The Perfect Villain

An article by Ekanem Ukpong.

The long philosophical monologues, creepy lairs, the evil laugh…these are just some of the stereotypes that come to mind when we think of the villain in a story. From the bedtime stories read to us as children, to the many power-hungry individuals in history who committed mass atrocities, we are primed to find stories incomplete without a bad guy; someone/thing we can hate on and want to see brought to justice. Due to this, we automatically start to see any character opposing our Hero as the Villain, even though the character may not be “bad”. This is why I avoid referring to the villain as the ‘bad guy’ and instead call it by its dramatic term - The Antagonist. The antagonist is a character or force which another character struggles against. The main antagonist, therefore, is what or who our hero must overcome during the course of the journey (story). In this article, I'm going to look at the key elements that make up the perfect villain.

GTK SPECIAL : A DAY WITH DATA PEPPLE

Hi all and welcome, Steph here! In honour of our launch today I ask you to journey with me on a rainy afternoon as I dive into the world of free and vibrant Data Pepple as she shows us the inner workings of her art and her process! Watch this interview featuring the kind-hearted illustrator with big plans for her future and a fluid hand stroke.

A'NAALA

HELLO AND WELCOME TO A'NAALA! A'naala is a blog dedicated to art and lifestyle and art as a lifestyle ;) and while the literal and collated meaning of A'naala is Culture, we did a little letter by letter breakdown, firstly on our Instagram as part of the build up to today's launch, of some of what we would be offering you at A'naala featuring some gorgeous works of art!

HENRI BARANDE: THE WORK BEYOND REVIEW.

Hey guys, Steph here.

The one thing about England that makes it so distinct (apart from all the tea lovers and scone eaters) is it's refreshingly depressing weather. So on this fine gloomy day (wow so many paradoxes) I decided to relieve myself of England's thick-set heaviness and take a trip to Saatchi Gallery, one of the favs here at A'naala as you can probably guess, and honestly it was so rewarding. I was on a mission to let the art come to me rather than trying to dive into it, which I usually do so after about 10 minutes on the ground floor I was getting a bit disappointed. Nothing struck me, nothing felt like you know an epiphany. Until.... (insert dramatic pause)

MENTAL ILLNESS AND THE ARTS

Fact. About 1 in 4 adults in the world live with a mental condition. Strangely, the extent to which mental illness is spoken about in society does a very poor job at reflecting this. The recent celebration of mental health awareness month helped to reignite the conversation that surrounds mental illness.

This post serves as a medium to spread awareness regarding mental illnesses. Many suffering from mental health issues often turn to the arts as a safe haven or even an outlet to share their stories. Having the ownership of a piece of art and using it to tell the world what you’re going through can be a very empowering tool for an artist. It can often be a center stage for people who may at times feel invisible.

In honour of this important cause, A’naala would like to recognize a few renowned artists that lived with mental conditions through out their careers. Despite their illnesses, the artwork that they have produced are some of the most influential pieces in the world.

Edit: The amazing Artsy has provided us with some additional resources just in case you wanted to know a little bit more about the artists included in this post! I'll attach them just below each segment so keep a look out!

 VINCENT VAN GOGH 

Through out his career, Van Gogh was combating frequent episodes of depression as well as anxiety. In fact, one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings, Starry night was produced during his voluntary admission into Saint-Paul-de-Mausole lunatic asylum.

Van Gogh turned to painting as a means of therapy. Despite his anguish he wrote in a letter to his brother in 1973;

“…but still there is within me a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest huts, in the dirtiest corner, I see drawings and pictures. And with irresistible force my mind is drawn towards these things.”

Starry Night 1889

For more on Vincent Van Gogh: https://www.artsy.net/artist/vincent-van-gogh

A WEEKEND AT SAATCHI

Hey darlings, Eme here. This weekend I went to my favourite contemporary art gallery in London- Saatchi! Honestly if you haven't been here I suggest you go. It's really a magical place and oh my goodness don't. even. get. me. started. on. the. gift. shop.

Before I go manic, I'll begin with these astonishing portraits by Jelena Bulajic, a 26 year old artist fom Serbia. She creates beautifully detailed pencil drawings- particularly of the aging human face. I think its important for you to know that these detailed drawings are massive. Like 10 feet massive. There is something so spectacular about the detail involved in the folds, the wrinkles and the spots of the aged faces she has depicted. Bulajic describes them as "time turned into shape... unique like a finger print".

Grozda, 2014

CELEBRATE BLACKNESS REVIEW

Hello All, Steph here.

So so so, as a newly enrolled student of the well-talked about University of the Arts London (UAL), I am eager to explore all the art avenues and experiences it has to offer, which must be quite a bit judging from the name of the uni ya know. Anywho, It's October! While yes we're all raving about halloween and what we're going to go dressed as (probably a sexy minion yes?) some of us are out there honouring black history month! And the student union at the university is part of this "us" and thus held a private exhibition at the gorgeous Central Saint Martin college of UAL to that cause. The exhibition showcased a small but energetic collection of work done exclusively by black students of the university, titling the exhibition "Celebrating Blackness".

At the first mention of this, I was buzzing. The uni is known to produce some of the most prominent members of the fashion and art world with an impressive alumni consisting of the likes of Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Zac Posen. So the work was no doubt going to be top level but knowing that it was going to be specifically black-targeted I was excited to see the socio-political context of the work and sure enough there was a yummy splash of just that.

I'll briefly discuss some of the pieces and what I took away from them:

The Art of Cinema

An article by Ekanem Ukpong.

Hi guys, this is my first post for A’naala! I’m obsessed with movies so over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to delve deeper into the art of cinematic storytelling. For me, there are 3 ways to tell a story through film (or as I like to call them layers).     These are Visually, Auditory and Literary. In this article, I’ll be focusing on the first way- visually. Specifically, how to use the movement of an individual to tell a story visually.