Milestone [it’s personal] – Paul Owen
[break]
About the Artwork
Printed publication intended to raise awareness for cancer.
The Milestone project was born in 2012, from the idea that Paul wanted to document and share his experience of living with cancer. Milestone (it’s personal) is not a journal, but it does contain extracts from his personal diary, which started on 24th July 2007 – the day he began Chemotherapy (it’s contents had never been seen before). In most parts, the content of this book is structured in a sequential time-line, beginning with diagnosis, and running through a series of emotional responses, random thoughts and feelings throughout Paul’s treatment and recovery.
Milestone explores many visual devices and acknowledges the aesthetics and expressive possibilities of typography and imagery in the hope it will go beyond the printed word. This hybrid of art, science and technology is an artistic representation of what is happening inside the body and mind. The visuals try to evoke a sense of energy through fluidity and light, and simultaneously represent the power and control of medicine. Paul hopes it goes beyond experimental image making and letterforms in the belief that these visuals can interact and create new powerful connections, meanings, and challenge the perception that cancer is ‘ugly’.
About the Artist
Paul Owen is a British Designer and Academic based in Liverpool. Paul has spent over twenty years in the design industry, from Designer, Brand Guardian to Art-Director and having specialised in visual communication he has been involved in branding, advertising and editorial for many national and international brands. Today, Paul works as a Senior Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Fashion and Communication programme at Liverpool John Moores University, where he is the Creative Director of WE ARE FASHION and UN_FOLD Magazine.
Paul is also a practice-based researcher, and is currently exploring the role of visual language within Art and Science, in particular how imagery can be used in communicating the physical and psychological aspects of cancer and it’s treatments. His work is primarily focused on experimental image making, typography and the printed form and he is always seeking to collaborate with specialists from the Art, Science and Medical backgrounds, aspiring to change the ‘uglyness’ of the subject matter.
His recent projects include City/Map/React – video projection Flip Festival, A hidden Identity – Publication, Legacy – Publication, Print is Dead – Long live print; Youth Culture; Bowie to Brexit – UN_FOLD magazine, Space Dust – Northern Eye Festival and Damaged Blood Cells – Project 26.2.