IDI self-directed briefs and a leap out of one's comfort zone

Over the years at IDI, there have been many many projects we have been asked to produce. Initially, they were heavily guided, with specific parameters and for focused purposes or audiences. However, these last few terms have focused on open briefs as well as self promotion. The open briefs at first seem daunting: you think you would like to have the choice of creating anything, but in fact, there is something oddly reassuring about being told what to do.

However in my case, I felt that both self-directed briefs of 2014 (level 6 of the course) have really forced me to push myself in certain areas. In the case of the self-directed brief that was completed May 2014, I needed to step outside my comfort zone. Having gone through an extremely difficult and emotional time as primary palliative caregiver for my mother, I felt the experience had actually made me stronger and more confident. The result was that, for school, I chose to push myself away from the computer, and work with my hands. I had never thought of myself as an artist (noo.....that was someone who could really draw), so wanted to tackle something tactile, cathartic and even therapeutic. I also thought it would be fitting to pay tribute to my mother's life that began back in 1929 in the highlands of Scotland, given I where I am at in my own life with the decision to return to academia.

The completed portraiture book flourished as a study in contrasts, highlighting the highs and lows of my mother's childhood via myriad materials and techniques, all of which pushed my brain to really think outside the box and beyond what I had always assumed were my limits. I learned about erasure poetry, intricate paper-cutting, paper dying, typography as art form, onion skin paper layering, the combinations of all sorts of fabrics and heavily textured handmade papers, and even the art of book binding. I thoroughly enjoyed researching while on the children's school break in Montreal, soaking up alternative books and illustrations at Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore, and studying all kinds of paper, bindings, clips, and other paraphernalia at Nota Bene, a unique paper store.

The brief was incredibly challenging and profoundly rewarding. I gained a real sense of accomplishment when I finished this brief that was a series of 'chapter' samplings making up a very unique, hand-constructed portraiture.