‘Less is more’ I hear people say sometimes. Here at id-iom however we tend to find that phrase a little strange as minimalism is not something we’ve ever really been able to practice. It could be that way because there are two of us each armed with our own opinions about what to do when a piece stalls. It usually involves adding some more mess and/or colour. Well today, for reasons unknown, we have managed to produce something minimal. He hasn’t even got a head. Just a suggestion of some hair and some disembodied eyes. And you can’t get more minimal than that. Well, you probably can but not if you’re us.
Cheers
id-iom
Title: The boy who cried
Materials: Paint pen and charcoal
Well, what does on about a piece like this? If, by any chance, you looked at our social media accounts last Friday you might of seen a few glimpses of this little beauty via a series of progress shots. If you didn’t catch that (and i’m not sure that too many people did) then perhaps it’s best for me explain how this picture came to be. It was early afternoon on Friday when a friend popped around with some beers as it was a gorgeous day and she had the day off work. Being the good friend I am, I accepted her kind offer and started to have a beer with her whilst also doing a bit of painting. It all started sedatedly enough but escalated quickly and things started to get a little messy.
With my brain swimming in alcohol, ideas abounded. I’m pretty sure it was a case of quantity over quality but somehow this piece started to form and I was left with a rough version of this when I woke the next day. For no better reason than I had a bit of time on my hands I tidied it up and decided to see if I could fathom what I was up to.
For the life of me I can’t really piece together what I was trying to get at although I think I had a very amusing reason at the time. The googly eyes on the carrot also came as a bit of a surprise as I don’t remember putting them on at all. Luckily for me I think they work and I’m thinking things could have been a lot worse. If anyone has any thoughts on what they think I was driving at I’d like to hear them…
In fact there are a few sketches in my sketch book which will provide some amusement when everyone is feeling low at id-iom headquarters sometime in the future. Watch this space.
‘The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts’ is a quote from CS Lewis that is surely as true today as it was when he came out with it. Anyway, take these two young teachers, they look eager to inspire little minds and ‘irrigate deserts’ right? Wrong! They’d much rather be enjoying a couple of drinks in the nearest pub than trying to teach a screaming gang of 7 year olds how to do their times tables. If you could read their minds I’m pretty sure all you’d see was the mental calculation as they estimated how many more hours of work they’ll have to do before their next holiday…
Sometimes the muse works in mysterious ways. There I was working on two separate pieces of art which, after realising the similarities between them, decided should become part of a larger triptych. The only trouble then was that they needed a third unifying part that would (hopefully) allow them all to make sense as a whole. This meant it was back to the drawing board to scratch my head for a whilst waiting for this magical third section to materialise in my mind’s eye.
Nothing but dandruff came out of this scalp relaxation session until the other half of id-iom walked passed me and nonchalantly came out with a most cromulent quote that seemed to hit the nail squarely on the head. Not bothering to stop or change course he just sauntered along to do whatever he was doing in the first place but that inspiration was all i need to get the piece finished.
Considering the pieces originally had no order and the middle section was the final piece of the puzzle it seems a particularly fitting quote.
Cheers
id-iom
Title: The last thing one discovers…
Materials: Paint pen, acrylic, ink, charcoal, Tipp Ex and Spray paint
As i’m sure we’re all aware, Venus is the Roman goddess of love (and also beauty, sex, fertility, prosperity and desire). The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite to suit their own needs. Venus would later become one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality.
She wasn’t always like this though. When she was a young woman, before she had godly duties to perform, she was a little less certain of where her future lay. She was a bit socially awkward and the way she dressed and carried herself could only be described as drab and unassuming. One day however a chance encounter with a dashing young demi-god taught her what it was to love and be loved. With this awakening she blossomed into the the fun and vivacious deity we all know and love. She found she excelled at her celestial duties but still wonders what happened to that young demi-god. If only she could remember his name…
Cheers
id-iom
Title: The Virtue of Venus
Materials: Paint pen, acrylic, ink, charcoal, spraypaint and Tipp Ex
Size: A2
We popped this guy on the interwebs just the other day (with a different hair do) but as he’s been constructed using my new favourite method of cutting him out of wood with our handy jig saw we can now place him just about wherever we choose. First off it was with a very seductive flame red blanket for hair but now though we’ve gone with nature and chosen to give this miscreant a luxurious head of living, twining ivy. Which he seems pretty smug about. Maybe we’ll try something a bit less glamorous next time and see if that wipes the smile off his face…
One of my favourite purchases that id-iom has made recently is undoubtedly our jig saw. It’s much more fun that a drill and once you have one you find uses for it all over the place. All you need is an overactive imagination and a load of wood close to hand (ideally fairly thin MDF sheets so you cut it nice and easily) and you can cut away to you heart’s content. If only I’d paid attention in class all those years ago and I would probably be a bit more clued up on the whole issue but better late than never.
For today’s piece I have lovingly created some ‘Brixton’ lettering which is very loosely based on the famous Hollywood sign in LA. I did try lighting it like the Hollywood sign but that was quite difficult and didn’t turn out too well so I thought I’d make the addition of a girl to go with it and brighten up the garden a little. In fact the only thing missing now is some sunshine and warmth. Roll on summer…
The colour blue has historically been expensive and difficult to produce but these days you can just magic it up out of a can. How’s that for convenient? Anyway I think viewing James Cameron’s Avatar on the weekend seems to have had a subconscious effect on me as this study in blue just spontaneously suggested itself whilst I was waiting for the paint to dry on something else.
The picture is based on a photo of a friend and once i’d completed the image I thought it needed a little something to finish it off. Reaching for my trusty Dymo I came up with some text which I think sets it all off quite nicely. The text reads ‘Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality’. Which I reckon is quite fitting for someone who works in PR…
Bonus fact – Blue eyes actually contain no blue pigment. The colour is caused by an effect called Rayleigh scattering, which also makes the sky and sea appear blue. So there.
This piece is the very finest in id-iom upcycling. Or perhaps you’d call it an unsanctioned collaboration. Anyway, the canvas in questions which already had the black paint on was given to us by a friend who had grown a little tired of it and so passed it along to us to do whatever we felt like doing with it. It had been hiding away in id-iom HQ for a long time until the other day when the other half of id-iom screamed at the top of his voice ‘It’s a nice day and i want to throw some paint around’. He was right. It was a nice day but we had no suitable walls to paint so we decided to see if we had any canvas’s left around to work with. Et voila! This dusty old girl is plucked out of obscurity and thrust into the limelight.
So there we were outside lounging about in front of the canvas just sitting there when the muse quiely creeps up on us and, BLAM!, smacks us upside the head with some powerful motivation and this is when things really got started. Spray paint, brushes, stencils, diamanté applicator and ink are just some of the things that were pulled out and used on this lovely lass.
The title of the piece largely suggested itself once we’d managed to get it to a somewhat finished state. More importantly though it gives me a chance to segue into the 1987 power ballad by none other than Patrick Swayze as it’s a classic song and deserves to heard more.
Cheers
id-iom
Title: She’s like the wind
Materials: Paint pen, acrylic and spray paint
Size: 90 x 90 cm canvas
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Eloquent as I undoubtedly am however I would be hard pressed to put into words the decision process that led to this picture being produced. I had a hard enough time getting the picture from conception to reality…
It started out life as a photo of a friend from Glastonbury festival a few years ago. Since then it has languished in digital development hell in the bowels of my computer before finally becoming the basis for this piece. Perhaps it’s obvious that there was no solid plan when I started and I was largely making it up as I went along or perhaps not. It’s difficult to get perspective on these things sometimes…
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