © Kate Charlesworth
The show has contributions from 20 cartoonists including international submissions from Egypt, Greece and New Zealand.
Isadora Duncan by Athens based cartoonist © Maria Tzaboura
Those taking part are:
Afraa Alyousef, Sally Artz, Ros Asquith, Sarah Boyce, Kate Charlesworth, Maddie Dai, Tat Effby, Jacky Fleming, Grizelda, Rebecca Hendin, KJ Lamb, Rasha Mahdi, Lorna Miller, Lou McKeever, Danny Noble, Chichi Parish, Martha Richler, Cathy Simpson, The Surreal McCoy and Maria Tzaboura.
Malala Yousafzai with her father by © Rebecca Hendin
The exhibition runs throughout March at:
Idea Store Canary Wharf, Churchill Place, London, E14 5RB.
We’ll be showing many more of the cartoons and drawings from the show on our social media platforms over the next few weeks.
All artwork on display will be available for purchase with 10% of the sales going to Solace Women’s Aid
Cartoon by © Maddie Dai
We’re hoping to put on more exhibitions and events in partnership with Idea Store later in the year.
by Glenn Marshall
How to illustrate your point…
March 12, 2019 in Comment, General
Tim Ruscoe writes:
“At simply-communicate we know that cartoons are magnets to draw our readers’ attention so we can land messages with impact. And Tim’s work is both funny and memorable – whenever an article is illustrated with one of his jokes it gets twice the attention.”
Marc Wright, Publisher, simply-communicate.com
A phrase originally used by the well-known actor Roy Scheider in the 1975 blockbuster ‘Jaws’. He utters the line when he gets a good look at the size of the shark that is circling the small fishing boat he is on. Used in day to day life when a situation seems insurmountable. The film crew when making Jaws use this line all the time to indicate any problem that popped-up, a short cut to a description as to what is required to sort a job out but in a humorous way.
We use humour in so many ways, to emphasize a point, to change a relationship or a way of seeing the truth. Like irony! They say Americans don’t get it, ‘We’re going to need a bigger metaphor’
Getting your story told by communicating in words can have its problems with holding the attention of the reader, in film there is always something going on visually to hold the viewer until the interest returns, reading a dull section can switch you off and that is why illustrated text came in to being.
What do you get from this Six Nations Rugby blog banner with its French Title?
The blog described the way England play to the way the French move the ball around, making for an interesting battle, so the differences depicted are intriguing in many way to the reader. The idea of actually eating a snail is hilarious!
I illustrate with cartoons for Internal Communications, helping to tell a story, engage and entertain, by challenging the reader to interact with the writer as to what they have seen.
A piece on booking the right venue for a meeting-
Feedback-
‘’You think that’s funny I had that experience at…’’
‘’Is that the Matterhorn mountain in the background?’’
Being sympathetic to someone’s lot show your understanding of a situation, helping to keep morale up. Let the team’s feelings about the difficulties and changes that are going on be recognised, to say ‘’Hard luck but move on” won’t help these feelings and only result in employees becoming disengaged.
Pitching for a contract and not winning can be devastating, yet you must bounce back and do it all again and better! May be it wasn’t your entire fault…
Celebrate victories and examples of excellence both formally and informally. During times of difficulty, it is especially important for employees to feel like winners.
For some situations you have to be in the know to get the joke, it may be you have to be an employees to ‘get it’ this is a good thing as it shows your all united you all understand what’s been going on in the company, just made for Internal Comms with their finger on the pulse.
How the author’s brief develops into the cartoon, it can be a list of facts and fiction to combined in to one drawing, current goings-on’s, maybe you have a joke that needs illustrating. I start with a rough first draft, we talk, we change or add stuff, when you’re happy I make the artwork in black ink, I can colour it up if required, I can animate it to a sound track, this is a great way to bring a process or tutorial to life keeping the viewers attention.
A private joke that only one department will truly understand creating interest from everyone, prompting interaction and engagement from others.
Private joke – See what I mean?
Many different seasonal reasons to make people smile, linked to work so sharing a common ground, a reminder to what’s on in a witty or just silly cartoon to send you on the way home.
A writer can engage and inspiring people through compelling stories and analogies.
A cartoonist can illuminate, embellish, adorn, enhance, highlight.
I don’t think there is any subject that can’t be made into a cartoon?
Tim Ruscoe
t.ruscoe@btconnect.com
All cartoons © Tim Ruscoe
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