Five Minutes Till Noon - An Update

As my readers may or may not recall, last year I did a crazy, impulsive thing and joined a team for the 48 Hour Film Project, as the art director and wardrobe co-ordinator. That was a ride in itself, pure craziness.

Then we had the city awards, where our film, Five Minutes Till Noon, kind of swept the board, taking home over ten different awards if I'm not mistaken, including Best Film for the city, as well as best Production Design (the awful trophy is still standing proudly on my bookshelf. As much as I dislike trophies, this one has a special place in my heart).

Then came the long wait for March 9th, the international 48hfp awards ceremony in New Orleans, where grand prizes for the 2013 tour would be announced, and our film, being a city winner, was up for awards too.

At some point the whole saga kind of slipped my mind. So imagine my surprise, confusion and delight waking up to this Whatsapp conversation yesterday morning at some ungodly hour:

Gran: Were you not in charge of costume and art design in the 48 hours till noon?
Me: Yep that was me, why?
Me: No Gran, it was Five Minutes Till Noon, not 48 Hours Till Noon
Gran: But Jess that is fantastic!
Me: What now, you've known about it since last year?
Gran: You must know you won
Me: Yes but we won last October
Gran: At the international, in New Orleans
Me: The international hasn't happened yet
Gran: Look on Facebook!

So I hit the Google-machine. And Gran was right. Five Minutes Till Noon won two awards at the international awards ceremony, Best Art Direction and Best Costumes. Both of which I was in charge of. I just, can't believe.

I remember the day I saw that Facebook post. Kyle Peters was looking for someone to take over art direction and wardrobe. I had the time and I thought I might have enough knowledge to run with it. So I responded, and straight afterwards I panicked. What the heck have I just gotten myself into? These guys are pros! I'm going to make a fool of myself! And then the prayers. Jesus, please don't let me make a fool of myself. Please let me be able to actually help this team out and no matter what happens, let this just be for your glory. 

It looks like he heard me. I seriously had so much fun doing this thing, I would do it again, awards or not. I hope though, that maybe these awards mean I get more chances to partake in similar film industry adventures. This industry needs more of the father's light in it, I'd be so honored to be one of the people who gets the job of bringing it in.

Keep the dreams alive my friends

Shar-Lee Jessica

I found a moment

Life has been so crazy busy lately. In the last two months I've moved house, started working full time, and I still have to keep up all my after hours commitments, including keeping my label afloat, getting my freelance work done and keeping my French lessons on the go, while at the same time still having time for connecting with friends and getting some reading time in.

This week I added another crazy flavor to the plate of my life, I'm taking part in the NYC Midnight short story competition. So I have seven days to write a 2500 word story in the fantasy genre, with the subject mathematics and a pro athlete as a character. It's been chaos, and I am exhausted and loving it. I'm currently about 1300 words in and trying to pace myself. Hand in is on Saturday.

I realized recently that in all the chaos I have forgotten to draw. Drawing is my lifeblood. I literally can't remember the last time I sat down with pad and ink, focused on capturing the moment around me. I'm an artist and I live and breathe the visual, creating is food for my soul. This was a shocking revelation and my fingers started itching and aching immediately.

Problem is, I just don't have the time. How do you find the time when you don't have it? So I decided to keep a sketchbook on me always, and look for tiny moments. My moment ended up being Sunday morning, in church, sitting on the floor listening to Ross do an incredible teaching on the multidimensional presence of the kingdom. Breathtaking stuff. And then I realized there was a perfect picture right in front of me, and out came the notebook. And I drew. What an amazing feeling, the release of pent up creativity. It made me so happy.

So now my pledge to myself is to keep looking for moments, to keep my creative eyes open and to make art part of my life once again. I need to, it's the air I breathe.

