Final Major Project

Heading into the final major project of my degree course was a daunting task,
But after reading the brief and learning it was pretty much 'show us what you can do' I relaxed a little.
Being given a fairly free run at my own brief, I decided eventually that I would like to do something a based on Manchester, its people and history.
As I am a proud Mancunian I wanted to not just show off Manchester but to celebrate some aspects of it, and its people.
I spent much time trawling the Internet and libraries for information on the history of Manchester and famous people who have hailed from the city.
As expected the usual suspects cropped up a lot, new era celebrities, and sportsmen.
The Gallagher Brothers of Oasis fame, Ryan Giggs and Ricky Hatton amongst many many others.
I had already painted many of the people I was coming across connected with Manchester and since I wanted to highlight the importance of Manchester throughout history I kept digging further into Manchester's past.
A few names started to stand out and intrigue me.
Namely, that of Alan Turing, although he was not born in Manchester, he lived and died here and is celebrated on numerous sites throughout the city.
a Bridge and statue in his honour as well as a main thorough fare on the outskirts of the city centre named Alan Turing way.
His story is one of great achievement, tragedy and injustice.
The fore father of modern computing, who developed and built a machine capable of deciphering the Nazi German enigma codes used by their U-boats to communicate in secret.
The code breaking equipment proved pivotal in bringing about the end of the second world war but even after such a level of service to his Country, Alan Turing was charged with Homosexuality and chemically castrated with injections of the female hormone oestrogen.
The intrigue of the man and his story, as well as his almost anonimity amongst a generation who rely on gadgets he laid the foundations to create for ease of day to day living helped me decide that Alan Turing would be a key component of my final major project.
I set out to find out as much as I could about Alan Turing and his life.
throughout the reading I repeatedly came across passages mentioning the fact that Alan Turing had a soft spot for the story of Snow White and The Seven Dwarves.
The first motion picture animation of the story had been released by Walt Disney in 1937.
Alan turing committed suicide by eating an apple laced with Hydrogen Cyanide in 1954, after years of persecution at the hands he of the government he had served so dutifully during the world war.
The apple of course became central to my ideas generation as it was a direct connection between Alan Turing and The story of Snow White, since the fabled princess also fell victim to a poisonous apple.
This was the connection that let me move away from research and start drawing and playing with ideas.
With subject matter that is so full of emotion, injustice, greatness and achievement coupled with the fun brought about by Walt Disney's factor in the equation, I was excited to get started and experiment with some of the things that had filled my head since the idea came about.