Geoff Grandfield Interview for Silent Graphic Novel GREY WATERS
The Seminar Series continued over the summer as I design the new lectures that I will deliver from this October. I have a new survey for practitioners to contribute and ambitions to take things beyond the teaching studios of the London College of Communication.
I had the opportunity to interview artist/ illustrator/ associate professor illustration and animation at Kingston University, Geoff Grandfield about his silent graphic novel 'Grey Waters' in August 2022. 10 questions were sent to Geoff initially and then we built upon these for the video recorded interview version.
Here is a taster of the interview that was recorded as a video for publication at a later date.
Enjoy.
Q1. What are the reasons behind you creating a silent graphic novel?
It seems right? I’m following instinct. The way the form appeals is as a series of images that are direct and active, as they offer something. As a viewer you decide on the pace of the reading and how you see it. I spent a lot of time exploring how individual frames are experienced in relation to the whole of a page and as a double page spread, trying to find a way that one didn’t distract from the other and allowed a simultaneous reading.
My only previous foray into GN was a treatment of Fast One by Paul ‘Cain’ (alias for screenwriter Paul Ruric) where I used painted frames and stuck on dialog, it wasn’t printed how I designed it and am producing a new digital version this year. The collision of image and text had some interesting moments, but by writing in images I hoped to open up the movement across pages with minimal intervention of words.
Q2. Where does the title 'Grey Waters' come from?
I tried a number of options but wanted something emblematic of the content. As the story is about real events, their recall and speculation, the title could have got a bit cryptic!
The title chosen has a dual role as a composite of the slightly adapted name of the real life character I based the work on and brain function / memory, like being submerged in ‘grey matter’.
Q3. Do you consider yourself a writer or an artist?
Writing in pictures? My work has explored intangibles through making pictures, individually and in series. I like the word illustrator! Though ‘illustration’ has cultural ambiguity, and is mostly culturally dismissed, I think that disregard works for how I use it as a means to understand self and the world without critical expectation.
Q4. What are your thoughts on image as literature?
Fine if that helps reach audiences. We talk about reading pictures but what I love about a good picture is the lack of linear reading and potential for surface or deep reading.
Q5. Why do you think that TRUTH has become such a mercurial thing during the 21st century?
The persistence of centuries old monolithic cultures that had their economic power base in printed authority have cracked up with the economic restructuring from digital technology. With it the construction of ‘truth’ guarded by dominant cultures. So truth is now transparently subjective?
Q6. Who is responsible for telling the TRUTH?
The artist, which is anyone who wants to be true to themselves! I think I mean that by spending some time and effort realising what you want, as opposed to what others want you to have/ do/ possibly think, you gain understanding of yourself that is not mediated by others and in the process make something that is meaningful to you. The chances are this may be meaningful to others too if you decide to share with an audience. So I suppose I am equating truth, which I think is always subjective, with true instincts and living in a way that is positive? Sometimes a person that practices that is called an artist, but it is a very overused and loosely fitting word! A bit like truth!
Q7. How do you keep your ideas fresh when so much of our visual world is controlled by large corporations?
Try and find your own voice, art college is a good start. Well this is subjective, from my point of view, but hopefully relates to a lot of creative practice. By making the investment of time/ thought/ play/ making and reflection, then what is meaningful to you may emerge. It’s a long process as the hooks are sunk in deep even by the time you’re an adolescent, the desire to be part of something can be a trade in of what you really want – I think I’m still answering the previous question!
Fresh means different? Try new things, new to you or you haven’t seen explored? I never really got too excited by lots of media mixing as I found it distracting from what I wanted to make art about, so I found the most direct lo-tech chalk on paper and still use this now.
Q8. Do you think this is stifling our imaginations?
Most people unfortunately don’t realise they are being stifled/ manipulated on what to think or see, they feel they make choices. It sounds like conspiracy because it has over 100 years of psychological testing behind corporate strategy but not easy to spot.
Q9. In a world filled with electronic media do you think that the traditional book has had its day, or will we always need books?
Always need communication tools in the hands of thinking makers! That is books and everything else. I am a big fan of a the lo-tech approach, DIY! The best visual authorship leads I think, so don’t wait to be commissioned to make something, do something you want to see and show it, this can lead to positive response and getting your work to an audience. Too much commissioning comes from the ‘I want one of those’ approach and dissatisfaction if it doesn’t match, make what you really want to see and hopefully you won’t get bent out of shape by what the commissioner wants!
Q10. What are you working on now/ next?
Actually starting a research enquiry into the ‘visualisation of absence’. There’s a graphic novel in that too!
Acknowledgements
Thank you very much for this Geoff, it's been a pleasure and I look forwarded to seeing your work published. I think my students will benefit greatly from your insights. Let's build on this collaboration. For more work check out Geoff Grandfield's website.
All artworks are copyright of Geoff Grandfield © 2022
Look out for the video of this interview to be published in September 2022.
Proposition Time Part 8
Create 6 illustrations/ images/ ideas as a sequential narrative inspired by the text set out below:
Free you mind and use this exercise as a way to re-imagine your work.
Outside the rain begins
And it may never end
So cry no more, on the shore a dream
Will take us out to sea
Forevermore, forevermore
Close your eyes ami
And you can be with me
'Neath the waves, through the caves of hours
Gone, forgotten now
We're all alone, we're all alone
Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
Learn how to pretend
Once a story's told
It can't help but grow old
Roses do, lovers too, so cast
Your seasons to the wind
And hold me dear, oh, hold me dear
Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
All's forgotten now
We're all alone, all alone
Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
Owe it to the wind, my love, hold me dear
All's forgotten now, my love
We're all alone
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