Shar-Lee Jessica

P.S. Keep an eye on my blog for the official release of my currently unnamed short story

many many happy days

I happened across this amazing project the other day. It's called 100 Happy Days, and the concept is this: Can you identify one happy moment, every day for a hundred days in a row? The challenge: Document your journey. Take a photo representing your happy moment every day and upload it to the web with the hashtag #100happydays. I love the idea so much that I didn't hesitate to sign up. I might even push mine to a year of happy days. Why stop at a hundred? That's the thing I guess, I love Jesus, so there should be joy every day, it's a given. Even on the really lame days.

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. - Psalm 16:11

I'm very aware that at some point this "challenge" might actually become exactly that. And there's the point. On the toughest of days, will I still turn around and go, "No ways, my joy is complete in God!", take a photo of the nearest flower and carry on going? I hope I can. Because now everyone who reads this will be holding me to it.

So far I've had a Tuesday power out with a phone call to say I can work from home, a visit from a grumpy tortoise and a cheese grater from some special friends (because in my new kitchen I have cheese but no grater.) Today is day four. I can't wait to find out what today's moment will be, I can't wait to fall in love with life all over again. Are you joining me on the journey? Let's find the joy together!

Shar-Lee Jessica

If you're keen to see what happy moments the next ninety-six days have in store for me, here is the link to my Instagram. Send me yours so I can see your journey too!

Twenty-one Twickenham Road

This was a fun little writing project I did recently, that I'd just love to share. The brief: describe the experience of entering the place where you live, from the perspective of someone who has never been there before. For those of you who know and love 21 Twickenham as much as I do, I hope this is a special read...

Twickenham road, the name itself tastes of yesterday’s charm. Along both sides, chubby little trees giggle in the breeze and do their best to stand in single file, hands behind their backs, under the gaze of the tired old houses watching over them day and night.

At number twenty-one, a rose bush offers its manicured fingers for a handshake through the wrought iron fence, a heavy black outline on this quaint garden scene. A lavender bush greets me shyly with her perfume; nostalgia; while the lemon tree sheepishly draws her leafy curtains on those lemons she has been too lazy to yellow. A shabby path of loose bricks and rebellious weeds leads me to the front door, red and smiling between two round windows, the eyes of number twenty-one, which, as legend would have it, have not so much as blinked in over a hundred years.

The air behind that red door is cool and thick with the scent of aged wooden floors, floors which protest in loud creaks and moans as I go, for I have woken them from their dusty slumber. The furniture peers questioningly at me as I pass. I am an outsider in a carpentry village. A kaleidoscope of paintings on the walls laugh and tell me to ignore the old wooden fogies. I make my way yonder, to the heart of this little house, the kitchen, bursting at the seams with jars of cutlery, cooking utensils of every imaginable kind, and a vast family of crockery young and old vying for space on shelves and table tops too small. A happy old tap drips drops of water on his tin sink drum, this tap that refuses to ever be closed properly, for it is his job, he tells me, to keep the heart of this home beating.

Behind the next door, a bedroom. The tang of a citronella candle is a warning; tiny vampires feed here at night. A sleeping laptop purrs on the corner of the bed, crisp white and unmade. On the glass desk, an artillery of art supplies lie scattered in their bright uniform, at ease for the moment. A pale blue curtain flirts with the tired floor, teasing and tempting with the lift of her skirt in the breeze, a breeze which, if one happens to catch it at the right moment, carries the soft scent of lavender, a nostalgic scent indeed.

~Shar-Lee Jessica

you are so lovely

So Cayly from Bloom Studio is working on this amazing project called Lattes and Love, where she shares women's stories. I was lucky enough to take part, and get to talk about a bit of my story, and how school bullying played a part in it. 
I regret not going in to a bit more detail in the interview, the path I walked in trying to redeem my fragile self-esteem while battling the minefield of adolescence and growing up took me to strange places, from a name change at thirteen to getting into an abusive relationship at seventeen, and battling a vicious bout of social phobia and depression in my early twenties. 
I am one of the lucky ones though, Jesus found me, and now my identity is wrapped up in His sacrifice. I only wish every child who has to endure the emotional torment of being bullied could have the same prize at the end. 
Now, there are things I'm grateful for. On the worst days at school, books were my refuge and friend. Now I'm a writer. I'm also a multi-award-winning artist, and heaped up ridiculous amounts of cash prizes for my creative work during my studies. 
I want the privilege to be able to share my story with those awkward kids who never quite worked out the formula for fitting in. I want to tell them it's okay. You have so much ahead of you, you are so, so lovely, you are so precious. I want to tell parents, build up your children's self-worth. Bullies are broken kids caught in a vicious cycle. Kids with a strong sense of self-worth lift up other kids around them. 

