Snow white…

There is a spurious rumour that the Disney version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is meant to be some kind of representation of the ‘seven stages’ of cocaine addiction. Now, whilst this is undoubtedly a load of  nonsense the suggestion is that the dwarf’s names correspond to symptoms of various stages of cocaine addiction from changes in sleep patterns (sleepy) to mood swings (happy & grumpy), personality change (bashful, dopey) and development of allergies (sneezy).

This did however give me a germ of an idea so i set to work making Snow White a big ol’ cokehead gazing lovingly at a huge rock of Bolivia‘s finest…

Cheers

id-iom

Title: For The Love Of Pure White Coke
Media: Screenprint, acrylic, spraypaint and stencils, ink & paint pen
Size: Cardboard

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I’ve got my eye on you…

Oooh a big malevolent eye gazing at you! How very frightening! The evil eye is a surprisingly widespread belief  that a look is able to cause injury or bad luck for the person at whom it is directed for reasons of envy or dislike. Be afraid, be very afraid for the eye is staring at YOU!

Working on cardboard is quite liberating as you can really let rip and let inspiration (if you can find any) take you wherever seems good. I think most of the cardboard bits are probably destined for the street although sometimes they can look good when framed. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see… 

Using just about all the paint, pens, printing equipment and whatever else we have kicking around these are a lot of fun to work on and this one even features a (largley illegible) excerpt from Hans Christian Andersen‘s story ‘The Darning Needle’. So know you now.

Cheers

id-iom

Title: Am i staring?

Media: Acrylic, spraypaint and stencils, ink & paint pen
Size: Cardboard

It never rains…

It never rains – but it pours. Living in the UK this is something you come to understand early in life… Sometimes you manage to have an umbrella handy but more often than not you’ll simply get caught in a downpour. Anyway i realise i’m probably slightly obsessed with the weather at the moment but with the onset of spring it’s hard not to fantasise about the (hopefully) impending good weather. It will be nice to be able to work outdoors again…

Bring on the summer!

Cheers

id-iom

Title: It never rains…

Media: Spraypaint, acrylic, emulsion & stencils

Size: Wall

Crotch hot & happy

With the weather seemingly on the turn it seems a fine time to bring out this lovely little ray of sunshine. As we begin to realise there is life after winter and start making plans for summer surely everyone looks forward to drinks, barbecues, holidays and sunbathing. Well this young lady is already there and clearly enjoying it.

The line ‘crotch hot and happy’ comes from a book called Bastion Falls by Susie Maloney and for some reason this obviously had some resonance with me. After the mandatory gestation period from reading the book to coming up with a design this is what came forth…

Cheers

id-iom

Title: Crotch hot & happy

Media: Acrylic, spraypaint and stencils, ink & paint pen

Size: 60 x 60 deep edge canvas

As angry as i was…

Sometimes a good wall in an empty house is just too much temptation… This is a good case in point. After getting ourselves sorted it was time to head back and give it a bit of new interior decoration. I’m sure we probably could have come up with something a little more cheery considering what a lovely day it was outside but sometimes you can only do what the muse dictates.

Cheers

id-iom

Title: As angry as i was…

Media: Spraypaint, acrylic, emulsion & stencils

Size: Wall

Episode 7: Vader’s Big Idea

Star Wars: Episode 6 – The Return of the Jedi saw Darth Vader die. Or did it? In fact, he lived on as a cloned version of himself and after retreating to wherever it is Dark Lords of the Sith go to make their nefarious plans he’s back with a new approach to taking over the galaxy.

In Episode 7 Vader’s back with a new shiny pimping costume and a decidedly different approach to galactic domination. Rather than an army of tough-guy clone troopers he’s decided to get himself an army made up of sexy stormtroopers (cloned from his own dead mother!) that he’s willing to hire out to whoever has the most intergalactic credits to pay. Expect to see cards similar to these in a phone box near you some time soon…

Cheers

id-iom

Title: Star Wars: Episode 7 – Vader’s Big Idea

Media: Screenprint and acrylic paint

Size: 10 x 15cm (postcard size)

Available from our Big Cartel store for £5

Art Fags Cause Cancer!

