La gay Paree

Just got back from an enjoyable office trip to gay paree. Was very nice, I'd never been to Paris or France before for a whole host of reasons. We had a great time, despite missing out fallen comrades. Was good to finally see all the famous sites and sounds.


poppydo centre arty stuff

le tower

Park near le tower - how come paris has so much space


the seine

the louvre

musee d'orsay

very fancy dining room in the musee d'orsay


wee mini houses built around the world - exhibit of Edouard Sautai at the Pompidou Centre

stop me and buy one

New just off the blocks - anyone want one? Going cheap.

My own take on the classic "Keep calm and carry on" posters from the second world war.

rain

I like rain

If I found an eyelash . . .

To catch a thief

When did Lloyd Grossman become the big food expert? One minute he's a house burglar raking through peoples stuff the next he's got jars of his own sauce on all the supermarket shelves.

16

Poster for new show above - and more info on Spids current show below.

THE GARDEN

An apocalyptic morality tale is unfolding all around …
Press night – Friday 15th AugustFar at the edge of time, a boy and a girl have outlived the end of the world. But a stranger in the undergrowth seems hell-bent on tempting them to self-destruction. When only the ruthless survive, can anyone afford to be good?
Site specific location:

Little Wormwood Scrubs, Dalgarno Gardens, London W10 6AD

Dates: Fri Aug 8th to Sun 31st August (no shows Mon to Wed)
Time: 8pm (show lasts 70 mins)
Ticket prices: FREE
Riverside Studios box office: 020 8237 1111Directions: Take bus 70 or 316 from Ladbroke Grove tube; get off near North Pole Road then turn right off Dalgarno
Gardens and head diagonally across the park
Background:Step into the midst of this grisly future as the story plays out around a council estate park for which the show has been especially created. It follows S.P.I.D.'s four month program of events including resident lead walks, promenade puppetry and installation work – all developed with local people as a way of bringing the neglected community space back into use. The Garden is a professional collaboration with Riverside Studios, commissioned by Kensington and Chelsea Arts Service as part of the In Transit Festival and the Arts Council Taking Part Place Project.
Further information and photos available from:
The Social Enterprise PR Tel: 020 7617 7063 / 07851 729 078Email: spid@thesocialenterprise.org

"A rare and original theatrical treat," Time Out **** on S.P.I.D.'s critic's choice, Open House"A fantastical love story, beautifully written and directed," Edinburgh Evening News **** on S.P.I.D.'s Bluebeard's Wives
ABOUT S.P.I.D.

Andora - the land of the two headed dog

Lord of the dance

No, the lord of the dance is not Jesus or indeed Michael Flaterly - the king of the dance is 31 year old Matt Harding a "31-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames."

Its a very strange film - its just of a slightly strange bloke dancing in different places around the world but for some reason it leaves you with a big smile.
Why do we humans enjoy, eccentric adventures like this. How does something so seemlingly pointless have such a profound effect on so many people around the world that they are sending Matt emails saying the video made them smile and cry.

Who knows but it is a video that shows, it is a small world after all.

lunch

Sunny days sweeping the clouds away

We had a fun day out to Millport on Sunday which brought back many memories of my childhood when we would go there every year. Lots of things still the same, including crocodile and lion rocks and the wonder that is Mapes toy shop.

It was totally roasting so we went for a play in the sea and then had a chippy on the way home.

Hope its sunny again like that next weekend for more adventures.

Happy Slap

The other commission for Spid - a poster, flyer and trailer for her interesting little mystery noir Happyslap.

The Garden

Just finished this poster for the lovely Helena Thompson, who goes by the name of Spid. She's a busy bee who production company has worked on a host of interesting projects over the last wee while. I design a DVD cover and poster for her film Happyslap which I'll try and remember to post in the future and completed the above for a performance that she has been working on about a post-apocolyptic future where the peace of two survivours is shattered by the arrival of a stranger. All sounds very errie and will be on from the end of July in London town.

Good book

Just heard word about the launch of the website about the postcard book that I am going to be in, when it is published in September. I've had a wee look and it seems I am in good company with David Shriggley and Tom Gauld for company.

http://www.postcard-book.info:80/

long abscene . . .

. . . due to unforseen maddness

Back

Been out of things for wee while due to work commitment and jury duty. Jury duty was very interesting but not the most pleasent experience of my life so far.

More photos of the GIBF are online now
http://www.giab.org.uk/

Where are they now?

A wee image I've been working on and hope to produce as a limited series of prints very soon.

Stop me and buy one

I had an intersting time over the last two days at the Glasgow International Artist Bookfair, the first such event to take place in Glasgow. As mentioned before we didn't have a table and above is the trolley we created to sell our wares. It was really god fun pushing the trolley around the place, it did mean I had to be on my feet for two whole days but it did allow me to move to wherever I fancie and meant I could walk over and chat to the other stall hodlers and check out their stuff. The stuff in question was a huge variety of artist books ranging from short one line cards, to artist-zines, book sculptures and massive leather bound prints.