We can break the cycle. I hope one day I can get my story out there. For now, I have a blog, and I have Lattes and Love. Enjoy.

https://vimeo.com/81309145

In the Bag

So in case any of my readers were wondering how we fared at the 48 Hour Film Project Awards which happened on Thursday night, I'm pleased to give you this update. We won. Yes we did. Best Film, in the bag. That means our film is going on to be shown at the New Orleans Filmapalooza festival next year where the judges selection of best films to emerge from the competition from around the globe will all be shown. From there the top ten go on to Cannes Film Festival, and the best film of 2013 is announced too. I don't want to get my hopes too high, but I feel like we have some kind of shot. Our film is breathtaking, I beam with pride every time I get to see it.

Here's a list of the awards we got to take home:
Best Picture
Best Film - Audience Choice
Best Director
Best Producer
Best Actor
Best Visual Effects
Best Editor
Best Production Design (that's me!)
Best use of given line of dialogue ("You gonna learn.")
Best use of given character (Neil Msimang - stylist)

What an honor, thanks to Jesus for giving me the opportunity to be involved in something so phenomenal. Let's all hold thumbs for a good run at Filmapalooza now.

Watch the film here: http://vimeo.com/77905389

Brittany, Chai & Reminiscence

Yesterday I had the pleasure of handing over an illustration to my beautiful friend Esther. We go back a long way, from high school shenanigans to varsity days where I had the privilege of this seeing beautiful lady model my graduate collection like a Vogue-goddess, and then to yesterday, where Esther adopted Brittany (number two of ten). What a great moment, handing over my very first reproduction sketch, and chatting about our plans, nerves, hopes and dreams for the future, the awareness of the nearness and reality of this next chapter palpable in the air around us. As she heads off to further her studies in a brand new city, I head back to my home town, to spend the first season of my life giving my art some real and focused attention. It's terrifying, but it only takes a moment like this to remind me that it's possible, and the sun is about to rise on something completely new.

Esther dear, I wish you the best for the future, and thank you for the chai and reminiscence. Breton looks good on you.

Things that can happen in 48 hours

This past weekend. Madness I tell you. Madness. This year's 48 Hour Film Project gave me my first stint at being wardrobe/art/production designer on a film set. I was in my element. So how it works is, you literally get given a weekend to create a short film. On friday night at around seven, the team awaited That Phone Call with bated breath, the one where they assign us a genre which was pulled out of a hat, as well as a line of dialogue, character and prop that need to be written into the story. First joyful moment, we pulled the genre Western, the genre our writers actually wanted. Our first hurdle: the character. We needed to include a stylist, Neil Msimang. Way to throw us off, but with our team of sterling writers, we managed to seamlessly write him into the story. Our prop was an envelope and line of dialogue, "You gonna learn." I would have preferred a grammatically correct line but hey, you roll with what you get. I can honestly say, the writers outdid themselves.

I spent the first night planning outfits for specific characters, as well as props for different scenes. This included intense discussions with the director and lots of brain power on my part. We were going with a 1940's setting, good thing I know my fashion history. At about 3am I finally crawled onto my mattress in the corner but alas, my brain was buzzing with way too much thought and excitement to allow me the luxury of sleep.

4:30am: I brush my teeth and gather all the props and wardrobe into my car, it's time to move on to set. We decided to shoot on an old steam train, last used in the 1920's. It was absolutely gorgeous and the colours of the interiors really complemented the wardrobe I'd chosen out. I had a walk around the train to get a feel for things, a rather spooky experience in the complete dark, and went to set up my dressing area. A much needed breakfast followed and before we knew it the sun was up and it was time to start dressing.

