'It's a Long way back'

Its been a while since my last post but ive just arrived back from Malmo, Sweden were I was kindly asked to exhibit by Krets gallery.

The show, titled 'It's a long way back' was made up of mostly new work , with some older key pieces supporting the ideas. Below are some photos of the space, and some notes about the work and process. more photos of the work can also be seen here

In ‘ It’s a Long way Back’ I took its starting point from a plaque I saw in Portland a couple of years ago. It was commemorating a flood that occurred in 1800’s.

‘Softly, silently the waters crept up, inch by inch giving ample time for the removal of goods and other precautionary measures and then gradually receded. There was no raging waters, no sweeping destructive currents. Nothing but a gradual submersion’ - Oregon Historical Society file 1532.4

I had a replica of this made for the show, placed beneath the ‘surfers’ image This alongside another small piece of text within the show hopefully gave clues, encouraged the viewer to find narratives, connections within the work.

Another consideration for the exhibtion was to use materials and methods that would not reproduce well and only work when seen in the flesh, Graphite on graphite, neon paper stock,etc

In the initial drawings I was trying to use different marks, forms, building up an image then covering it, trying to eradicate areas, getting rid of information. Not really any different to how I work digitally but the whole process remains visible, each part informing the next more directly.

It’s been an interesting process because of the shift in thinking about the construction of an image. Perhaps more formal, basic concerns- line, composition, tone come to the surface and the 'communication' aspect, that is rightly important in my illustration work, is less director clear within these pieces.

This is especially true with the larger pieces. Often starting with an idea in how to combine certain pictorial elements. For example, the following image first contained a whale’s tail hanging by a noose from an iron American streetlamp from the early 1900s. This seemed like a simple way to comment on some of my references, the hunting of whales for oil to fuel the lamps and later the use of these street lamps for lynching but visually became too obvious, clunky, a punch line. All the elements, references remain simmering below the surface

Rightly or wrongly, the viewer engages with the work differently when its in a gallery space rather then pages of a magazine, asks more questions of an the work perhaps? Im not sure but a phrase I heard and liked during the exhibition in Sweden, which didn’t really have a direct translation but roughly meant ‘don’t write it on my nose’, I guess saying ‘don’t spell it out for me, I can decide.’

Exhibition

i have an exhibition coming up next month at Krets gallery in Malmo Sweden.

ill be there for the opening so if your in town or fancy a weekend away pop by and say hello.

ill post some of the new work in progress soon

beautiful south bbc sessions (02)

i was recently commissioned to do another Beautiful South BBC sessions CD cover by Smiler associates. the project was similar to before in that they commissioned an already existed image which i than had to expand upon. The original image was similar to the top picture of the owl, which was arrived at through an animation i did for Sleeproom a couple of years ago.

because it was old work i reworked it to make it fit in with the newly created work. I think its interesting to have to then build a world around an image that was created as a one off, feels closed. you could almost take any image as a starting point and start to build a set of rules, systems narratives around it. In this case the giant owl originally had no reason for its scale other than a visual aesthetic ( poster image for animation) but now it started to take the form of a god or a threat. from there , a form of worship occurs and a form of resistance and a small narrative starts to unfold. i also wanted to include a character from the first CD cover ( the girl) so this started to become about the night version of the first cover im not sure how well this will translate to the finished product as it will have to contain a lot of other information, but it gave me a basis and direction to make the work

Peepshow exhibition

a recent peepshow exhibition in the Here gallery in falmouth

more photos can be seen here

Editorials

two new editorial pieces . the bottom one is for HBR about the lack of book s in business about failures and what we can learn form failing. I think its the first time i've ever used type to help an idea.