Above the four himp books on sale

himp lolly-pop business cards


himp in card
Himp Flag


*Mucho gracious to Ann and Gav for their assistance in getting the trolley ready for the show.
Himp flag

Book fair excitement

Well we are in another book fair this coming weekend. Its part of the Glasgow International Festival and takes place in the Royal Concert Hall from 11am - 6pm Friday 25th & Saturday 26th April. For more information, the list of other artist involved, maps and all other do-das visit http://www.giab.org.uk/.

Sadly we found out about the show too late to get one of the tables so instead we were asked to come up with an alternative method of showing the books. Our alternative method is shown above, a nice old trolley found in a skip. Over the next two nights it will be going through a full face lift and will become a beautiful trolley of books selling wonderous or at least very brightly coloured.

Books on sale will include - "Tales from the Edge", "Himp Vol 1", "Space Adventures 1" and "B for Boredom". All are excellant gifts for the loved ones in your life and, if you can't make it down to what promises to be a very entertaining show this weekend, the books are availible from our site, just drop us an email to sort out purchase.

testing

test post from my PSP. Seems to work.

Paper, Scissors, stone

Probably should have posted about this a while ago but we have some books on sale at the Paper, Scissors, Stone Artist book fair in London tomorrow morning. (Details below.) We will also be selling them as Part of the Glasgow International Artist Book fair on the 25th and 26th April. Will post more details later.

Southside Festival

There is a festival taking place in the Southside of the Glasgow this summer and I put together a few ideas as a pitch for the posters/ map/ flyer. Sadly, I lost out on the final vote. Looking forward to the festival though and to seeing the poster I lost out too.

*(Bottom image is a sketch suggesting a tone and was not drawn)

Storyscapes: Part 2

Doh, sad news again I'm afraid. We didn't get picked to build the Storyscape piece for the Museum in Wem. It's a shame as I think our ideas were pretty good and I think working with the folk at the museum would have been great fun. Dez and Ali who run the museum are really nice and are both full of stories. The museum itself is a treasure trove of different art objects, storytelling artifacts and book upon book of stories. Sadly, I didn't think to take any photos when I was down, but if you are in the Shropshire area it is definitely worth a visit.

After the interview on Friday Ann and I spent the weekend driving around Shropshire and Wales. We'd never been to that part of the country before, and armed with our satnav, we happily trundled around having a look at everything we could find. Was a very pleasant way to spend a weekend, despite the torrential rain and high winds.

Highlights of trip include, the Myth museum itself, the odd village of Portmerrion, seeing several thousand swallows swarming over Gretna Green and me accidentally catapulting a bowl of rice over a nearby table.

Panda old, Panda new

About a year ago I traded in my wee blue panda (see above) who had loyally served me for 10 years. It was a sad day, but the poor thing was rather unwell and required an owner with more car repair skills than I.

I knew things had reached a culmination the day I was filming a short film in Dumfries. I drove down in the morning and on the way, the engine started to smoke, then the exhaust began to start banging before just out and out roaring, like a trapped lion. By the time I reached the location I had also lost my radio, aerial and the windscreen wiper was malfunctioning. I drove into the quiet farm where we were filming with a RRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrr. The people I was there to film, the producer and all the crew were standing around in the yard. I pulled up and turn off the engine at which point, the car went pfffffff and billowed huge swathes of smoke. Everyone turned and stared at me. I just got out, closed the door and walked over as if everything was normal.

The nice RAC man got the car back to full working order again, though I did have to stop every 30miles or so to let the engine cool down. But it was the final straw and sadly I made the decision to trade it in and I am now the proud owner of an almost identical blue panda, with roof bars. Its a very nice car and very comfortable to drive, but it does lack some of the wonder features of the old model - no turbo boost and no "loud" button on the radio.

Anyway in honour of my old friend I attach below a print out, cut and build card model.

Storyscapes

The museum in Wem are after some kind of device that will act as an art object/ interactive piece within the musuems pernament collection but which can also be used by storytellers as part of a storytelling experience. This sounds hopefully along the lines of the Storytelling Machine I designed for the musuem of Shetland, so I am developing a idea along similar lines.

Had a few good ideas so far. One of which is using music and an old bird cage. I'll post some outline sketch ideas next week after the interview.

not much cop

Hmmm - I have been very lax so far this year with posting on this blog.

Still no new images but two bits of news.

1 - the gallery show in Plockton is cancelled. (The gallery will be shut all year.)

2- I've been short listed to make a new museum piece for a gallery in Wem.

That is all. Good night.

Book fairs and shops

We have been seleteced for two book fairs in April. - one in Glasgow and one in London, which is handy as Scott can do one and I can do the other. The only tricky thing is that the Glasgow one had already been fully booked out before we heard about it and we therefore are going to be selling our books from a makeshift ice-cream style/ book selling tray.

So I guess we'd best get on with designing it.

We will also now be selling at Hithero, (the excellant shop of wonders behind the merchant city Tindebox) and Aye Aye books (the artist bookshop outside the Sculpture Studios.)

Tchai Ovna Poster - colour sketch

I'm begining to sketch up some ideas for posters for the Southside Festival which is happening in Glasgow in the summer. The above is a colour sketch for a poster for Shawlands highlighting Tchai Ovna one of my favourite places in the area.

Cityscape - wires and valves

Countdown to Christmas

Despite starting my shopping early - I am rapidly running out of time to get good Christmas presents for everyone.