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Artist reflections

Hannah Nixon – illustrator

Working with the material felt very special as I was trusted with something important. It was an eye-opener to see what people have to deal with day to day, but also the humour and love they have for what they do was quite inspiring. I learned about a type of care I had never really thought of before, and I’m happy that people got a chance to express themselves. I hope these illustrations do justice to the authors.

View Hannah’s images Hannah’s website

Jessica Taylor – illustrator

The biggest challenge when working on this brief was making sure we paid due respect to the authors of the material we were given.  In other jobs, the task is to make the information so it is tangible to a wider audience; whereas, in this one, it felt like the audience consisted of the content creators.  Also challenging was trying to imbue each drawing with the diary writer’s voice, instead of my own illustrative voice, voices which all, despite doing very difficult, trying, complicated and exhausting jobs, contained an element of hope, which was important to pay attention to.  I really hope the drawings are something the diary creators feel represent what they’ve written; that’s the most I can hope for, as an illustrator.

View Jessica’s images, Jessica’s website

Sam Walker – illustrator

Working with Iriss on the View from Here project has been a fun yet eye-opening project. Before starting the project, I never knew exactly what social care and social work entailed. Each of the diaries and their respective entries varied greatly, some people had a bright outlook on their job and tried to remain positive in the face of hardship. Whereas, others worried greatly for their clients and this worry often entered other aspects of practitioners lives and in turn resulting in round the clock working hours and extensive effort put into their work. It was both this varied approach and the idea of never being off duty that surprised me the most about social care/work.

With my illustrations, I wanted to keep a playful and energetic tone to my work (as I always strive for this) but also to steer people away from the possible idea that social care/work is all doom and gloom. I wanted to instead focus on the individual practitioner’s voices and try to do them justice as a person. So I guess with the illustrations I hope they highlight what I learnt myself, that there is someone out there actually doing this, taking care of the wider community and at time sacrificing their own lives for the improvement of others. Whilst also highlighting that it is the efforts of individuals who at times don’t get the help they need and must go off their own initiative, are making sure others are taken care of.

View Sam’s images, Sam’s website