I was literally thrown right into the deep at this point. The first scene being filmed had about ten extras in it and I was needed on set to check out production design at the same time. It was, "Try this dress, does that fit? No? Okay this one! That hat doesn't match, take hers. You can't go like that you need shoes! And you need a tie, that one is the wrong colour!" Etc etc, whilst running off in between to plan props and look and feel on set.

I thrive on adrenaline, it was amazing, however, adrenaline is like a little bubble that keeps you floating and at some point, it pops, and then it's all systems down. For me that happened prematurely when I overheard one of our most charming actors say something awful about one of the outfits I had so lovingly put together. Taking into consideration how exhausted and overwhelmed I was at this point, it was literally enough to make me sit there (luckily alone for the moment) in tears, contemplating leaving the whole lot and going home for a nice cup of tea and bed. All thanks to Jesus at this point, I took a moment out to pray a bit and get my emotions in check, dole out some forgiveness, re calibrate my thoughts and get back to work. That was probably the toughest moment of the entire weekend for me, but I guess that's what industry is like. Not everyone is going to appreciate your creative point of view or hard work, and people say mean things without realising it far too often for me to allow myself the luxury of a breakdown every time it happens. Besides, within five minutes I had the assistant director on my case about the next scene.

I learnt a lot about myself this weekend. I'm far more detail orientated than I've ever realised before. I had an entire scene stop filming when I noticed an extra with her hair done in a way that was not consistent with 1940's styling. The same thing happened with a man in a blue tie when everyone else in the scene was wearing brown and green, and when I spotted an actor with the wrong shoes on. It must have been rather annoying for the rest of the crew, but hopefully they'll appreciate it when they see the finished product, their movie with meticulously accurate styling.

We had planned to wrap up filming by 6:30pm. Come 2am, we were still shooting. People were getting cranky, but I'm so touched by the camaraderie and how everyone pulled together, stayed awake and kept giving their all til the very end. By 3am we were packing up, I was stock taking wardrobe and props and we were on our way back to the office. Then it was one last cup of tea for me, some paperwork and I was done and dusted, by 5:30am Sunday morning I was in my bed having a rather solid and dreamless sleep. The post team, however, were still in the thick of things, with about eleven hours work still ahead of them. I am amazed and so impressed by the calibre of people on our team, and the work ethic and effort everyone so willingly gave up after days without sleep.

I still have yet to see the final product, but I'm confident and excited. I'm willing to bet we offered up one of the best entries in our region for this year's brief. I'm proud of myself for what I managed to pull together under huge pressure. This was truly an eye-opening and unforgettable experience, and I hope this is not the last I see of the film and wardrobe industry.





























P.S. these images all come from Kyle Peters' Instagram, thanks Kyle!

wednesday to-do list

It's a busy Wednesday! I have some commissions to get to, as well as a final round of wardrobe and set planning for the 48 hour film project this weekend. I love all the creative work coming my way lately. I'm also working on a ceramics design collaboration with Manna Epicure on Kloof Street. Haven't been there? Tell me, when is it not a good day for a slice of the most fabulous red velvet cake you've ever had the pleasure of munching on? Go have a look. They also have one of my very own paintings up on their wall.
I'm so excited about drawing on teacups! Hope you all have a gorgeous sunny Wednesday.

