NATALIE KAY-THATCHER

The Barnacle

2011-10-10T15:57:00.001-07:00

Muralling for The Barnacle Stage at FIELDVIEW FESTIVAL.

Best thing about this is the UV invisible blue paint. It dries completely clear and only shows up under ultra violet light.

Many thanks are in order: To Johnny McIllroy for the setting me loose in his marquee. To Ernst Haeckel for the tendril inspiration. To my brother for making the festival amazing. To Mervyn Peake for the typography. To Chloe Taylor for painting it with me!

Most of all, to Cliff Port, for his wisdom and guidance. Cliff is a very accomplished mural and backdrop artist and has done painted wonders for bands like Hawkwind, Shed 7 and events like Live Aid (yes, the Africa guitars).

Photo credits: Simone Kay, Hattie Knight and Sarah Cape.

Flamingo Magazine

2011-09-22T03:14:00.000-07:00

A small interview with Flamingo Magazine. "Flamingo is an illustration, arts and music magazine that celebrates doing-it-yourself."

http://www.flamingomagazine.com/natalie-kay-thatcher-on-zines

Thanks to Zita Abila for the questions.

2011-08-22T16:39:00.001-07:00

How to Start a Feynman

2011-06-28T12:24:00.000-07:00

I have read a ton of books about Richard Feynman and the one that stood out was the collated interviews between him and Christopher Sykes in 'No Ordinary Genius' (1994). The stories about Feynman's father moved me so much that i thought they deserve a brand new illustrated collation.

The book is comprised out of Feynman's own spoken anecdotes about his formative years with his father, growing up in Far Rockaway on the outskirts of New York. These brief but insightful glimpses show how a Nobel Prize mind is moulded at a very early age.

The book got a lovely review by Bryony from It's Nice That, which you can read here.

If you would like to own one I am setting up a shop and they will be available to order. Send me an email: nataliekaythatcher@gmail.com to confirm a pre-order. Thanks!

2011-04-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

For the love of gouache.

Mothers Day

2011-04-04T04:40:00.001-07:00

Last week Paul Gravett came to college and stunned us with two incredible talks about graphic novels and the contemporary comic industry. He set us a task to make a silent nine frame comic about a childhood memory.

This also happily coincided with Mothers Day! x

PRINT / VONNEGUT SHOW / EGAKU

2011-04-01T14:12:00.000-07:00

I am proud to say this brand new nine layered screen print will be featured in two excellent shows in the coming days.

1/ EGAKU: Drawing for Japan

Recent Camberwell graduate Chie Miyazaki and others are hosting an art fair in aid of the disaster in Japan.

Onsale will be the work from some of the finest practitioners in the contemporary design and illustration world including Rob Ryan, Nobrow, Okido, Anorak Magazine, Jean Jullien, Laura Carlin, Frinton Press, Peepshow, Hato Press, Lazy Oaf, Winged Chariot & many many more.

Please head down to Jaguar Shoes this Sunday 3rd April, 12 - 8pm to show your support.

www.egaku.org.uk

2/ SO IT GOES

'So It Goes: A Tribute To Kurt Vonnegut' features original work inspired by the writing and ideas of the author of Slaughterhouse-Five, Cats Cradle, Player Piano, Welcome To The Monkeyhouse and Timequake, among others.

MONDAY 11th April 2011 at CAFE OTO

Door Times : 8pm

Tickets : £6 adv / £8 on the door

www.cafeoto.co.uk/vonnegut.shtm

Solaris and Europa

2011-03-22T06:52:00.001-07:00

When asked to visualise alien life most people would think of small grey bug-eyed beings with arms and legs. This anthropomorphic and banal image of extra terrestrial life has been played out numerous times throughout the history of science fiction. In Star Trek all it takes to make an alien is a bit of putty and a few dots strategically placed next to their eyes.

This is why I have chosen to depict a 'Mimoid' from Stanislaw Lem's 1961 novel Solaris. Of all the science fiction I have read I think Lem gets more to the heart of what alien life could be like. The being in Lem's novel, the giant omnipotent sea, creates vast structures which are stimulated by psychology of the characters in the book. Of course this kind of being is completely absurd and very unlikely to exist, but it is the fact he wrote about a being so beyond our comprehension and scale which sets him apart from other science fiction writers who describe their creatures almost as human as us.

