working notes/art star

notes from art star project ...

day 5

life began when a star, in its dying stage, exploded ... our bodies are stars.
the final day saw this 'star' become a locked container.... as we all are, just containers of accumulated memories, regrets, yearnings... a loose meditation on childhood, growth, decay, remembering, forgetting, wishing ... all stitched loosely together with images of children in autumn who--like falling stars and windfall apples-- burst with life and light all too briefly...

day 4

some small but significant changes today, mostly on the back.
the ten sides are now ten words in brown wax pencil, 'under the night sky, the stars were great and unusual'. the meat of this piece is in the smaller details but, as a whole, it feels the way i originally wanted it to feel; bare, unfinished, unpretentious and honest with a vague narrative. it also looks more like a container today, a packing crate with labels and scribbles which, again, suggests memories or something locked away or put in storage ...

'us'

woke at 3:30 this morning so anxious to get into the studio and strip this thing to the bone. no paint. no varnish. no canvas. just my stuff on this glorious wood. the narrative has become real and personal. the title is 'us', a small word that can feel so heavy with melancholy yet stands for such a powerful and optimistic country. tomorrow's work: a ten-word sentence scrawled along the ten sides, more work on the back and a few more minor tweaks on the front.

day two in dalston studio

end of day two. canvas stripped to wood. a narrative emerging. the canvas on back has been primed and dragged along the studio floor. needs to be dirtier. much more to do over the next three days.

in progress

in progress. just working out the sizes, textures, colours, etc. from existing sample pages. (one accidental storyline which will emerge when i do the new pages: a young girl in pretty white dress becoming a tomboy, a ranchero, (a farmer perhaps?) which gives the piece a subtle feminist slant and a more personal take on the brief which was 'independence')

mood board/sketch

rough notes for final version and example of the general layout and feel of the individual pages although the photographs themselves will be more kodachrome-y, depicting scenes from a 1960's family home movie ...

kodachrome and anscochrome

to me, these sorts of kodachrome images and colours from the 60's and 70's evoke the sort of 'dreamy memory' i hope to portray in this RL project which will be a notebook/storyboard of a 60's childhood as the movie itself is technically probably not possible.

ralph lauren project

from 21 to 25 february, i'll have the privilege of working with jasper joffe at his studio producing a mixed media sort of installation for ralph lauren. from what i know of jasper and his work, i couldn't be happier about having him as my support for this. his site here: jasper joffe

terminally beautiful

Young American writer, Christy Leigh Stewart, has produced one of my favourite cover designs in ages for her new book, available now on Amazon.

Fred Free

Fred Free is an accomplished artist and illustrator who, amongst many other things, curates a website called 'Variety Showcase'. He kindly featured my work recently. Find out more about him, his collages and the books he has produced here.

video rough

rough idea for project below

Ralph Lauren

using super 8 projectors, cine film and 35 mm slides in a 'lit' shop may be an ambition too far but i think there's potential and maybe they'll agree ...