Within the Realm of Possibility

I've been gone for a while. I guess you could say it's been a time of metamorphosis in hiding, kind of like how a caterpillar disappears into a cocoon for a period of time, undergoes a private and painstaking makeover process, and breaks out into the world again a completely different creature, with a new angle from which to look at life. I hate how cliched that comparison is but it's the truest one I could find. Since I last posted I've moved to a new city, gone through a life-defining heartbreak and heart re-healing, changed my mind about what I want to do with my career, committed my life to faith, gone back to my natural hair colour and adopted my first name again, and basically, looking back it's slowly dawned on me that I'm a completely new person in so many ways. It's exciting and it's terrifying, but I guess that's something you have to love about life. It gives us many chances. And with my new dream of pursuing art and one day having the privilege of being able to do that full time, I'm devoting myself all over again to keep drawing, reminding myself that ink and paper are the bread and butter of my life, and that brushstrokes and paint fumes are the tools I have been given with which to process my emotions and learn who I really am, and where I really belong.

These are a few of the sketches I've done in recent months. The first one, Brittany, got me my very first order over Pinterest, which reminded me, my dreams are within the realm of possibility, and I do in fact, know exactly what I was born to do.

All things fashion Africa - Blocking Dynamics

So I have this new job, I'm now officially one of the bloggers for the brand new website, All Things Fashion_Africa. It's been great, first week on the job I got a VIP ticket to the J&B Met. I realized today that I haven't posted any of my articles on my blog! So for your reading pleasure, here is my most recent article:

Colour in Fashion: Blocking Dynamics

For anyone who knows their trends, colour blocking will be a familiar term which has appeared on the fashion scene time and time again over the past few years. Designers just can’t seem to resist it, and I can understand why. Colour blocking is fun, it’s an excuse to play with your favourite colours and mix the shades that aren’t necessarily supposed to be mixed. It’s versatile; you can make it modern and minimal or loud and fun, it’s trendy and a way to make your favourite colour the next big thing and it’s a way to be fashion fabulous without taking your look too seriously.

So where did this trend originate? Well, most fashion and art historians will take you back to fashion in the sixties when girly glam became graphic for the first time. Possibly something to do with inspiration from the art movement known as De Stijl, or neoplasticism, where artists such as Piet Mondrian used to mathematically and strategically divide their canvasses up into flat blocks of primary colours. Sounds familiar, no? The aim was to counteract the fact that, visually speaking, yellow and red appear to jump “out of” a flat canvas while blue recedes back into it, so the blocks of colour were scientifically measured and placed in such a way as to create a perfectly flat, two-dimensional image. Then in the swinging sixties, fashion revolution occurred when edgy little shift dresses in flat colour appeared as a fashion statement for the first time, in stark contrast to the flowing and flouncy dresses and circle skirts that characterised the decade before it. For the first time, thanks to fashion revolutionaries such as Twiggy and Edie Sedgwick, fashion acquired its own attitude.

Personally, I feel like I can relate this fashion aesthetic back to something dynamic and beautiful happening right in my home country. Anyone else thinking Smarteez? Known as a South African fashion subculture, the Smarteez are starting to make international headway as South Africa’s very own home-brewed hipster variety. The group of fashion fundis in Johannesburg are waging their own war against conformity, and using clothing and kickass style as their means to forge their way forward into the South African cultural history books. They’re an inspiration and show us that fashion is more than just a look, it’s a card to play in the battle you’re fighting, whatever that may be. What you wear makes a statement, it’s been proven in history, and now it’s being proven again on our home ground. The Smarteez are fighting their battle against convention and good old South African pessimism, with fashion as their optimistic weapon of choice.

So next time you page through a fashion mag and spot an article on how to colour block, think about it, just maybe this trend springs from something as close to you as the country you live in, and maybe you should wear it and make it your own statement too.Colour in Fashion: Blocking Dynamics

For anyone who knows their trends, colour blocking will be a familiar term which has appeared on the fashion scene time and time again over the past few years. Designers just can’t seem to resist it, and I can understand why. Colour blocking is fun, it’s an excuse to play with your favourite colours and mix the shades that aren’t necessarily supposed to be mixed. It’s versatile; you can make it modern and minimal or loud and fun, it’s trendy and a way to make your favourite colour the next big thing and it’s a way to be fashion fabulous without taking your look too seriously.

