Now i’ve been out all day so couldn’t get this on earlier but here is ,once again, another door for Free Art Friday. I thought this would be my last one but on the way home just now i’ve spied another two doors that i’m going to go and fetch tomorrow if they are still there and knowing my luck they will be. This door is another one of those big heavy mama jammers as well which means its takes a small team of bodybuilders to move. I can’t even understand how some measily little hinges could actually hold this bad boy up, i know i couldn’t.
The idea for this door came about when a friend of mine started singing the classic nursery rhyme Eeeny Meeny miny mo to his child. I hadn’t heard it in years and so when i was next in the studio and singing it to myself i thought well hot diggity damn i’ve got myself an idea. A few frantic hours later and this is what you get…
Now i’ve had a busy day so its time for my first beer i think. Have a good weekend folks!!
Another Friday and another free door! I just keep finding these blasted things on the street and being such a Womble I can’t just leave them there alone and unpainted. It’s my civic duty to take these poor neglected doors and give them a new lease of life. This girl was strange and she made me feel strange, she just had something about her. Perhaps it was the smoky ambience she provided or maybe it was the feeling of constant unease she seemed to promote. Perhaps it was a combination of the two…
As it would be nearly impossible to identify the location from the first shot we thought it only fair to include a second shot that may give it a little more context. Although you can’t really make it out in this pic we’ve got some glitter on her lips and on some of the gold splashes. Just to give her that extra sparkle. I wonder how long this one will last…
This piece was a commission for a fellow Manx compatriot living in London – so truth be be told this was a fun one to do as we know just the kind of thing us humble islanders like. The idea behind this one is pretty simple as they say the Isle of Man is just 80,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock in the middle of the Irish Sea. Which is completely untrue. Only about 72,000 are alcoholics…
As you can tell we’ve really gone to town on this piece and done plenty of screen printing, a little embroidery and some hand work & distressing – for that ‘found in an attic’ aged look. We’ve seen fit to include Blinky the fish (from the Simpsons) as Sellafield (a nuclear reprocessing plant) is pretty much exactly opposite us on the Cumbrian coast and has always been a cause for concern for those living on the Island. We’ve included some mysterious map co-ordinates that should hopefully have a little meaning to the recipient along with various other elements (like the triskele and ambigram in the bottom right corner) which should hold some intrigue for him. I’m also still slightly obsessed with the distressed looking crests so am particularly proud of how they’ve come out.
Cling to the Rock ( To remember list)
Cling to the Rock (To visit list detail)
In fact, the biggest shame about this piece is the fact that we forgot to take pictures before we sent it to the framer so most of the shots we have (obviously!) feature a lot of reflections and don’t really do it any justice. Oh well, you live and learn. On the plus side though we’ve really enjoyed working on maps so expect more before too long…
We have already put the still photo of ‘Cliff was visibly upset…’ up but now, after a little tinkering with our Super 8 footage, we have the pleasure of bringing you the moving picture version. If you’re not satisfied – you can have your 1 minute 55 back!
If, like me, you can clearly remember the first time you watched Oliver Stone’s ‘Platoon‘ then the death of Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe) is a pretty emotional scene where Adagio for Strings is playing over footage of a wounded Sgt. Elias trying to escape from the Viet Cong but ultimately getting mowed down in a hail of gunfire. I felt my dramatic fall was entirely reminiscent of this epic scene so felt a small homage would be worthy for inclusion in our humble production. For my fact of the day I’ve learned that the iconic image of Sgt Elias with his hands in the air is actually a recreation of a famous 1968 war photo by Art Greenspon (as depicted below – and if you can’t remember or haven’t watched the scene from Platoon i’ve included that too!):
Image via Wikipedia
Platoon/Greenspon photo
I’ve put plenty of links in today but i’m not entirely sure how many of them will work as many US based websites are shutting down for the day to show solidarity to opposing some potentially far reaching copyright legislation that the US is considering that would make it illegal for any US site to link to any site that has any copyright infringing material. Now, whilst this doesn’t directly affect the UK at the moment you can be sure that we’ll be passing something similar if it gets through over there and, personally, I quite like the internet as it is…
As promised just the other day it’s Free Art Friday so we’ve hit the streets with our little contribution. When i say little, i don’t mean it of course as retrieving the door is definitely a two man job. But it’s free (if you can find it) so you can’t really complain. Also, we neglected to show a picture of the reverse side of the door which we have signed (sort of) so I can remedy that right now for you…
I’ve mentioned the squirrels around here before. They’ve even been in the newspapers – and here’s a little coverage from The Guardian to prove it! Anyway, believe me when I say they are bad. Real trouble. So there I was walking through the park when I get the feeling I’m being watched. I cast a furtive eye over the benches near me when I see him sat there, just staring at me and emitting a low guttural noise that doesn’t sound very friendly at all. A second glance reveals the empty cans and cigarette (or joint – who knows?) As I quicken my step I chance once last glance behind me and he seems to be chuckling to himself with an evil glint in his eyes. Making my way home apace I could have sworn I could hear rustling sounds behind me but couldn’t see anything. I just concentrated on finding my keys…
At least he hadn’t been on the crack. They are always worse. I’m not sure if I’ll be walking that way again…
There i was waiting for the magic to happen whilst screen printing when BOOM! – a small idea came dashing across the barren desert of my mind. I needed to get some of the cans out from the ‘almost empty’ bag of cans and attack the wall with gusto to see what my derelict mind could produce. And what exactly do you get? Well, it would appear that a multi-coloured & slightly scary face of someone who looks like they could be a distant cousin of Shrek and Joseph Merrick is exactly what you get. Needless to say the screen printing magic had happened by now and so i took myself back to the printing and left this guy to stare at the (currently) blank wall opposite thinking what an asshole he is…
Now this is our second time at painting on doors and it’s definitely worked out to be trickier than first envisaged… That’s not because I dislike painting doors it’s just that the last two we happened to womble across ended up being the biggest, heaviest and most impractical doors in existence. It’s not like you look inconspicuous walking down the street with an ultra heavy painted door so that’s why I thought i’d take the first shot in the studio and will upload another when i have the necessary manpower to get it out on the street. That said though if i keep watching The World’s Strongest Man on Channel 5 i might just give it a go solo. After a quick chat with someone yesterday we realised we haven’t done anything for Free Art Friday for a while – so this will be out on Friday. Although it will probably take a two man squad to retrieve it!
As to the picture itself it comes from a member of our family who sent through some pictures of his arm so we could design some tattoos for him, needless to say he chose all of our designs and some time early this year will be having a full sleeve tattooed of our designs. I can’t wait for that one i can tell you. Charles we salute you! Watch this space…
After a highly enjoyable Christmas and predictably long New Year it’s down to earth with a bump and on with the business of dealing with a brand new year. I can only hope that 2012 is a good one. Bring it on…
First up for the year we have ‘Cliff was visibly upset…’. After much debate and the consideration of far more serious titles (such as ‘Tears are the noble language of the eyes’) we finally decided that ‘Cliff was visibly upset…’ was the one to go with. As these rock faces are in a position where they are subjected to the worst the weather can offer for many months of the year we thought it a suitable title.
I will hopefully be able to come up with some more pithy and amusing blog posts as my brain warms up again over the next few days so apologies for this missive which is, even by my low standards, somewhat lacking. I was really rather hoping my first post of the new year would be certified internet gold but i suppose that now at least i’ve got something to work on.
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