RESEARCH
The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952(interview)
Charles M Schulz's Peanuts was created during the height of the American postwar celebration; this was an era in which being unhappy was taboo or antisocial, rather than a normal emotion that people have. His comics often involved children speaking about depression, insecurity and feelings of inferiority, especially during Lucy's psychiatric booth panes. Schulz had the ability to tell anyone what a character would be going through or feeling, and with only a few lines, he showed that he recognised the phenomenal number of small things to which big questions can be reduced.
Peanuts was also became a loved comics that showed genuine pain and loss, but kept everything still with that warm and fuzzy feeling, and this was achieved by combining adult concepts into the lives of young children, allowing Schulz to remind us that we can heal ourselves and our childhood wounds as we grow older.
From the book interview
MARSCHALL: They try to read something into the strip.
SCHULZ: Which is all right. I think that even minor art forms like this, as Robert Short tried to talk about in The Gospel According to Peanuts, do have certain truths in them, and I think that's important, and I think that people should be able to read whatever they want to into what they're looking at or reading. But as far as an overall philosophy goes, I'm really not sure what it is. Although I try to draw a gentle strip, I try to draw a strip that doesn't have any real cruelty in it, outside of things like Lucy pulling away the football. And it's not as insulting a strip as it used to be. Of course, I've gotten older, and I'm not as insulting as I used to be myself.
.....eventually bought his own barber shop. And I think he at one time owned two barber shops and a filling station, but that was either when I was not born or very small, so I don't know much about that. But, of course, I was raised during the Depression struggle, which didn't affect me personally, because I don't think little kids are into what's going on. If you have pancakes for dinner, you think that's wonderful because you like pancakes. You don't realize that you're probably having them because your parents can't afford anything more. But my dad ran a three-chair barbershop...
MARSCHALL: Ran it through the Depression?
SCHULZ: Right through the Depression. I know at one point he was seven months behind on his rent, but he told me years later it didn't matter because the big building where his barber shop was had so many empty spaces in it that the landlord didn't really care, as long as he kept up as much as he could on the rent But I always admired him for being a self-employed person who loved his work. I remember his telling me several times that he loved to get up in the morning and go to work, and I think he was as totally at home in the barber shop as I am off doodling in my studio Years later, I began to realize that a lot of this being at home in your place of work is not necessarily because you love it so much, but because you're secure there and he probably had the same travel fears that I have. But he was incapable of expressing them and I knew about it, and I never had a chance to talk about these
Lucy van Pelt
Lucy van Pelt is the personification of a disagreeable nature; she comes the part of Schluz that is mean and sarcastic. Although many see her as bossy or attention seeking, I think she has a much gentler interior to her as Charles sometimes writes her as caring towards her brother and sometimes even Charlie Brown. For example, there is a comic strip where Lucy yells at Charlie Brown to go home, but as soon as he states that no one else is back at his house, she immediately invites him to stay fro dinner. On the surface, she seems powerful and strong, but she is very dependent on the attention she gets from her parents as a source of validation, but she also cares very little wha the other main characters think of her. I have chosen her as the character I relate to in terms of her relationship with her family, as I feel it is a large influence on her attitude and the way she can easily offend others without much though.
REFLECTION
13/01
To start my research on Peanuts, I borrowed the complete collection from 1950 to 1962 as well as reading the comics that the exhibition had out on the table. At first, I could only connect to Charlie Brown but as new characters started to become introduced into the series, I found that many of the children had relatable personality traits. Additionally, the relationships between friends and even families are some that many people have experienced, especially Lucy's unrequited love and Charlie's affection for Snoopy. For now, I think I want to focus primarily on the relationship between two people and how it affects someone's attitudes as upbringing and surroundings are large influences in our behaviour.
14/01
After the workshop, I started to think about narrowing down my theme, and eventually decided upon Lucy's family relationship. I wanted to demonstrate an abstract narrative of absence within the family and how this affects children and their attitudes as they grow.
15/01
The tutorial with Tim helped me realise that only showing the garments can achieve my desired concept. I feel liek this would be the best way to symbolise absence and also allow others to relate to my work as there is no set model. To test out my concept, I did a few shoots with some clothing in my house as i wanted the location to be as domestic as possible. I found that it would be more effective if I drape the garments more carefully and also to add accessories or props such as shoes or toys. I also asked my friends a few questions to get some quotes to support my images. The questions where:
What was your relationship like with your parents and was it balanced between ur mother and father?
