Nothing to see here

Ah, the joys of waiting for a train in the cold. At least I had my little Dymo with me to amuse myself with whilst enduring freezing temperatures and a mystery 15 minute addition to the train’s due time. Anyway I decided to the furnish the sign with a sassy little addendum to show the sign is fed up of being stared at by soulless London commuters all day and needs a little time to himself. I can only wish him the best on his voyage of self  discovery and hope the little addition does the trick…

Cheers

id-iom

USR&MM Stoya Pleasurebot

Here’s our latest piece that is currently on ebay

If you’ve ever read any Isaac Asimov books (and if you haven’t then you’re missing out) then you’re probably aware that many of his books concern robots which were created by his fictional company ‘USR&MM’ (which stands for U.S Robots & Mechanical Men).

Now I’m sure that Asimov didn’t exactly have ‘pleasurable’ purposes in mind when he developed his ideas on robots but you know that if we had these kind of things in the real world it would only be a matter of time (probably just minutes) before somebody had the bright idea of fitting them out for the oldest profession.

Anyway, here we have the promotional posters for the cream of the robotic crop. The state of the art, Android powered, ‘Stoya’ model Pleasurebot. In shops now…

She’s A3 in size and comes from an edition of 5 which are all different and hand-finished. She has been completed using the magic of screen printing, spraypaint and stencils. Signed on reverse.

Cheers

id-iom

Bunny Drummer

Despite the fact that Bunny Drummer sounds like a porn name I think you’ll agree it’s a pretty apt description of today’s little piece. The other title I had in mind was Beat Bunny but I don’t think that has the same ring to it. Anyway, I was in the basement of the pub, which is also where the band rehearsal room is, doing the ‘Stars, hide your fire’ piece when I found this stencil in amongst the ones I’d brought with me and just knew I had to use him. Where better to put our little leporine hipster than the wall just by the rehearsal room as an inspiration to all the musicians passing by.

Cheers

id-iom

This is the story all about how…

Well, guess who’s got themselves a Dymo? I hadn’t seen one for years and had presumed they’d gone all digital but no, it’s a good old-fashioned one like they had at school and it’s just perfect for small scale street interventions and, ideally, little earworms like this. Having printed the first couple of lines from the theme song from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (which are surely ideal breeding ground for an earworm) I just had to find somewhere good to put them. Where better than a bin that does get turned upside down on a weekly basis? Granted it’s probably in the highest traffic spot in the world but it’s all about placement and if it achieves it’s aim just once then it’s fit for purpose. I just have to remember to take it out with me next time…

Cheers

id-iom

Brixton crack squirrel

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.

It’s been a while since we’ve had an appearance from the Brixton crack squirrel though. I thought he was a goner but it turns out he’s just been sleeping in a lot and trying to kick the habit. Looks like he’s back to his old tricks again though and has pilfered a bag of rocks from somewhere…

 

Cheers

id-iom

Stars, hide your fire

I’m not sure if it seems apparent with the finished piece but I was a bit giddy when I started painting this, as it was the first wall we’ve tackled this year, and just started chucking paint at the wall with no ongoing plan whatsoever. Before I knew it I’d managed to cover the entire  wall with a garish bubblegum bright patchwork of colour.

I do wonder what I was listening to at that point and after a bit of a sit down decided that it was all a bit bright and fancy so I needed to take it a little darker.  I finally struck upon the idea of having a lady who, on the face of it is all bright and sparkly but, in fact, harbours some dark desires. With some snippets of text in between the bright patches, some black stencils to indicate the darker undercurrents and a quote from Macbeth over the whole thing it was time to step back and call it done. As this is in the basement of our local pub i’m hoping it should remain in place for a good while to come. Right, what’s next?

Cheers

id-iom

Stay cool

Stay cool – now on ebay

So here’s second of the pieces that came to light when I was tidying up recently. I thought we’d already sold this stuff and now it’s time to remedy that so here it is on ebay.

With Valentine’s Day not so far away it seems quite fitting. It’s been a while since i’ve been in the situation this chap finds himself in. He’s done all he can; got himself dressed up nice, got some flowers and found himself the right door to knock on. From here on in it’s no longer in his hands and the best he can do is put his best smile on and pretend he’s all confidence (which, he’s been informed, the ladies love). I can only wish him the best of luck…

He’s from an edition of 5 and is an eminently frameable A4 in size. They are all hand finished with different colours and it’s been completed using the magic of screen printing, paint pens, spraypaint and stencils. Signed on reverse.

Cheers

id-iom

Let every man praise the bridge that carries him over

Let every man praise the bridge that carries him over – now on eBay

It’s funny what you find when you’re tidying up. Today I came across a file which had a load of stuff I thought we’d already sold in it. Now I’m going to remedy that so here’s the the ebay link…

First up we have ‘Let every man praise the bridge that carries him over’ which is an old English proverb as far as I can tell. In this case the bridge in question is an unusual woman/bridge hybrid and has carried him from one side of Antartica to the other. Now whilst this bridge may not appear entirely practical it still lets you traverse from one side of a continent to the other, which is certainly something considering how much capital building projects of this size tend to cost. Although saying that it’s not exactly apparent how you are meant to disembark from the bridge when you reach her face. It would seem perhaps some kind of nose ladder would possibly be in order. Either that or i’ve mixed my metaphors entirely and was trying to get across the notion that ‘behind every great man is a great woman’. I’m not entirely sure myself…

It consists of some stencils, a bit of screen printing, some paint and some ink on an old National Geographic map of Antartica. She measures a wall friendly 62 cm x 48 cm and would look lovely once framed. It’s signed on the reverse.

Cheers

id-iom

King of the Swingers

So this is the second piece we did for a friend’s child and with this one we thought we’d go for something he may hopefully appreciate when he gets a little older as he’s currently under 1 and it’s difficult to know exactly what people that small really like when it comes to art appreciation. We were told he likes monkeys (who doesn’t?) and as soon as I was told that the lyrics from the Jungle Book’s ‘I wanna be like you’ popped in to my head and that was enough for me. As the other half of id-iom had gone for the light, colourful and fluffy side of the coin, i decided to take it the other way and make it a little dark and menacing just for good measure.

When i started the picture of the monkey it seemed a little flat and lifeless so i decided to cut out the swinging monkey and apply some cardboard to the back of it so that it gave a little shadow. After this all that there was left to do was try and frame it so it looked a little more gift-like (all framers out there no need to worry your jobs are safe).

Cheers

id-iom

Supplanter

Hmmmm….. What does a gritty urban art duo do as a gift for a child under one? There was a lot of time spent thinking about whether to do something child friendly or perhaps something that maybe he’d appreciate when he’s older and we finally settled on doing two pieces in order to cover both bases.

Today’s piece is a rather lurid attempt to grab some attention with bright colours, something that resembles a superhero Care Bear, his name and crew all of which is sprayed in reverse on the back of a piece of glass we had in the studio. Hopefully they’ll find somewhere out of reach to put it until he’s a bit older…

Cheers

id-iom