Claudia Hopkins

Happy birthday! I’m sure you’ll now never make any mistakes and life will be so much easier!!

Aw thank you Marissa - that means so much! Discovering etching has been a major highlight of our year in Vancouver 🧡🧡🧡

Video description: panning over my etching of 3 sea stars. The left corner is filled with a barnacles. In the middle 3 sea stars appear in varying shapes to fit the space. They are colourful in a peach, burnt orange and yellow. Below them is another piece of rock with 5 sea anemone drawn.

For the first time, my printmaking is being shown in a gallery!

Until 11 May there is a group show called “Shifting Ground” at Dundarave Print shop on Granville Island. My work “Contortionists - I” is on display. It brings emphasis to the changing forms of sea stars

What a burst of colour!

I’m so sorry to hear about this loss Marissa - she sounds like an amazing, powerful role model

A close up photograph of an etching print. The etching is of a fig branch in maroon ink with wide leaves at the top and smaller leaves towards the bottom. There are 5 figs shown on this close up - two of which is slightly concealed behind a branch. The figs have been made more prominent through collaging maroon paper onto the paper during the printing process. The etching is made up of small thin lines and no shading. The line weight varies as there are thicker lines around the leaves and figs but thinner lines for the contours of the figs and the leaves veins. There is a delicacy to the piece. The paper is a Japanese washi paper with speckles. It gives the work an organic feel

I’m giving away my first set of prints to people who donate to Palestine!

I started etching in September and have really enjoyed the process.

How payment works and artist statement here:

www.claudiahopkins.com/printmaking

#printmaking #etching #art #solidarity

I told my students that I hated personas and explained why. They had never heard a negative thing about them. I showed them an example of a user profile and how I used it more as a communication and recruitment tool

Then lots of them made personas but labeled them user profiles 🫠

A close up photograph of an etching print. The etching is of a fig branch in black ink with wide leaves at the top and smaller leaves towards the bottom. There are 4 figs shown on this close up - one of which is slightly concealed behind a branch. The etching is made up of small thin lines and no shading. The line weight varies as there are thicker lines around the leaves and figs but thinner lines for the contours of the figs and the leaves veins. There is a delicacy to the piece. The paper is a Japanese washi paper with speckles. It gives the work an organic feel

I was also surprised that the ink on my prints could be felt by touch. I expected it to be smooth on the paper

I’m curious if touching a print and tracing the ink could help people understand visual forms, or exploring how to create a print that can be read by touch rather than visually

Writing alt text for my artwork is so interesting and fun!

One of my students did a small research project on artist statements and visual descriptions which I’m inspired by. I wonder if visual descriptions should be written by spectators and the artist because the artist may see it differently.

…it wasn’t volunteer

Hope that’s somewhat helpful!

I _think_ I used people for research for accessibility testing…. (But I’m only 70% sure it was them) They have a group of people where you can see what assistive technologies they use etc

I found this webpage: www.peopleforresearch.co.uk/services/acc...

It says volunteer tho 😵‍💫 but when I did it…

As a former Manitoban who’s been dating a Persian for 5 years - the film Universal Language was so special to us both. It re-imagines Winnipeg through cross cultural relationships, with pops of political commentary. This interview answered so many of our curiosities about the film 🫶

Design and Disability - Exhibition at V&A South Kensington · V&A Showcasing the radical contributors of disabled, Deaf, and neurodiverse people and communities to design history and contemporary culture, from the 1940s to now

Feeling mixed feelings about returning to the UK but things like this make it easier! Looks really good 🫶

www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/...

It is! And also amazing how 6yo is still as wise, thought provoking and hopefully as creative (wanting a gif on a t-shirt was my favourite idea)

I missed these stories so much. Can’t believe 2yo became 6yo so fast 🫶

Some topic ideas that each group could focus on:
- Community supported agriculture
- Mutual aid
- Buy nothing communities
- Climate change refugees
- Making investment transparent and de-investment people-led
- Community library of things

Does anyone have any other topic ideas that I could add? 🙏

I've had the pleasure (and challenge) of taking on a teaching role at Emily Carr University! Currently teaching 3rd year interaction design students public sector + inclusive design 🫶

The second project is co-creation - focusing on community needs, participatory democracy and decreasing inequality

Hello 💗 it’s great to be reconnected with like-minded designers again, and so far without hostility and toxic positivity screaming in unison (like on LinkedIn) 😂

I have definitely been finding it harder to get excited about our profession but think that was mainly from a fractured community

Congratulations Soh-yon! A beautiful video and diary - I hope you feel so proud of this journey and all the hard work you put in 🫶