War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again! – so sang Edwin Starr in 1970 on the anti-Vietnam song ‘War’ (which, i was interested to learn was originally recorded by The Temptations but not released as they didn’t want to alienate their more conservative fans). Today’s piece is something of homage to the pointlessness of war and was inspired by the poem ‘Futility’ by Wilfred Owen which is about life and death in the trenches of France during World War One and the futility of the whole situation. Hopefully our piece reflects at least an echo of that sentiment.
Righto, that’s enough highfalutin seriousness for today. We’ll hopefully be back to our usual broadcast of gibberish tomorrow…
Cheers
id-iom
Title: Futility
Media: Spray paint and stencils on roof slate
Size: 50 x 25 cm slate
Please email if interested
This slightly sinister looking raven (or is he a large crow?) has found a sparkly pile of carbonado (or ‘black diamonds’ to you and I). The photo doesn’t really do it justice but there’s a load of glitter on those there stones and that’s what attracted him in the first place, as he has some magpie blood in him on his mother’s side. He knows their value and he’s prepared to defend them. With as much force as he can muster. Which could be quite a lot considering his size, evil looking red eye and imperious pose. I’d just leave him to it if I were you…
Cheers
id-iom
Title: Carbonado
Materials: Spray paint, stencils, glitter, paint pen and screen print on tile
Size: 30 x 22 cm tile
Please email if interested
This is the tale of Sir Skellington Win,
who lived up a tree and was incredibly thin.
He constantly told tales of sorrow and loss,
yet somehow still thought that he was the boss.
He had a hat made of glass and two hairs on his chin,
and whatever he played would invariably win.
Apart from love where he was a loser,
even through fantastical tales he could never amuse her.
One day he was walking in his armour of tin,
and happened upon a lady stuck in a bin.
She really was making such a din,
that he could do little but stare and take a sip of his gin.
He took his bottle and looked within,
and could see the reflections of his favourite kin.
With this bitter thought he came to see
that thinking in rhyme was incredibly twee.
So he helped the lady out of the bin and she was very grateful. And that was that.
Can you tell I’ve been having some trouble with today’s write up? If you think you can do any better then i’d suggest you take up professional poetry as my effort is surely gold star standard for an under 12?
Cheers
id-iom
Title: Sir Skellington Win
Media: Spray paint and screen print on slate
Size: 46 x 31 cm slate
Please email if interested
Just under 2 months ago we journeyed north to paint at Upnorthfest in Sunderland. We painted Jack Mackem the Sunderland Fitter on a big old wall. All was good. Alas it was not to be that way for long. In this day of magic and strange beasts otherwise known as the internet it seems that everyone from kings to street sweepers are critics. First some comedy cocks were apparently added but we have no photographic proof of this. These were then buffed and in sweeps the mighty Warlock to show his displeasure at our piece. With first rate can control and exquisite craftsmanship he lifts the veil and shows us how it should really be done. In this we are truly blessed…
You are just plain wicked! Just look at this little cherub. For some reason best known to yourself you’ve just told her that she can’t have the new My Little Pony ‘Castle in the Sky’ playset for Christmas. And this is the result. I’ve just told her she can have a little go on my new Playstation 4 (when I get it) but she’s having none of it, which is a real shame as it now looks like she’s going to get nothing for Christmas. And it’s your fault. Like I said, you’re wicked.
This was my second recent skirmish with skin tone and I’m not sure if its any better than the first but one thing I can say is that they certainly look better in the flesh (da dum ting!)
Cheers
id-iom
Title: The Imploring Look of Youth
Materials: Spray paint, paint pen, acrylic, pencil, pastel and charcoal
Now we’ve surely all heard the tale of the boy who cried wolf and the fact that when a wolf did attack his flock no would would believe him and come to his aid as he’d cried ‘wolf’ too often before. This is obviously a cautionary tale on the perils of lying and believability that the subject of this picture could do with absorbing. He’s forever telling tales to try and make himself look good and his buddies/siblings/other kids look bad. He’ll be in danger of having no one left to believe him when things do eventually go pear shaped, as they appear to have here…
To say painting this piece was a labour of love would be a lie as I find painting skin tone is one of the hardest things to get right. There are just so many colours involved that you would never guess would be. Whenever I try it usually makes me feel pretty inadequate as an artist but this time I kind of like it – even after hating it for so many hours. Oh well onward and upward i suppose…
Cheers
id-iom
Title:The Boy who Cried Wolf
Materials: Spray paint, paint pen, acrylic, pencil, pastel and charcoal
Hmmmm…. This chap looks uncannily like one half of id-iom. And it would appear he’s just been shot in the chest whilst walking down the street drinking some beer. Like, OMG dude! But don’t worry. He’s an actor. Nobody was injured in the making of this piece. It’s all done with explosive squibs and fake blood. It just looks eerily convincing.
This is, in fact, just an artists’ impression of a scene from the upcoming biopic ‘When we ruled the world’ about the tumultuous and sometimes fiery relationship between the two members of id-iom which is slated for international release in 2015.
Cheers
id-iom
Title: Blown Away Media: Watercolour, stencils, spraypaint and paint pen Size: A3 Please email if interested
We are all fools for love – 16ft x 8ft @ UPfest 2012
It’s been over a year in the making (mainly because we’re so lazy) but we can finally reveal our huge edition of 2 (well 3 if you count the landscape one that is currently being hand finished) of our piece which was originally a large scale piece done at UPfest in 2012. They’re a combination of screen printing, stencils, spraypaint and a little hand finishing. The picture was based on a photo of a friend and I’m glad to say she has seen the piece since it was done and given it her blessing. I think the message is clear enough that no matter how tough we think we are love can make a fool of us all. Amen to that.
Cheers
id-iom
Title: We are all fools for love
Materials: Screen print, stencils, spraypaint and paint pen
Size: A3
With the somewhat gusty weather we’ve had recently this billboard has managed to peel itself naked. And that, of course, is quite the affront to any self-respecting urban artist. So with our woolen thinking caps pulled down firmly on to our respective heads, we came up with a quick joke on the idea of the advert not being there.
We presumed the matter to be time sensitive as we weren’t sure when the ad man would be back to shove more tasteless shots of half naked women down our gullet so quickly set to work cutting a stencil. This is probably the reason why its so small compared to the actual billboard or at least that’s the story we’re sticking to. It was definitely nothing to do with the fact it was measured ‘by eye’…
When I first found this piece of metal I’m pretty sure I had a good idea in mind for it. Fast forward a couple of months and I find it in a corner of my ‘studio’ (which is currently a shed) and can’t remember for the life of me what I was going to use it for. Hmmm, what to do next? Whilst racking my feeble brain for my original idea the song ‘Rabbit in your headlights‘ (by UNKLE featuring the dulcet tones of Thom Yorke) comes on the stereo. For those that are unfamiliar with the song and video I’ve posted it below.
Thankfully this inspired me to ditch the search for my original idea (if you read this please come home!) in favour of one inspired by the UNKLE song. So here we have a man sat deep in thought who can’t see the metaphorical headlights of the car that’s coming to hit him. It’s probably his girlfriend driving. The lights are metaphorical because otherwise this would be a precursor to a pretty grisly scene from ‘World of Rallying Gone Wrong’. Anyway, I think this piece will be joining the pile of street drop stuff to be deposited when I can find a half decent day in which to enjoy putting it out…
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