Where Do My Bluebirds Fly?

"Where Do My Bluebirds Fly?" - Graphite, Japanese Plywood, Conte
ECA So Far Exhibition Project

In this brief I wanted to express my experience of being at Art School as being almost like a permanent imaginary state. I feel like I've been living in a bit of a fantasy over these last few weeks and immersed in my own thoughts and feelings.

I was inspired by a variety of sources from contemporary fashion illustrators, art nouveau artists such as Egon Schiele & Gustav Klimt, and a documentary on BBC4 about the History of British Birds: Garden Birds which looks at how birds have acclimatised to urban surroundings from the last hundred and fifty years to the modern day.

The birds in this image are meant to be metaphorical and analogous in how myself have gone through a lot of changes in my way of thinking and emotions and how I am adapting to my present circumstances. The birds have various symbolic meanings, but in a general term birds represent independence and freedom which I feel conveys my view about being a creative individual and being able to express yourself freely.

Photographs by Rosie Ellis