4.2.10
20.1.10
19.1.10
11.12.09
29.7.09
Hed Kandi
Ok so the Hed kandi for Miss Selfridge prints i collaborated with Jason on seem to be getting a fair amount of press. People are loving my work so I'm happy. Job well done and good to see it splashed around. Ooooooo Fashion!
27.7.09
25.7.09
4.5.09
Paree
My folio is now available at creative syndicate in Paris. According to my Dad, when the going gets tough the tough get going. I can feel a sprint just around the corner, but in the meantime... I'll put that kettle on.
4.3.09
Anatomy of a feather
Playing around with the mechanics of nature and man's often insensitive approach to understanding the world around. Through taxonomy, mapping and classifying we strive to understand and label. As a consequence we limit ourselves and our language to only that which we "know". It leaves little room for interpretation, experience or anything else further removed from the norm as we all become less and less connect to ourselves and our universe. How boring is that! Somethings should be just left... be...
3.3.09
6.2.09
27.1.09
15.1.09
Miss Ck and I
Have started a free association collage that we work on every day... like a game of consequence. The consequence being that it will be inspiring and playful, ever evolving and imaginative. We arrange and re-arrange passing up control from one to the other. Perhaps it will help us communicate with out actually having to speak. It feels like a mixture of needle work and an on-going game of connect four. You can sit puzzle piecing the cuttings together whilst being nursed by your thoughts.
30.9.08
18.9.08
Disturbed bugs
Scorpion fly from Reuenthal, Switerland.
The right wings are twisted and the abdomen are deformed. 1988
Scentless plant bug, Switerland.
Left wing is blown up like a balloon 1988 - 1989
Damsel bug, Switerland.
Wings of uneven length and disturbed neck plate. 1988
Ladybird bettle, USA
Dent and black growth on wings. 1991
Since the catastrophe of Chernobyl in 1986 Cornelia Hess-Honegger has been collecting, studying and painting "morphologically disturbed insects" - mutant bugs. A scientific illustrator and science artist, she has researched radioactive-contaminated regions across the globe and many of her delicate illustrations contain second generation bugs with wings growing from their eyes or crippled limbs. Cornelia findings are both disturbing and shocking. As the land is contaminated, as is the vegetation and thus a serious threat to surrounding nature, potentially people included even if the amounts are deemed "safe". As a result of insufficient research by scientists there is an "official science that claims low levels of radiation are harmless" however those that have studied it are not given enough opportunity to publish their findings, and are more often than not "ostracized by the scientific community".
5.9.08
Natural Wonders
One day when i go back to Iran I would love to stand in front of the pure white opium fields outside Esfahan.
And below is honeycomb weathering on sandstone.
4.9.08
for some reason, the video link to gary lucas doesn't work, so if you interested just search gary Lucas plays Golem.
Nice one!
Der Golem
Gary Lucas plays the Golem.
Der Golem was a silent 1920's horror film by Paul Wegener, a classic piece of
german expressionism. It's the story of a 16th Century Rabbi who summons Astaroth (the prince of Hell) to learn the word that will bring the Golem to life in the hope it would save
Prague's Jewish getto. Many consequent films have been inspired by it and the soundtrack seems to have been re-done a couple of times, all are interesting. Check out this clip it was my favorite out of what i saw, and I've also added some stills...
White Rice Bowl II
Hung Liu is a very interesting female artist. Self-exiled from China in 1984, her own personal history of living through the cultural revolution elevates her artwork where past and present, real and symbolic coincide. Her work reminds me of a book I once saw called "Chinese Woman and Moderinity: Calendar posters of the 1910s-1920s" Some of the woman portrayed in her pictures are somehow reminiscent of the same women posing in the posters, both also being surrounded by traditional chinese symbols, propaganda'esq if you wish. Apparently Lui fell in love with faded photos and portraits of emperors, their wives and concubines. I'm always really inspired by this style of painting. To me it demonstrates a really good technical grasp that still allows for energy and expression. I'm drawn by their sad faces, suggestive, with even darker undertones symbolic of women suffering hard labor.
Joël Lorand
Came across this guy today, Joël Lorand who was born in Paris in 1962. He's self-taught and devotes all his time to painting as an outsider artist. Apparently he once specialised in cake decoration! I can't find much on him written in English and my patience runs out pretty quick translating the French. But it seems he's inspired by simple shapes reminiscent of children's drawings which he then elaborates on with "thinkness". I didn't know what this meant to begin with. But I think it might have something to do with him sometimes using utensils once used in his previous life icing cakes. The drawings often have ironic and poetic titles, suggesting a dissociation with society and it's limits. Many describe his work is about Lorand settling scores with society, but to me isn't that what most artists are doing?
Jesus, what it would be like to have the patience to paint something like this?
3.9.08
New arrival
This bog has been in the pipeline for a while now (along with most of my work, note to self - stop procrastinating). So I've back dated alot of the posts so please browse through them if you have time and stop to leave me a comment or a thought as i feel naked without them.
