Give us your daily bread. The next episode.

Give us your daily bread. The next episode.

Seagulls. They’re a noisy bothersome lot. But here at id-iom they hold a special place in our hearts. We originally hail from the Isle of Man and, like a lot of places near a coastline, we share our space with an inordinate number of the unruly beasts. Whilst this is nothing special in and of itself it has given us an excellent understanding of seagulls and their rather loutish behaviour.

This piece was created as a warning to all those out there who are not ready for the attack. But it will come, oh yes, it will come. There you’ll be enjoying a sandwich on a sunny esplanade in any number of coastal towns when suddenly a shadow crosses your path but before the prehistoric part of your brain can react the seagull will swoop down stealing away with your tasty lunch and taking it to the nearest roof top to devour whilst screaming bird obscenities at you between gulped mouthfuls.

You, bereft of your lunch will probably fall to your knees, cast your eyes up to the heavens and scream ‘Why me?’. Alas, it is already too late, this round goes to the avian yobs. All you can do is retreat in shame whilst keeping one eye on skies above in case he returns…

Seagull eyed viewers will note that we have done this imperious looking chap before but this time he’s been flipped to better fit the wall for this little back yard commission all completed in the blazing sun on a Bank Holiday Monday.

Cheers

id-iom

Advertisement

Athena and the Lady of the Lamp

Athena and the Lady of the Lamp

There I was tidying up my front room and it came to the onerous task of cleaning the coffee table. The table was pretty filthy and I just couldn’t be bothered to sit there scrubbing away with cleaning products but thankfully an idea popped in to my head. What if i just quickly sanded down the surface and gave the table top a new lick of paint?

With nothing more in my head than the willingness to throw some paint around I started with gusto but the realisation slowly dawned on me that I didn’t actually have anything in the way of a plan. To remedy this I had a swift glance through my little book of ideas and struck upon a small nugget of information that I’d jotted down that was somehow to become the basis for this piece; Florence Nightingale used to have a pet owl named Athena which she rescued from children outside the Pantheon in Athens hence the owl’s name. Florence loved the little owl and she went on to become the famous British nurse whose name is now synonymous with the word ‘mercy’. That was all I needed in the way of inspiration so here you have a somewhat abstract version of Florence and her pet owl, Athena. If you want to discover the sad fate of Athena then you simply must read this article.

Cheers

id-iom

Title: Athena and the The Lady with the Lamp
Materials: Paint pen, acrylic, spray paint and charcoal on wooden board
Size: 122 cm x 117 cm

Give us your daily bread!

Give us your daily bread!

Seagulls. They’re a noisy bothersome lot. But here at id-iom they hold a special place in our hearts. We originally hail from the Isle of Man and, like a lot of places near a coastline, we share our space with an inordinate number of the unruly beasts. Whilst this is nothing special in and of itself it has given us an excellent understanding of seagulls and their rather loutish behaviour.

This piece was created as a warning to all those out there who are not ready for the attack. But it will come, oh yes, it will come. There you’ll be enjoying a sandwich on a sunny esplanade in any number of coastal towns when suddenly a shadow crosses your path but before the prehistoric part of your brain can react the seagull will swoop down stealing away with your tasty lunch and taking it to the nearest roof top to devour whilst screaming bird obscenities at you between gulped mouthfuls.

You, bereft of your lunch will probably fall to your knees, cast your eyes up to the heavens and scream ‘Why me?’. Alas, it is already too late, this round goes to the avian yobs. All you can do is retreat in shame whilst keeping one eye on skies above in case he returns… You have been warned!

Cheers

id-iom

The March of Time

Like most of the walls we paint we like to come at them with as little as a plan as possible (other than a one layer stencil) and see what develops. I think we like this approach because it lets our creative juices flow and allows for some real time collaboration and adjustments on the fly. Sometimes this works in our favour and sometimes not so much but then again that’s how the cookie crumbles when you practice the arcane art of spontaneity. I’d like to think this wall was a success however.

She’s even got some moss for hair which i’ll attempt to reapply over time to see if we can get some nice verdant growth. The problem I have with my moss ‘paint’ however is the lack of corn syrup to thicken the mixture. It appears the american ingredient is not so easy to come across in the UK. Cornflour didn’t seem to do the trick so I’ll have to keep experimenting…

I think my favourite touch is the addition of the little birds on the clock and the electrical wire above her head.  Now we just need a bit of summertime so this little outdoor lounge can be enjoyed properly…

Cheers

id-iom

Flutter

Flutter

As you can probably tell by the fact she has a kingfisher nestled on her shoulder and two lovely little hummingbirds racing to taste the nectar of the blossoming lily she’s leaning in to sniff this lady is at one with nature. She has communed with her environment and found that she is now so in tune with her biorhythms and the natural cycle of life that she can talk with the animals just like Dr Doolittle. I’m only joking. She took some pretty strong acid about an hour ago and now thinks exclusively in smells and colours and can, as far as she’s concerned, converse with the imaginary birds and flowers that are crowding round her. Also, she thinks she’s leaning in to sniff the flower like Michael Jackson with his anti-gravity lean in the Smooth Criminal video.  That’s just how muddled she is. I guess the moral of the story is that things aren’t always what they seem. Or something like that.