The top one was in this sundays independent to coincide with valentines days. it was based on a short story and the simple miscommunications in conversation between men and women

the outsider

During the first week of january I decided to work on the House of Illustration and Folio Society competition for 'The Outsider' by Albert Camus. It was a book I had read and attempted to illustrate before, (not very successfully) when I was a student. For that reason it was easy to get up to speed with the book quickly. The competition required three illustrations spanning the entire book, and the cover design with consideration given to the folios binding. Two of the four images turned out ok (coffin & beach) but the final image ( prison) which i thought was the most interesting at first, became the least successfully, weak drawing of the man and far too flat compared to the other images. There is a need to acknowledge the tradition of illustrated books whilst speaking in your own visual language, this is a balance I didnt achieve but is worth thinking about when attempting this again. Hopefully with another weeks work these could be improved- but I might try to expand the series to six images first to really get a sense of the whole book and create a body of work that is consistent

cover
'i then wanted a cigerette. But i hesitated because i didnt know if i could smoke in front of my dead mother...' ' .....the whiteness of the room seemed even more dazzling than before'

'.... That was when everything shook' ' ....and it was like four sharp knocks at the door of unhappiness'

'.... i had a tormenting desire for women...' '..... the feeling of the water and the freedom it would give me.... i imagined the sound of the first little waves...'

Ministry of Stories

Towards the end of last year I was lucky enough to work on an image for the Ministry of Stories, a wonderful new creative writing centre for young people. Its based out the back of a Monster Supply Store on Hoxton street and based on the 826 Valencia , set up by Dave Eggers. You can read more about it here. I was given a written description of a monster 'Filthystien' by the Year 4 class at St Monica's RC Primary school ( you can read their full description of this monster here) and had to make a drawing to match. The finished image was a three colour screen print( kindly printed by Nobrow). some other great monster were created by the likes of Ben Newman and Stevie Gee. you can see them here.

Aubin and Wills

Over the christmas period I was working on a four panel cover for Aubin and Wills magazine Almanac ,which will be out in the spring. For that reason I can t show the finished artwork yet but heres a some small crops. more to come nearer the time

Happy Christmas Everyone!

A Graphic Cosmogony

Thursday saw the launch of A Graphic Cosmogony, published by Nobrow, who once again have produced a book of beauty. Amazing print job, with great cloth spine detail provided by the cover artist Micah Lidberg. Much to my relief I got the colour separation almost right and my seven pages didnt turn out brown .

Its worth a visit to their shop/gallery to pick up a copy and see the current exhibition of the very talented Rob Hunter and Jon McNaught

Been working on a rough idea for a childrens book with a friend. Its been interesting to try and shift my work to a mode that can work for that genre but this will need to be tested and judged by others soon. It has been a positive experiment because there was a better , more direct use of my initial drawings allowing the image to become richer through the digital process.

This still need lot of work and another trip to the zoo

New editorial

its been a busy couple of weeks on the editorial front. Commissions have included a piece about the taxidermist Carl Akeley for the Washington Post , a series of images for Together Design for Safer Clinical Systems, an article about the exclusion of women from the boardroom for National Post, and a piece about the Dodd Frank reform on Wall st

It Nice That Issue 4

It Nice That issue 4 is now out. A well designed and produced magazine full of interesting articles that expands upon the wealth of talent featured on their blog. Whilst the blog continues to provide a daily dose of the excellent work going on in the world, the printed magazine offers you a chance to slow down, spend time with the work they present and enjoy it again at a future date. I was lucky enough to draw portraits for the contributors section

To buy a copy click here

A Graphic Cosmogony

I posted about a 7 page comic I was working on a while back for Nobrows 'a Graphic Cosmogony'- well, it's now available to pre order. you can read more and purchase it, if you so wish here. It full of talented folk giving their take on the idea of creation. heres the cover of the book and a couple of my pages.

Iv e been making another set of cushions, still exploring how a narrative can work as decorative homeware but have an uneasy content. Theres an underlying theme of the mob rule, hunting etc in my personal work at the moment but this is only simmering away and not the priority in the cushions. what is more exciting is the limitations in the material and how it changes my visual language. whilst it remains important for me to make the originals purely in fabric im looking into ways they could be printed and how this might change the images again

sketchbook /limited colour

Recently I have worked on a number of projects that have required a limited colour palette due to the reproduction process. Whilst I enjoy this way of working I worry sometimes it can be an 'effect' which is aesthetically pleasing but could disguise the drawing or content. To try and avoid this happening I have started a sketchbook to try to bring my initial drawings closer to the process. starting with the basic primary colours but this will develop in time

save the arts

This animation by David Shrigley is the first installment of work by a series of artist involved in Save The Arts, a project attempting in to stop the government proposal of important art funding being slashed. Please take a minute to enjoy the animation and if you agree with the content, you can sign the petition here