Considering Earth is our only reference point to living things at this present time it is natural to project ideas about life on to the worlds out in space. Further research is made into the hostile terrains of our own planet where very simple life manages to eek out an existence in the most unlikely of places. Relating the extreme conditions found on Earth to extreme conditions found in space means exciting possibilities have opened up for the discovery of alien microbial life. Not quite the walking, babbling, ray-gun wielding creatures dreamt up in sci-fi but it's a small and incredibly exciting start to this grand quest to find our cosmic community.

EUROPA

Jupiter's moon Europa has excited astrobiologists ever since it's surface has been observed in increasingly closer detail. It's etched with mysterious red markings and a pattern of cross hatched cracks cover vast expanses of the icy outer shell. Studies on Earth claim that life can exist and flourish inside ice. Not just in suspended animation but continually cell-dividing and reproducing. The implications of this discovery is what make Europ'a surface crust so intriguing. According to NASA scientist Richard Hoover the wide variety of colours on the surface are highly suggestive of microbial life and there is a “very strong possibility that the ice of Europa may contain viable living micro-organisms.” This means the evidence of extra terrestrial life could already be in our own solar system. And cosmically, that's right on our doorstep.

Not only has the surface of Europa got enormous potential for harbouring life but underneath the shell sits another incredible cosmic find. Most planetary scientists believe that a layer of liquid water exists beneath Europa's icy surface that stretches an enormous 100 kilometres deep and covers the entire moon. This means there is twice as much potentially life-sustaining water on Europa than found on Earth.

Perhaps like the laws of physics, the laws of biology are also universal. This would mean that life arises using the same chemistry set all over the universe. Or perhaps, one could speculate an entity like Lem's Solaris where our Earth reference point diminishes and becomes something extraordinary.

-----------------------------

“Extremophiles” Universe Today. April 6, 2010 http://www.universetoday.com/61457/extremophiles/

"Astrobiology in Space Exploration Missions". NASA Astrobiology. April 29, 2010 http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/missions/

"Phoenix Mars Mission". University of Arizona. April 29, 2010 http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/mission.php

Wonders of the Solar System: Aliens. (2009) BBC

Cosmos: Encyclopedia Galactica. (1978) Sagan, Druyan & Soter

Hypothetical Guardian

2011-03-21T10:53:00.001-07:00

These are the final images from a task set by Sarah Habershon of the Guardian. The articles were '50 steps to getting your new career' and 'So you want to work in space'.

(I definitely played it very safe)

ICA Dirty Electronics

2011-02-17T08:02:00.001-08:00

The ICA Solder-A-Score is an abstracted graphic representation of a circuit diagram based on an instrument by John Richards.

I Love You is an embellished description of the performance with the Sudophone.

Skull Etching is a hybrid technical and expressive schematic based on an instrument by John Richards.

John Richards’ work explores performing with self-made instruments and the creation of interactive environments. I was asked to make a series of illustrations for an ICA and Dirty Electronics project in February 2011. The images are featured in the ICA’s Roland magazine and will be hung on the walls during the event. The show features workshops in bad ass instrument building, performances and talks.

The work is hung until February 20th so get down there an have a look. There is an edition of 40 handmade screen prints of each design at a very reasonable price of £12 each.

www.jsrichards.com

www.ica.org.uk/27692/Music/Dirty-Electronics-Solder-and-Score

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

2011-02-17T07:55:00.001-08:00

Afterlife Lithos

2011-02-17T07:36:00.000-08:00

Three colour litho and book cover idea for Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian. (1999) The image depicts the blue tunnel ascending from the lethal injection facility in Huntsville, Texas and up to heaven.

This lithograph is an idea for an afterlife after reading David Eagleman’s Sum: Tales from the Afterlives. (2010)

Kurt Vonnegut took over from Isaac Asimov as the honorary president for the American Humanist Association.This is an extract from the introduction of God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian explaining his religious position:

About belief or lack of belief in an afterlife: Some of you may know that I’m niether Christian nor Jewish nor Buddhist, nor a conventionally religious person of any sort. I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I’m dead. (1999, p.9)

The Copenhagen Interpretation

2011-02-17T06:15:00.000-08:00

The Niels Bohr Institute is a Physics institution part of the University of Copenhagen. Research spans Astronomy, Geophysics, Nanophysics, Particle Physics, Quantum Physics and Biophysics.

