Back in the summer of 1982 Archie here conceived and copyrighted the above joke. You’ve got to admit it’s got a certain something. Anyway, despite the fact that earnings have been decreasing in recent years, due mainly to the influx of cheap memes, he’s still got enough to get by. Just about. In order to finally retire in Marbella he’s going to need a new joke. One that’ll see him through his retirement comfortably. He’s going to have to put on his thinking hat…
Archie was conceived and created as a little thank you note in an attempt to be more engaging with our clientele. I wish him well in his new home…
As bad boy urban artists there’s not much that stands in our way, especially not some passive aggressive sign trying to tell us what not to do. No loitering, no smoking or sitting on the steps. No one tells us what not to do. Take THAT sign.
We make those kinds of rules up ourselves. And then break them anyway. That’s just the id-iom way.
Time catches up with us all. This old skull has been feeding the flowers for so long that it’s difficult to know where the flowers end and the skull begins. The skull doesn’t even remember it’s name anymore; it’s been there for so many years. But all is as it should be. The circle of life turns slowly but it does forever turn…
Perhaps weirdly this is all based on a canvas that had been in development hell for a couple of months until eventually we put up as it was and that somehow opened the floodgates so we created an enhanced batch on supersmooth A2 paper featuring a background colour blend, extra bonus flowers, some gold leaf and spiffy rounded edges. Let us know if you need one for your wall…
Now this is a bit of a weird one for us. We usually like to stick some pithy words or a face on any pictures we do, don’t ask me why, we just do it would seem. This is why this piece remains something of a mystery.I was in the studio making what I thought would be a spiffy background for us to work on when the other half of id-iom comes in and says he likes it as is. That was enough to make me stop and ponder what he was talking about. This contemplation sadly went on for about 6 months longer than expected…
I was looking for some gold leaf when I came across this canvas again and, would you Adam & Eve it, I suddenly beheld what the other half of id-iom had seen all that time ago. So, before we potentially do anything else with it we thought it probably deserved to see the light of day.
Please be standing for the King of all Things, Jasper Augusta Gibson. Not much is known about the self proclaimed King of all Things other than what can be found on his TikTok account. He claims ownership of all things both big and small. This apparently includes you, me, animals, metal, the air – literally everything! He claims to have ridden over the mediterranean in a small basket carried by many thousand ladybird. He reckons he’s the strongest man ever to have been born. There are many other bold claims he has made. The problem with the internet is that people are starting to believe him.
Jasper was created as a little thank you for one of our customers. I wish him well in his new home but hopefully that’s the last we hear of him…
We like treating our customers to a little thank you when they buy something from us and just the other day we slipped Marty the Citrus King into one such parcel. Marty is a dolt of epic proportions but it just so happens that he is also very photogenic. Just look at that grid. Piercingly beady eyes, stunted cauliflower ears and a nose reminiscent of an inverted ski jump are just some of the distinguished facial features that Marty sports. Good luck to him!
The main, pertinent and only real question you should be asking yourself right now is ‘is that a googly eye?’ I’ve done my research and can guarantee you it isn’t.
Just yesterday the other half of id-iom asked why I was using a googly eye as a weight to hold down a stencil. I told him I wasn’t but he didn’t believe me until I lifted up the much painted tuppence coin in question and showed him. He still didn’t believe me even after I had put the coin back down. So there you have it. People will believe what they want.
Sometimes the write ups for our pictures suggest themselves. Sometimes the picture is driven by the write up. And sometimes the write up is nowhere to be seen. Today is one of those days. We’ve beaten the bushes and all we’ve come up with is some deleted intros and these perfunctory lines. I fear we may have to go back to write up school…
Anyway, let’s just get back to basics. What we do have is a classy looking lass on a messy (but hopefully pleasing) background. That much is for sure. Why we’ve painted her and what exactly she is doing there is entirely up for discussion. She’s definitely on A2 Bockingford paper with lovely rounded edges and is available to go to a good home. That is all we really definitely know. There’s a suspicion her name may be Eileen.
It’s happened to the best of us, there we are with the will to get on the good foot and do the bad thing but all too late we realise we don’t have any paint to hand. What does an intrepid graffiti artist do? They refer to rule No.1 in the id-iom Graffiti Survival Handbook, which is ‘use whatever you can to make your mark’.
In this instance it was a power washer and a dirty patio that we had before us. The game was afoot. In scant seconds we had a figure emerging from the dirt. Then, in the name of our mum’s health and safety buffed our own work and the rest of the patio. Seriously, it was so slippery it was a broken arm just waiting to happen. Look after your mum.
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