Christmas is nearly here!

Dave the Geordie Dinosaur- NEA Magazine Project
By Jo Howell

Work has started up again with National Energy Action, this is a really fun and creative project where NEA go into schools to give advice on fuel poverty. During the workshops the children are encouraged to design characters and cartoons that will be published as part of a magazine to be distributed back at the school.

I take the initial drawings and ideas from the kids and I then create illustrations like "Dave" (above), and work out the page layouts. The magazine is always colourful and informative in a fun way that encourages both the children and the parents to be more energy efficient. I have been working with NEA on this project for nearly 3 years now and I still love it!

Hand printed Baby grows
By Jo Howell

Since Christmas is just around the corner I decided that I should use my skills to create some craft items that I could sell at Christmas markets, (Del Boy of the Art World). The market is in Newcastle near the Monument metro station on 8th December 2012. Come down to see me and buy my wares! I will be selling hand engraved tea-light candle holders (below), hand printed baby t-shirts (above) and hand printed Christmas cards (below)

Tea-light candle holder
by Jo Howell

Colourful Christmas cards
by Jo Howell

Whilst creating these delightful craft items for Christmas I have also been working with Arcadea Disability Arts as a session artist, which means that I work with a small group of learning disabled people on a range of creative projects. The job is really rewarding and they have been producing some fantastic work.

I have also worked on 2 film projects this year, one was a promotional video for Creative Cohesion that was commissioned by Frank Styles. You can check out that video here.

And, the second film I worked on was with the National Glass Centre and my role was as workshop leader. I lead several workshops in the NGC on filmmaking, and then edited the final footage provided by the participants into a comprehensive 'How to: Engrave Glass" film. The film isn't available online for you to see yet but you can pop into the National Glass Centre where it is being screened.

Thanks for reading.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

www.maverickart.co.uk