In December 2010 I went there to gain a broader understanding of how physics is taught at a university level. I quickly noticed my attention turning away from the actual physics and drawing towards the people who were there. I met the students and lecturers, conducted interviews and talked with various members of staff. I wanted to understand the way they felt about the subject they were studying, and how exciting it is to conduct research into the fundamental laws of nature. I got a mixture of apathy and insatiable enthusiasm.

Holger Bech Nielson! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOI8byIV_GI

I didn't understand a word, but he was thoroughly entertaining. There were two language barriers for me: Danish, and quantum physics.

Ice Cores! The ice featured is 100,000 years old excavated in the north of Greenland.

Absolutely my favourite part of the trip. The Single Bubble Sonoluminescence lab which is a more traditional physics lab. As apposed to computer simulations, this lab involves hands on experiments, and 'craftsmanship' according to the experimental physicist who's been working on this particular area for 30 years.

Sound can be transformed into light. A sonoluminescing bubble is a small bubble in water trapped in a powerful sound field. The bubble expands as the sound pressure drops, and collapses as the sound pressure increases. The radius of the bubble drops from approx 70 um to 0.7 um - a relative volume change of 10 to power of 6. This leads to adiabatic heating and as the bubble is smallest and hottest (~20000 K), a very short (~200 ps) flash of light is emitted. Light is emitted at the same frequency as the oscillating sound field. The physical mechanism responsible for light emission is still largely unknown.

It took us a while to find but eventually we saw the bubble. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen: One micron of light created with sound, water and temperatures hotter than a star!

"the physical mechanism responsible for light emission is still largely unknown" Exciting!

First year physics lab. The students were conducting an incline experiment. When in the physics lab I was asked to make a few diagrams for one of their experiment write-ups. It was a pleasurable exercise and the images got a good response when assessed. I think the actual phrasing of the critique was “bad ass.”

In Niels Bohrs' Auditorium. Bohr, Dirac, Heisenberg and Meitner in the front row. During the lectures they would use a small trumpet and a cannon: for celebration and/or decimation of a lecture.

And finally, Bohrs' bath!

A thousand thanks to Jophiel Wiis who made this all happen. An amazing host who is totally in love with physics.

Sneak peek

2010-12-21T17:17:00.001-08:00

A taster of a new comic I am working on based on Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian. More info soon.

Plus, a bonus imaginary circuit board. Enjoy!

Mont Sainte Victoire Diagram

2010-11-11T06:35:00.001-08:00

The coloured points on the mountain top represent spectroheliostats, these contain prisms which are calibrated to refract the light from the sun at different positions. The colours alternate as the prisms change position and also differ relative to the position of the observer. The result is a magnificent display of the coloured lights choreographed in the natural landscape, highlighting the underlying physical process of light travelling from sun to eye.

This was made for artist Liliane Lijn and astrophysicist John Vellerga's beautiful 'Solar Hills' project proposal:

Solar Hills are large-scale solar installations in the landscape that define the horizon with light. With Solar Hills, we are creating a new awareness of the beauty and poetry of our star.

http://www.lilianelijn.com/solar-hills-video.html

Particle sprays

2010-10-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

CERN VIS

2010-09-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

Announcement: I am going to update this with better quality resolution images when I get access to the Über scanners at college. Thank you, take care.

HAUS WERK

2010-09-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

Berlin trip September 2010

Werk break. Helped the fantastic Peter Nencini set up his various installations for the show 'By With and Of' in the Direktorenhaus exhibition space, mitte Berlin. Activities included measuring, sewing, cutting, washing in a sink, eating and laughing.

An unexpected treat came in the form of an abandoned cold war building, built on an artificial hill after the Second World War. Thanks to HCW for leading us through the woods to the eerie Teufelsberg (or Devils Mountain).

This post features: Harriet Cory-Wright, RLLE, Hannah Whitfield, Elisa Strozyk, Action Weaver, Daniel Becker, Roman Bittner and the Bauhaus archiv.

LHC mural

2010-08-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

The kind gentlemen of Fieldview Festival gave me a large board to cover with whatever I wanted. While still being on a high from my recent pilgrimage to CERN the imagery of the ATLAS muon detectors and magnets (etc) came out of the paint pens very naturally. The image is not accurate so please, physicists, don't use it in your presentations. It was designed on site and completed on site. Thanks to Laurie Pycroft for helping me finish it til 5am on the last night ( with added exceptional conversation).