We all know cigarettes can be dangerous but it turns out that art fags can cause cancer too. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. Ever since i’d seen one of London’s most prolific taggers, 10 foot, go over just about everything he could with ‘Say No to Art Fags’ I had this image in my head. It has just taken it a while to make it out of there…

Those in the know may be able to tell by my subtle branding, that this  is a Molotow cigarette – which just happens to be my favourite brand. Go put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Cheers

id-iom

Title: Art Fags Cause Cancer (v.1)

Media: Screenprint, watercolour and paint pen

Size: 10 x 15cm (postcard size)

Available from our Big Cartel storee for £5

Bill Posters is innocent!

When I was growing up I occasionally saw the graffiti ‘Bill Posters is innocent’ about the place and didn’t understand it until my dad explained the joke to me at some point. I reckon I must have thought he was some kind of Robin Hood figure who the police were after but had public opinion on his side. This obviously appealed to me and lodged in my mind and now, after a good deal of processing, has now manifested itself in this piece.

I selected the date of 1880 as after a little internet research it would appear that was the date the ‘Bill Posters is innocent’ joke first made it to print (apparently in The London Graphic) so it’s certainly not anything new. I like the fact it still works today though. Anyway i’ve only done wheatpasting a couple of times and now Spring is in the air (well, sort of!) I intend to remedy that so keep your eyes peeled…

Cheers

id-iom

Title: Prosecute This!

Media: Screenprint, stencils and spraypaint

Size: A3

Available from our Big Cartel store for £40

British Foreign Policy c. 1842

Image via Wikipedia

There I was in Nanjing doing some work in my capacity as international archaeologist adventurer when i happened across an important archaeological artifact that sheds some light on Victorian international relations. It’s a small  fragment of the original ‘Treaty of Nanking‘ that was presented to the Chinese by the British after the treaty was ratified by Queen Victoria and Doaguang Emperor in 1842. This was, of course, back when the British Empire was really something to behold and British foreign policy was perhaps a trifle more aggressive.

As befits my part-time international adventuring job (sadly it pays better than art) I hastened the fragment out of the country at the first opportunity from under the noses of the curious authorities (therein lies another tale for another time). Nonetheless it is an interesting curio with a certain historical value that should fetch a handsome sum from some museum or other. I believe Queen Victoria had thought it amusing to get the treaty ‘set in stone’ so they would get the message that little bit more clearly. I have had to censor this for public consumption however. How simply delightful all the same!

Cheers

id-iom

Title: Treaty of Nanking fragment

Media: Stencils and spraypaint on slate

Size: 24 x 50cm approx

Dibo’s, dibo’s everywhere!

Like Su-Bo, Dibo’s will soon be everywhere. I was reading the other day that it is predicted that diabetes will affect half of all Americans by the end of the decade. Now that is going to be more than 150 million people and will annually cost around 10% (about $500 billion) of their entire healthcare budget. Now surely with all this over-eating and lack of exercise even their superheroes are eventually going to succumb. With this in mind I’ve depicted an overweight Superman (he can still just about fly though due to our sun that powers him) taking an overweight lady to the nearest hospital so she can be surgically removed from the telephone box in which she has accidentally been trapped.

I finished the original version of this piece last week and then took it outside in the sunshine to get a photo. As i’ve learned slate is a lovely medium to work with but can be fragile when it hits the floor… At least i managed to get a shot of it before it broke. Then i decided that there’s no point cursing at yourself for too long and thought i may as well just get to work on another. So version two is at the bottom and comes complete with a dose of glow-in-the-dark paint emanating from the sun that makes Superman so super.

Cheers

id-iom

Type 2 Nation (U.S version)

Top: original piece

Middle: broken piece! 😦

Bottom: new piece! 🙂

Media: Stencils and spraypaint on slate

£150