So where did this trend originate? Well, most fashion and art historians will take you back to fashion in the sixties when girly glam became graphic for the first time. Possibly something to do with inspiration from the art movement known as De Stijl, or neoplasticism, where artists such as Piet Mondrian used to mathematically and strategically divide their canvasses up into flat blocks of primary colours. Sounds familiar, no? The aim was to counteract the fact that, visually speaking, yellow and red appear to jump “out of” a flat canvas while blue recedes back into it, so the blocks of colour were scientifically measured and placed in such a way as to create a perfectly flat, two-dimensional image. Then in the swinging sixties, fashion revolution occurred when edgy little shift dresses in flat colour appeared as a fashion statement for the first time, in stark contrast to the flowing and flouncy dresses and circle skirts that characterised the decade before it. For the first time, thanks to fashion revolutionaries such as Twiggy and Edie Sedgwick, fashion acquired its own attitude.

Personally, I feel like I can relate this fashion aesthetic back to something dynamic and beautiful happening right in my home country. Anyone else thinking Smarteez? Known as a South African fashion subculture, the Smarteez are starting to make international headway as South Africa’s very own home-brewed hipster variety. The group of fashion fundis in Johannesburg are waging their own war against conformity, and using clothing and kickass style as their means to forge their way forward into the South African cultural history books. They’re an inspiration and show us that fashion is more than just a look, it’s a card to play in the battle you’re fighting, whatever that may be. What you wear makes a statement, it’s been proven in history, and now it’s being proven again on our home ground. The Smarteez are fighting their battle against convention and good old South African pessimism, with fashion as their optimistic weapon of choice.

So next time you page through a fashion mag and spot an article on how to colour block, think about it, just maybe this trend springs from something as close to you as the country you live in, and maybe you should wear it and make it your own statement too.

Jess

strange things...

So I'm finally getting a real move on with my very own fashion label, Prodigy menswear! My graphic designer is working on my logo, labels and swing tags as I type this and more and more designs and ideas are running through the production system of my mind every day! My launch is scheduled for April 11th and I simply can't wait. Major stress aside, fantastic things are happening. I'm stoked. I'll keep you updated as things happen.


Jess

the colours

I finally had a few hours off work to do some creative thinking this morning. Herewith, my colour palette for my new menswear range, Prodigy, launching february 2012. 

Bear in mind that the logo I've used here is not my official logo, I'm still waiting on my graphic designer for the final product. Also thanks to Gary Steer Photography (www.garysteer.com) for this beautiful image.

Jess

the first step

How do you start a clothing label? Don't ask me, I have no idea. My personal first step was putting together some mood/concept boards. Herewith, some mood boards for your visual pleasure. Let me know what you think. Anyone get the mood?

Jess

in black and white

A little sketch I did a while back. The challenge was to use one colour only. What do you think?

Jess

Adjusting to a new time zone

So, I just got home from Australia! What a wonderfully fashionable adventure that was. I love their style.

This is an illustration I just completed to accompany my winter style guide for Girlz Mag. Something pretty standard but I'm loving the colour palette and the bit of extra detail was fun to do.

 Comment if you like it

Jess

another beauty one

This time inspired by a backstage shot at the Marc Jacobs SS 10/11 show. She has a really odball clown-like look about her. And I'm loving the frizz ball pigtails.

Jessica

a little bit of whimsy...

Inspired by nothing in particular. This one is from a few days ago, because today I find myself somewhat unable to draw. Don't you hate those days?

Jessica

a beauty trend

I've been wanting to try my hand at illustrating beauty trends for a while. It's a bit of a challenge for me because i've been trying to find that drawing style that's somewhere between looking "illustrated" and looking naturalistic, which i think is a style that works wonderfully for beauty trend illustration. I was very inspired by the make-up on the Derek Lam S/S 2011 girls. Pink eyes are just so cute you could eat them up. Tell me what you think of this one, it's something different for me.

Jessica

a pretty little something

...inspired by a gorgeous  piece I spotted on Topshop.co.uk. Oh how i love a good dose of Topshop. And a good dose of pink. I hope you like!

Jessica