Do you get along with your siblings ? Do you feel the relationship has changed since you were younger?
How do you feel different methods of parenting(or the parenting you’ve experienced) has affected the way you are today ?
Do you think it will influence ur ways of parenting if you become a parent in the future?
Or if you are already a parent, has your upbringing affected the way you treat your children?
From the questions, I had a few answers that were very much in depth , this may be because those friends are not shy in telling me about the relationship betwen them and their parents. I will also have to think about typography and the layout of the text to display the mood of the narratives.
16/01 to 20/01
During this period of time, I focused on collecting as many garments, tkaing into account the colour and its contrast with my location. I also worked on my portfolio at this time.
When I was draping the garments, the most difficult part was trying to stand them up for long enough to take a series of photos, as well as making it seem there was someone in that clothing. It was also quite challenging to create a variety of shapes and actions with the clothes otherwise it would be too repetitive.
21/01
I created the layout on indesign, and I realised that I could not just create a sixteen page document with the template I wanted to achieve. I learnt that I had to make two a5 8 page bookelts and then create a double sided document that was 3 a5 pages long but with one a5 length. I chose to create the booklets first and used a mixture of sizes to make it interesting for the reader. The thing I learnt most from this is that the font can really create a new atmosphere of the garments, and can either make or break a publication.
CHARLIE BROWN
Charlie Brown represented a real person with real problems, with anxieties of inferiority and alienation. Charlie Brown reminded people, as no other cartoon character had, of what it was to be vulnerable, to be human. The experience of being an Everyman-a decent, caring person in a hostile world- is essential to Charlie Brown's character, as it was to Charles Schulz's. The quality of fortitude (one of the seven cardinal virtues in Christianity) is at the heart of Charlie Brown.
Humanity was created to be strong; yet, to be strong, and still to fail is one of the identifying things that it is to be human. Charlie Brown never quit, which in the end would prove to be a perfect description of Charles Schulz;Charlie Brown is a fighter, but a fighter in terms of pure endurance, not in terms of working out strategically how he is going to win. He simply endures; in one particular comic from 1 February 1954, Charlie Brown watches on to an unaware Shermy who plays with an elaborate substantial model train set in which its dimensions were too large to be shown in one singular comic panel. In the following panel, Charlie brown puts on his coat and walks home until he sits down at his own single closed train track, just around the width of a manhole cover. This particular part pin points the idea when PEANUTS become PEANUTS-Charlie Brown became the national symbol of an Everyman; he showed no anger or tears and only let the reader see his silent acceptance. It tells the reader that he survives life through the process of surviving himself.
Schroeder
Ludwig van Beethoven is Schroeder's favorite composer, as revealed in the February 27, 1955 strip. In it, Lucy takes his bust of Beethoven and smashes it, but Schroeder simply takes another one from a closet full of Beethoven busts. Every year, Schroeder marks Beethoven's birthday on December 16, although in a series of strips from December 1957 he forgets the date, is in shock when he finds out about it the following day and feels terrible for several days afterwards.Another distinguishing character trait of Schroeder is his constant refusal of Lucy's love. Lucy is infatuated with Schroeder and frequently leans against his piano while he is playing, professing her love for him. However, since Beethoven was a lifelong bachelor, Schroeder feels that he must emulate every aspect of his idol's life - even though it is insinuated that he reciprocates Lucy's feelings. In a story arc where she and the rest of her family have moved out of town, Schroeder becomes frustrated with his music and mutters disbelievingly that he misses her. Despite his constant animosity towards her, Schroeder would come to realize that Lucy has unwittingly become his muse and he cannot play without her.
Relationships between characters
LUCY AND HER FAMILY
Shin Noguchi
Shin Noguchi
I'm shooting ordinary moments of daily life. Because there is something here, something beautiful, something special.
I want people to enjoy extraordinary moments existing in our daily life, our ordinary lives.
I'm here, just here. You're here, just here. Don't push yourself too much. You're doing your best. You are so beautiful. Your life is so special.
— Shin Noguchi