She’s was made using the magic of acrylic paint, paint pen, stickers and charcoal on a large (A1 size) bit of coloured paper. She will surely look magnificent when framed up. If you’re interested drop us a line…

Cheers

id-iom

Title: Flutter
Materials: Paint pen, acrylic, stickers and charcoal
Size: A1

Things are beautiful if you love them

I just love rescuing an old bit of wood to paint on. Previously it was just an old shelf destined for the tip. Now it’s probably still destined for the tip but at least she goes out looking good. I even tried my hand at a little engraved lettering on this one – which was a bit trickier than I thought but still looks pretty reasonable in the flesh. Considering I didn’t have replacement tips for the little drill thing I was using I was fairly happy with the end result.

‘Things are beautiful if you love them’ is a nice little quote from French dramatist Jean Anouilh. I particularly like the idea that anything can be beautiful if you love it and the converse that things aren’t inherently beautiful but the act of loving them makes them beautiful. Heady stuff for a Friday morning. I’m sure normal service will resume soon enough…

Cheers

id-iom

King of the Corvidae

“It was not a job he wanted but, somehow, it was a job he’d got. He was standing on a small pile of rocks with a light morning breeze ruffling his feathers and gazing out over the sea of carnage in front of him. A magpie standing nearby was nervously recounting the events of the previous evening. His words came in staccato gasps ‘The seagulls came in the dead of night and attacked en masse. Everyone was exhausted from the feast of McDonalds. A couple of rooks managed to raise the alarm but it was already too late…’. The words washed over him while he slowly came to the realisation that he was now in charge. Tears could wait. It was time to show these gulls who ruled the airspace around here once and for all.”

If I had to write a story based on this picture I’m pretty sure that’s how it would start. An epic tale of urban avian skullduggery with more aerial combat, vicious peckings and egg smashings than any story has a right to contain. All conducted right above our heads on the busy London streets. I think maybe I just got up too early this morning…

Cheers

id-iom

Meanwhile in Brixton…

Being a womble ain’t easy. We’ve brought all kinds of stuff home (much to the dismay of my girlfriend) so with the onset of some good weather we decided to paint them up with the intention of getting them out of my garden and onto the street. With the day being warm and full of sun we got to work. After a couple of hours this was one of the pieces we’d produced featuring a lady in her knickers smoking a ciggy (which is just out of shot). What exactly she’s doing in Brixton I’m not quite sure but maybe we’ll find out more when I manage to get her back on the streets…

Cheers

id-iom

A little bird told me…

Sooo, we managed to ruffle some feathers with the original version of this which we did at Sun, Sea and Spray in Blackpool last year. It originally had the text ‘Taking the cure’ which refers to the Victorian pastime of ‘taking the cure’ – being to bathe in the sea for healing/medicinal purposes, which Blackpool used to be famous for. It’s even mentioned on their Wikipedia entry but the Man didn’’t see it that way. Apparently we were making a drugs reference and we needed to adapt it to something less contentious or have the whole thing buffed. Which is where our man on the spot, Chris Fenn and his trusty assistant Hannah Nickson came to our aid and very kindly agreed to modify it for us. So, above is our newly refinished piece complete with entirely inoffensive text. We definitely owe you both a pint or two. And here’s the much maligned original…

Taking the cure (original pic)

Cheers

id-iom

The early bird catches the worm

If you’re one of those people who set your alarm for an hour earlier than you need to get up so you can relentlessly keep hitting your snooze button then this one’s not for you. This is for those go-getters among us who spring out of bed upon waking with joy in their black hearts every morning. I’d like to think they are really something like the bird in question in this particular piece who seems nice enough on first glance but is, in fact, a pernicious magpie with a rather malicious glint in his eye. The slightly loopy looking worm doesn’t seem to realise what’s about to happen to him…

In fact thinking about it maybe I’ll get this on eBay and see what happens…

Cheers

id-iom

Title: The early bird catches the worm
Materials: Watercolour, paint pen, spray paint and stencil
Size: A3

Related articles

• Boo Hoo (thisisidiom.wordpress.com)