And thanks especially to the delicious Cameron brothers for putting on a glorious weekend.

The Big Drawing

2010-08-11T04:07:00.000-07:00

A collaborative ten metre drawing made for our show 'The Whole Universe in a Glass of Wine.' Each element of the drawing goes up in powers of ten metres starting from the atom and going up to a globular cluster.

Done with the superb illustrators Jennifer Crouch, Rosie Eveleigh and Penelope Klein.

CERN

2010-08-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

Flickr

2010-06-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

Life Cycle of a Star

2010-06-19T04:38:00.001-07:00

Black Hole Peeling

2010-06-19T04:04:00.001-07:00

An artists impression of a black hole swallowing a star. The drawings were inspired from imagery found in A Brief History of Time: A Readers Companion.

THE WORK

2010-06-19T03:52:00.000-07:00

The quote was found via Bryony Quinn.

THE SHOW

2010-06-17T06:28:00.003-07:00

More photos on vaarwel flickr

THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IN A GLASS OF WINE SHOW!

2010-05-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

http://thewholeuniverseinaglassofwine.blogspot.com/

COME TO OUR SHOW FRIDAY 4TH JUNE AT THE GALLERY IN REDCHURCH STREET!

THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IN A GLASS OF WINE is a poem by the physicist Richard Feynman. Through the use of ink, print, music, performance and film, this event reacts to his exquisite dissection of the Universe into physics, biology, geology, astronomy and psychology.

A show created and curated by

Jennifer Crouch
Penelope Klein
Rosanne Eveleigh
Natalie Kay-Thatcher
Raine Allen-Miller

Join us for a glass of wine (or more likely a glass of cider) and enjoy the metaphor, while examining the artwork and listening to the live music and lectures.

The festivities will begin at 6.30pm. Full cosmic soundtrack provided.

Live music from JOHNNY AND THE CHEMISTS
(more to be confirmed)

Spoken word from ADRIAN HOLME and STEVEN SMYTH

Sponsored by Kopperberg cider

JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP

Neutron Star by Johnny and the Chemists

2010-04-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

I made this animation for Johnny Drain, an exceptionally talented scientist who also writes beautiful little numbers. The visuals are modeled on vintage science footage, from films such as the Bell System Science series. It was all done using projectors and a digital stills camera.

Johnny & the Chemists have made a few songs about science and mathematics, including a love song that delightfully rhymes “calculate it” with extrapolate it”. Confusingly, Johnny & the Chemists is actually just one man, Johnny Drain, and a guitar, although he works closely with Natalie Kay-Thatcher, an illustrator who also makes rather lovely videos. ‘Neutron Star’, which was specially written and recorded as an EXCLUSIVE for the 2010 festival.

Taken from the Geek Pop website.

Listen to more Johnny and the Chemists here.

Diffraction pattern of a Manganese-Silicide crystal

2010-04-06T03:42:00.000-07:00

This was taken on a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) which is conceptually similar to a normal microscope except that it uses electrons rather than light (photons). Electron wavelengths can be much smaller than light wavelengths so it produces a greater magnification.

The centre dot is the e-beam, the larger brighter dots are images of the individual columns of Manganese atoms and the smaller fainter dots are the silicon. The scale is in micrometres, which is bafflingly small and hard to visualise in our human scale!

The image was taken by Matt LeBlanc, a very interesting physicist studying at Acadia University and soon to be working at Cern. It is one of the most beautiful things ever given to me. I could stare endlessly at it pondering other dimensions of scale and time.

Wonders

2010-03-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

If you have not been watching 'Wonders of the Solar System' with Professor Brian Cox I strongly recommend it. It's a glorious journey through our galactic neighbourhood, with stunning photography and some very uplifting scientific poetry.

You can watch it here.

Veiner

2010-03-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

Growth

2010-03-30T14:13:00.001-07:00

HI! HI! HI!

2010-03-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

Last Hours: Feynman zine review

2010-03-27T13:49:00.001-07:00

What a nice surprise. Last Hours - 'an online and occasional print zine for the anti-authoritarian, DIY and punk communities' have written a review of my Feynman zine.

