Phil Collins – No Context Required

With Phil Collins regularly invading my thoughts for no fathomable reason I thought the best way to exorcise the demon, so to speak, was to let the genie out of the bottle and give some Phil inspired designs a go. It turns out some of his quotes, when taken out of context, have led to a bit of a design goldmine and today’s piece is my initial effort.

Phil is well aware he’s a caricature but what he doesn’t know is that he’s been lasercut on wood and then hand coloured and now stands proud at 53 x 36cm. Drop us a line if you’re interested. I think it’s safe to say that you can expect more in the same vein in the days to come. They get a bit weirder…

As a bonus for the eagle eyed viewers out there – how many of my out of context band references that I’ve shoehorned into the picture can you find?

Cheers

id-iom

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Best weapon

For the latest in my tester line of laser cut designs I’ve gone for a little Nietzsche inspired piece. Nietzsche was a 19th century German philosopher who produced many scholarly articles.  I think his ‘best weapon’ quote is bang on the money but it’s tricky to be sure how impressed he’d be with my creation or whether he’d take umbrage with my use of his quote. Either way as it’s quite small at 11x15cm I’ll probably stick some magnets to the back and whack it on my fridge unless anyone else is interested. Drop us a line if so…

Cheers

id-iom

Urban art exhibition @ Chapel Arts in Cheltenham

Now the Cheltenham Festival may have been and gone but if you live anywhere near the area here’s a hot little tip for you. We’re exhibiting a few pieces alongside other artists such as My dog sighs, Korp, Dice 67 and Zabou at the Urban Arts exhibition at Chapel Arts on Knapp Road in Cheltenham. It’s running from this Friday (25th March) until the 16th April. It’s always good to make it down on opening night if you can – some lovely artwork, a beer or two and if anyone asks you can sound like you’re doing something cultural. It’s in the balance at the moment whether we’ll be able to make it or not but if we do we’ll see you there…

Cheers

id-iom

When toys grow up

Even wondered how the cartoon characters you knew as kids dealt with life as they grew up? Well, if you were specifically wondering about how Starscream from The Transformers was getting on then you’ve come to the right place. Sort of. Starscream was one of the Decepticon lieutenants answering directly to Megatron and he could transform into a fighter jet at will but at some point in the early 90’s he dropped out of sight with a heavy Energon addiction.

What happened between then and when he finally resurfaced in 2006 as an independent record producer in LA is open to speculation. Since then however he’s been working in the music industry and after bringing EDM to the masses has finally got a job with one of the major labels. He’s changed his look and kicked his Energon addiction although still attends Decepticons Anonymous meetings every now and then but he’s generally pretty stoked with the direction his life is now moving. He wished the same could be said of Megatron…

Anyway, as is currently my wont he’s laser etched on wood with a hand painted background. Why do you do these things? I hear you ask. Because I can.

Cheers

id-iom

Et tu Brute?

My old history teacher would not be best impressed. There’s me with a highbrow Julius Caesar assassination/Ides of March related piece and the vague but persistent memory that it falls on the 17th March (ie. today). A swift internet search reveals that I have, of course, got it wrong and now my piece is two days past any  date related relevance as, I’m sure we all know, the Ides of March corresponds to the 15th March in our calendar. D’oh.

Anyway, today’s piece is laser cut and hand-painted and features Caesar’s head (on a Roman coin) getting stabbed up by his old buddies and includes his legendary last words ‘Et tu Brute?’ which means ‘Even you Brutus? as he expresses terminal dismay at the treachery of a supposed friend. But you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs now can you? I’m sure he’d done worse in his time. Here ends the lesson.

Cheers

id-iom

The Smiley Bandit

Here at id-iom we love experimentation and we also love a bit of sunshine. Yesterday we manage to enjoy both of them simultaneously and this behatted hipster is the result. With the hottest day of the year on our hands (a blistering 17 degrees) we hit the garden with a nice white canvas and set to work. To give the piece something of a random feel the background was created by one member of id-iom who was blindfolded throughout and had to follow the direction of the other member of id-iom – who was not allowed to touch the picture. As you can probably imagine things did not go entirely smoothly. But it was highly amusing.

Once the background was done the blindfold came off and we both regarded what we had created. We both laughed. From there we followed a quickly spiralling path until ‘The Smiley Bandit’ was born. Be warned. With his fancy suit jacket and natty hat he will most definitely eat all your eggs. If he takes your fancy then drop us a line. Any reasonable offer considered. Much like the bandit himself.

Cheers

id-iom

The not so free to you and me

The not so free to you and me

We here at id-iom aren’t really what you would call political beasts and we generally leave that kind of thing to others but occasionally things happen in the world which it’s difficult to ignore. My ‘thing’ consisted of watching the news last Sunday and being somewhat dismayed about what I was hearing about America’s newest leader. Not that it was qualitatively different to the nonsense that had come before but it somehow just made me fully realise that this perma-tanned narcissist was now ‘the leader of the free world’. Weird or what?

Anyway, a few days before i’d watched a video on caricatures so thought i’d give it a quick go with the Donald. Apparently the first thing you have to do is accentuate the part that represents most about him, so as you can see i drew his mouth a little puckered up and then put the symbol of free America – the bald eagle – as a little comedy bird which now lives in his wig. And that’s that. Politics class is over.

Cheers

id-iom

Badvertising – Taste the feeling

It’s funny how many advertising slogans can be applied to the murky world of drugs. For today’s instalment in a series we’re imaginatively calling ‘badvertising’ we’ve gone for Coke Zero and the classic ‘Taste the feeling’ tagline. We could have just have easily used ‘real Coke taste and zero calories’ but preferred the classic tagline as it’s a little more descriptive.

Anyway, today’s piece is on my current canvas of choice, namely wood, and using my current favoured technique of laser engraving. Plus, just a little bit of white paint pen just to accentuate the obvious. Drop us a line if you’re interested…

Cheers

id-iom

2 sided picture – It is in your hands make it worth their while

Well it would appear that I’m on something of a roll with 2 sided pictures. As with our previous one it’s on a 60 x 40cm wood panel and features laser engraving, stencils, spraypaint, paint pens, acrylic paint and laser cutouts. If that’s not enough I even managed to come up with my own patented industrial-looking hanging contraption from the hardware shop so it can be easily flipped to give your walls a new lease of life. How’s that for a win?

One side features a slightly aloof looking lady under an x-shaped logo for ‘The Golden Motto Series’ and the legend ‘People will stare. Make it worth their while.’ Which we all know is true. People are nosy and can’t help it. I guess it’s just the way we are. We love looking at just about anything be it out of the ordinary or not. Anyway, the thing I’m happiest about with this piece is managing to keep it pretty minimal (well, for us anyway) and restraining myself from adding more colour and embellishment. I’m happy with the result.

The other side was inspired by a quote from Nelson Mandela – ‘It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it’. It seems obvious but seem people seem to need that pointing out sometimes. I’ve taken him quite literally at his word on this one and so have a bemused looking lady holding the world in her hands with the stars and astral quotes providing a galactic background. Right on Nelson.

Cheers

id-iom

Something strange

With scientists discovering a new planetary system, Trappist 1, with a few planets that within the so called ‘Goldilocks zone’ (neither too hot nor too cold to support human life) this lady was somewhat fixated upon this news and was pondering what it could all mean for the human race when suddenly a light appeared in the sky above her. The light pulsed and expanded and then disappeared. And just like that, she was gone too. I know because I saw the whole thing. What exactly it all means I’m not too sure. I think it was probably the men in black. All I know is I’m not giving it too much thought. Just in case. I don’t want something strange happening to me too…

Cheers

id-iom