It’s funny what turns up when you’re having a look through old photos. I must have just snapped this in the moment and then completely forgotten about it. It’s the cut out piece from a stencil we used when creating a gift for our cousin’s wedding and I just think the composition of the photo somehow hits the spot. Which is nice for something that is usually just discarded.
I like it enough to have it as the background image on my phone. So there.
Cheers
id-iom
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Filed under art, cutout, Graffiti, in progress, mixed media, stencil, street art
He used to be a part of the infamous Mandem crew. In fact he actually used to be the poster boy of Mandem Records, now he just sits by himself stroking his not so luxurious beard. His beard is actually made up of a culture of different fungi and detritus that has become matted with his own beard. What exactly happened you might well ask but no one really knows. One day he just got up and walked away from his previous life and is now holed up in the back of our studio, mumbling to himself. We try to coax him out every now and then with a cup of tea and a biscuit but so far no joy. When I try again, perhaps I’ll see if a custard cream will work…
He’s a sad reminder that nothing is safe in the shedio for too long. Especially in winter time. The damp gets to anything unprotected.
Cheers
id-iom
So we have decided to revive a bit of graffiti that was found all over the Isle of Man when we were growing up and bring it to the mean streets of London. FSFO apparently meant ‘Financial Sector F**k Off’ and was daubed on walls in the 80’s purportedly in response to the increasing growth and power of the Island’s burgeoning finance sector. Personally I always preferred the other definition of the acronym- which was that it stood for ‘Free Sex for Onchan’ (which is a small town on the Island) and the idea that sexual liberation was one thing they were willing to fight for. FSFO!
I realise this picture is a little saucy but then again we are going to need it if we are going to win the campaign for ‘Free Sex For Onchan’. It is a simple yet profound piece about sex with Onchan’s new motto emblazoned proudly across the top. In fact that’s given me a thought. Maybe we should have got some rainbow colours on there?…
Cheers
id-iom
You’ve heard of Tupac? Well here we’ve got Tenpac. The origins of Tenpac Shakir remain a mystery, even to us, who (assumably) created him.
He was just there one morning after an evening which ended in an agreeable state of inebriation. We felt he was too bad to live but too young to die so we decided the only decent thing to do was leave him on the street to fend for himself. The hanging 10 pack sign is a nice touch that we somehow pulled off pretty well all things considering…
Cheers
id-iom
When we got a call from Rosa’s Thai Cafe about painting a mural at their imminently opening new branch in Brixton we jumped at the chance. Amongst other things it’s nice working close to home for a change. After a couple of meetings and a bit of R&D banter with them and their architects/interior designers it was decided that a shutter wall would be constructed to give it that grimy urban look and we’d paint directly onto that. After batting round a few designs we finally had a winner – the slightly bemused looking lady with a custom designed ambigram wallpaper style background.
Given that we’ve done this enough times to know that the wallpaper stencil would be slightly lost on the shutters due to their curvature we decided to go belt & braces with it and laser cut some wooden cutouts of the wallpaper design so there would still be some clarity to the design if you cared to look that closely. After a busy day’s painting whilst the workmen were still at work on the interior we managed to get it all completed. Given that it’s the launch party this evening it looks like the install went just fine from there. Time for us to dig out some glad rags for later…
Cheers
id-iom
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Filed under art, Commissions, cutout, Graffiti, laser cut, mixed media, Painting, stencil
Since completing an artwork version of Pocket size Emma Willis a while ago I have been itching to somehow make my idea an actual product and finally, with access to a laser cutter, I’ve managed to realise my dream.
Sometimes, when I’m feeling a little low, I imagine a small, pocket-sized Emma Willis giving me a big thumbs up and suddenly everything is better. Now I can just reach for my keys and there she is giving me a pint sized thumbs up. I feel better already.
I know it’s all a bit odd but the muse demands what she demands.
Cheers
id-iom
My cat is sad because I had to swap her for a woodend stunt cat as she wouldn’t sit still long enough for my highly amusing photo shoot featuring a cardboard lion. Now she just stares listlessly out of the window thinking about the time she almost became a bigger internet star than Maru; the cat who will attempt to sit in any size box. Her sadness is compounded by fact that was irked by my repeating the mantra ‘big cat little cat cardboard box’ whilst setting up the shot and now she can’t get it out of her head.
Cheers
id-iom
Cats have had it their own way for a long time and are also perhaps some of the laziest animals ever to grace our undoubtedly beautiful planet. How they have come to dominate a position at the top of the food chain whilst being quite so lazy is somewhat hard to fathom. Perhaps it is our uniquely human view on what would otherwise be considered a dangerous pest. They have come to dominate us so completely that the top favourite thing for humans to look at on one of our greatest creations – the internet – is images and video’s of cats doing normal feline stuff. Pictures of cats it would seem are, to humans, like catnip is to cats. We seemingly cannot resist them and this makes them undisputed kings of the internet.
So, here at id-iom we thought it was high time we took them on and broke the internet with an id-iom cat picture. Before any smart alec’s point out it has no tail I have, of course, made it a Manx cat as I have one of the little blighters myself. Let the chaos commence!
Cheers
id-iom
What does the fox say?
What does the fox say?
Well? What does the fox say? According to the viral hit song by Ylvis they make all kinds of nonsensical sounds and I don’t think that’s entirely fair. Take this fox for instance. He’s living in central London with his girlfriend, has a decent job, is erudite and urbane in all he does and actually has a pretty broad lexicon. He has no trouble expressing his thoughts clearly and with good diction. He can even do a pretty convincing Jamaican accent when he has to. Admittedly though here you’ve caught him just about to indulge in one of his favourite pastimes which is, perhaps, not quite so respectable. When darkness falls there’s nothing he likes to do more than ‘skipping’ or, as the Americans like to call it, ‘dumpster diving’. He’ll tear your bin bags to pieces just for the fun of it. And then perhaps compose a short poem about it afterwards. As is the life of the fox…
Anyway, the fox is a first attempt at doing my own cutouts using a jigsaw and I’m pleased to say I still have all my fingers. He’s been cut out of some MDF and comes complete with glowing LED eyes that just make him look badass come dusk. Until tragedy strikes cutouts are my new favourite thing…
Cheers
id-iom
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