Stella Murphy

0:00 [Applause]

0:05 Hello everyone. Yeah, so my name is Stella Murphy. , I call myself a cartoonist because the work is cartoony and I'm based in London. , so I'd like to talk about my work within the context of creativity, mindfulness, and flow.

0:27 And PDFs are available of this flowchart. No, they're not. Just kidding. But basically so what this diagram shows kind of what I mean by that that idea of flow and that's when you're practicing your skills applying your concentration to something and then you find yourself absorbed in this state where you're time slips away you're totally focused on what you're doing and something is compelling you to keep going you're not sure why but yeah so I want to talk about that that state within my work.

1:09 So I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. Sorry.

1:12 So I used to be very shy. I would retreat into my room and create these little worlds where I could be absorbed for hours. My parents aren't from a creative background, but they were supportive. And um I remember my mom especially liking some of my early artist copies. One afternoon I emerged from my room announcing to my mom, "I've done you a big poo." Which is of course a bang bang on the door reference to those who were born in the '9s. We'll know that one. , so growing up in London, , I was lucky enough to soak up lots of different visual design, cultures, and color. And I remember bus trips to the Tate when we were little. , I didn't have much knowledge of pursuing a a career further down the line in the arts, so I chose to study graphic design , at Chelsea. , so this gave me an appreciation for type and layout. , but always in the briefs I'd be trying to respond through drawing. , some of the tutors liked it, some didn't. , I was a bit of an oddball and yeah, some people didn't didn't quite know what to make of it. , so after uni as well, I sort of drifted around aimlessly with a bit of a random portfolio that I didn't know where to go with. Finally after a long stretch of drifting I ended up working a job doing design for a social media startup the startup was supposed to be an app that combined Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp into an app that ultimately did not work and I equally crumbled in the office environment which I will say did not support me flowing so much. , so I after that I I quit and I went to Glasgow for a year and then moved back. , there isn't much to say here as the work was really bad. So glossing over that. , I came back to London and I invigilated in a gallery for a while. , we were given these little Muji A6 sketchbooks for when the gallery was quiet and I I was able to draw without inhibitions for longer stretches of time responding to artworks in the gallery or conversations or things I was chatting about in corners with the other invigilators. , and I still use these sketchbooks today. I really like the format. , how it's like it's very cheap paper. It feels like I'm not precious about what I'm doing. And during that time, I was kind of able to do like a page a day without worrying about who I was going to show it to or what it was for. Just sort of practicing and getting out ideas.

4:09 So that was a really invaluable time, I'd say. , so as an artist making art, , I don't actually have a naughty reference in there, but, , I do have a big, , magpie collection of, , things that I'm drawn to that I collect on my folder, which can be anything from shop signs, record covers to old posters. , and also some background around my , creative practice. I'm also Buddhist. , so I meditate for 40 minutes a day now. , and I find it much easier to respond to the task at hand creatively. , letting images that I'm inspired flow through me and it's , helped me feel less critical of the process as well. , so I thought I'd talk about , one of my favorite jobs which was ambiguous. , I did the cover of the the New York Times book review. , and so and also within that that brief I would describe that I was yeah flowing I feel like. , so sometime before that I had gone to see an Isaac Julian exhibition at the Tate. , an amazing artist and , I'd been really taken by the sweeping patterns of this luxurious staircase. , so when I sat down to , approach this brief, the image sprung to mind. , and just a bit of background as well about the , the way that I approach my drawings. , so I always start off with a handdrawn sketch, working in pencil first and then inking it in with my fountain pen. , I really enjoyed the feeling of this. It's very tactile. , and there's a lot of satisfaction that arises from working out how to properly draw something and sometimes it doesn't work out. Sometimes I can't do hands and you just cover the hand if you can't. , so yeah, I do a little bit of clean up in Photoshop afterwards, but I I do like to keep things pretty rough and ready. , and yeah, I'm definitely not a purist about working analog. I love the coloring in stage on Photoshop, bringing something to life. , playing with gradients or adding really detailed patterns that I wouldn't be able to have wouldn't otherwise be able to have the time to make. , and so yeah, with with this brief in response to the book Crook Manifesto, I really wanted to capture the energy of this 70s crime thriller , and a city which was spiraling into apocalyptic decline. , and yeah, so to finish I wanted to talk about one of my favorite commissions from the film Ryane. , don't know if anyone's seen it. It's a lovely film.

7:11 So I was enlisted by the director Rain Miller to map the locations in the film and then they were going to disperse these maps with the the movie release. Rain also she specifically wanted someone that was based in Southeast and yeah so I've lived there for a long time and so all the locations did feel really close to home. So that was very special.

7:36 , it was a challenge tackling architecture, , as opposed to characters and interiors, which I'm more comfortable with. , Rain also, she kept adding more and more spots , into the map. , so it was getting quite elaborate. , Pepilolis made it in there.

7:57 I think there's, yeah, Pimp Complex as well. , but I could tell that it was just her wanting to really celebrate the local area and I could feel how passionate she was about it. , and yeah, so I'd say Rain's passion made me really want to apply myself to all the details for long stretches of time even though I knew that they were just going to be teeny tiny when this map this I think it was I think it was A4 so when it when it was printed out.

8:28 But yeah, the joy that it brought me being able to celebrate in this rich and vibrant area and yeah, I got so much so much enjoyment through the process as well, just really being able to apply apply myself to that. Yeah, so if everyone wants to return to their PDFs, to sum up, I have a lot more ideas in me and it's it's really is a joy to work editorially or even big commercial clients would be brilliant. , but my my relationship to ambition has shifted somewhat and I'm more steering towards sort of a lifetime practice that allows genuine creativity creative expression to flourish.

9:19 Ultimately, I believe work that allows for natural flowing and unfolding creativity that speaks to the soul is the best thing that we have to offer. , I hope that through these flowing states, it's these ideas that will transcend the algorithms. Thank you.