Sketching the Workplace Competition: Shortlisting

Well, I can't quite believe that it's nearly time for me to fly home to England. It's been quite an adventure. Luckily, it's not quite over yet ...

Since I finished the sketching part of my residency at the CTWD. John and I have been away travelling for a nearly a month through Western Australia (which is why there's been no blogging), but we arrived back in Perth on Sunday. 

This week, I have a last few days of things to do. One big thing that's left, is to judge the competition. On Monday morning, I had the excitement of arriving at the research centre to find a huge pile of entries waiting!

I spent the whole day trying to whittle them down. Not easy! I created a long list, then a shortlist, all of which was incredibly hard, as the standard was really high and the entries were often quite different to one another. These are just a few details I photographed to show you (they are all longer concertina sketchbooks), from just a random handful of them.

There were over 40 entries, from all over the world: Australia and England (obviously), but also Canada, Japan, India, Italy, Portugal, Hong Kong and America. Which is really interesting, since you get to see jobs and workplaces from a cultural perspective, as well as a personal one. 

We were lucky enough to have one or two jobs represented by more than one country, like these butcher sketches, from India...

...and also from England:

The range of jobs was really wide too: a Museum Collections Manager, dealing with stuffed animals, a cello teacher, a bookbinder, a mechanic. There was a big garment manufacturing business, an artisan jeweller, a florist... Plus loads more. The researchers are so excited by the material. They've been eagerly watching the pile of envelopes grow while I've been travelling.

We devised a numbering system for the judging, to keep things anonymous, just in case I happen to know anyone who has entered. I am presenting my shortlist to Professor Parker on Wednesday. 

She will look long and hard at the written element of the project, to make a judgement on how incisive and communicative each entry is. That, as well as a 2nd pair of eyes on the sketches, will help us choose the two winners.

Just two! Oh dear...

I have a couple more days of sketching to do myself before I fly home - jobs which fell off the end earlier in the residency. I'll tell you about them when I get home.

And don't forget to watch this space for more news about the competition prizewinners!