It's fitting that a character like Feynman should attract the attention of the diy punk community. Feynman had always stated that he had a disrespect for certain authorities, 'the epaulets and uniforms', due to the teachings of his father. One such lesson was when they were both looking at a picture of the Pope with people bowing down in front of him. 'Now, what is the difference between the Pope and those other humans?' He asked. Is it just a hat?

Read the article here.

Thanks to the talented Peter Willis for the encouraging words.

Lithography print

2010-03-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Galaxies to mesons, the very small and the very large collide in a lithographic experiment.

Nordnorsk

2010-03-26T09:32:00.001-07:00

The wilderness of Gratangen in the icy grip of winter. The frozen fjords cut through the white peaks and by night the light of the moon casts a blue across the landscape, stealing precedence over the aurora borealis and the milky way's majestic back bone.

Taken on digital slr, film and slide film. The slide film has been cross processed which makes a cheeky surprise colour filtration.

Friday print: Skwimbs on a fade

2010-03-12T14:42:00.000-08:00

These were the first things I drew when I decided to be an illustrator, thrice years past. They are self portraits.

The Inconceivable Nature of Nature

2010-03-09T16:31:00.001-08:00

'The inconceivable nature of nature' is a hand screen printed publication consisting of my favourite scientific and philosophical prose. I feel tremendous joy and an uplifting of the spirit from the scientific insights that these wonderful humans have shared. Thanks to Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, Richard Feynman, A.C. Grayling, Jacob Bronowski, Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins.

Neutron star clip

2010-02-19T17:01:00.000-08:00

Neutron Star from Natalie Kay-Thatcher on Vimeo.

A small clip from an animation I am working on at the moment.

Screen Prints

2010-01-31T05:26:00.001-08:00

First go on the silk screen machine. More to come!

Un-Christmassy Christmas Cards

2009-12-24T18:13:00.000-08:00

2009-12-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

Katie Paterson

2009-11-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

A map documenting the locations of just under 27,000 dead stars - all that have been recorded and observed by humankind.

E.M.E (Earth-Moon-Earth) is a form of radio transmission whereby messages are sent in Morse code from earth, reflected from the surface of the moon, and then received back on earth. The moon reflects only part of the information back – some is absorbed in its shadows, ‘lost’ in its craters.

For this work, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata has been translated into Morse code and sent to the moon via E.M.E. Returning to earth ‘fragmented’ by the moon’s surface, it has been re-translated into a new score, the gaps and absences becoming intervals and rests.

www.katiepaterson.org

I Trusted You

2009-11-04T20:09:00.000-08:00

2009-10-07T12:30:00.001-07:00

Another cluster of scans from my developing black and white book. Warts and all.

Feynman Zine

2009-08-27T12:09:00.001-07:00

If you would like to own this limited edition publication then contact me at nataliekaythatcher@gmail.com.

Vertical drawing

2009-08-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

For Jump the Shark Camberwell first year Illustration show held in a liesure centre and Field View Festival on the DJ booth.

Thanks to Penny, Rosie, Bea, Jen and Robin for all their wonderful help and presence.

JOEY SKAGGS

2009-05-21T10:48:00.000-07:00

A chronological biopic of the media satirist Joey Skaggs; in one take!

Hi Natalie,

Very, very funny and wonderfully original. Kudos! Thanks for letting me know.

Best,

Joey

2009-04-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

woodlings in weirdlands from nadia krol on Vimeo.

Tale of the Woodlings

We made costumes and ran around a forest.

Berlin bear

2009-04-27T12:23:00.001-07:00

Incredulous breakfast

2009-04-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

Demetri Martin graced this page with his signature on a recent trip to New York.

TITFACE

2009-04-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

Inspired by television

2009-04-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

2009-04-24T16:06:00.001-07:00

2009-04-24T15:57:00.001-07:00

American Folk Art

Colliding Binary Neutron Stars

2009-04-24T15:53:00.000-07:00

One of the most massive and violent explosions in the universe.

Schrödingers

2009-04-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

Dimensions of dialogue

2009-04-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

LIDL ME THIS

2009-04-24T15:38:00.001-07:00

Thanks to the remarkable underrated 15 Storeys High for the inspiration.

Mirth

2009-04-24T15:21:00.001-07:00

Miscellaneous Underdeveloped Brainflushes

2009-04-24T07:20:00.001-07:00

Welcome bloglets