Not just black and white
Check out my friend Russ' sculptures. He works as a model maker for an architecture firm and has consequently started making these strange but amazing things. He makes them for friends but i'm trying to encourage him to do more with them. They just keep getting better and better...he tried explaining the process to me other day and i was completely lost but i got as far as each slither of card is made and cut individually and by hand. The pictures don't do them justice Russell, sort it out.
A feast of Beasts
Sunday 7th September 7.30pm (this sunday).
"Film maker and collector Phillip Munnoch (best know for his series of shorts documenting punk street life on the Kings Road in the late 1970's) has been briefed with a beastly theme and will be bringing his nomadic cinema archive to 113 Dalston Lane to guide us through some handpicked reels from his collection."
2.9.08
Rare Amazing Things
Mesmerizing exhibition!!! Its was so exciting to see the real deal, the pioneers of original botanical illustration. The exhibition brings together the original works of four artists and a collector that have helped shape our knowledge of the world around us. The obsessive detail with which the art is created combined with an acceptable level of naivety makes for bizarre and beautiful compositions (most were drawn from dead specimens as opposed to in their natural habitat). David Attenborough talks about a base human characteristic to classify (taxonomy) in a constant quest to understand and make sense of our world. I found this really interesting and wondered what I else i could apply this theory to in my own quest to understand the world around me.
23.8.08
Ying and Yang
Finished illustration where i explored concepts in identity, natural selection and a greater consciousness.
18.7.08
14.7.08
11.7.08
Eskimo Kiss
Desperate to do something inspired by historical figure heads, in particular Inuits chiefs, eastern warriors or royal members where i might draw parodies or recreate in essence using elements from our modern day. Regardless, how powerful is this image?
3.7.08
Don't Stop
Finally Jan's new video for Patrick and Eugene seems to have been published. This was lots of fun to make, I made some awesome mountains by the way. Here's some pics and a link to the vid.
17.6.08
Cabbageman and Friends
Part of the unfinished illustration. I doubt I'll ever finish it, but i might re-work him. Makes me think of the mandrake root in Pan's labyrinth.
8.6.08
3.6.08
113 Dalston lane
Saw Chris Corsano and Alex Wilkinson play last night at 113 dalston lane. A collective household (literally) that use their super large home as an exhibition and performance space.
I was blown away and left completely hyper, I knew Corsano was good but since ' free jazz' or improv has never sat that well me (I'd always figured I would never get it) I never imagined I'd be as into it as I was. ace ace ace....
17.5.08
Photomontage
Love this old school photomontage technique. Be great to inspire ( or 'sniper' according to my spell check) some new drawings.
Hmmm, perhaps there's something of a potential parody there.
11.5.08
7.5.08
4.5.08
Spheres
"The noosphere is best described as a sort of 'collective consciousness' of human beings. It emerges from the interaction of human minds. The noosphere has grown in step with the organisation of the human mass in relation to itself as it populates the earth. As mankind organises itself in more complex social networks, the higher the noosphere will grow in awareness. This is an extension of Teilhard's law of Complexity/ Consciousness, the law describing the nature of evolution in the universe. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, added the the noosphere is growing towards an even greater integration and unification, culminating in the Omega Point - which he saw as the goal of history" Wikepedia
3.5.08
"Morning"
Bought a fantastic new book called Natural Fashion: Tribal decoration from Africa. The photos are incredible and I'm mad for drawing all of them. I often wonder about the way in which we project ourselves to others, this idea of the self-image, or how we allow people to perceive and receive us. It includes everything from someone's decoration to their gait or expression.
Mainly i get irritated by people who albeit look great but can't crack a fucking smile on a morning. Is it not cool to be happy? Here comes a rant, it's not my place to tell them but they need to lighten up. Not everyone is trying hard to be their friend or their enemy. Most, like me, are just trying to be good souls irrespective of them. Eitherway, it fascinates me how we like to portray ourselves, these scenesters are particularly guilty of this and to be honest is getting boring. Anyway, my daydreaming continues to meander along this path and i start wondering how mundane life would be like if we all looked the same, because wierdly thats what we seem to aspire to. No matter, we're all from the same plane. We're all part of a succession of phases that make up one earth. Not one persons is any better or more special than another. Noosphere is my favorite which is the third phase apparently after geosphere and biosphere.
Anyway, back to the book, go check it out.
22.1.08
Second Layer
I went to visit my friend Pete the other day and he's just opened a new record shop in the basement to sound 323. Which is amazing and I'm super pleased for him, (perhaps a little proud even) I remember when he first started Second Layer as a mail order from his bedroom (aka the stock room) and I would be constantly crashing through and falling over everything giving him sweaty heart failure everytime I came up the stairs as most was limited edition or unavailable in the UK, a collector's haven. I wasn't aloud to touch a thing, but in return would get played some of the most inspiring and creative music I'd ever heard and with out doubt Pete helped mould me into the person I am now . Such music continues to challenge me, endlessly feeding my creative expressions... Thanks Pete. xx
3.1.08
15.10.07
9.10.07
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