Day 28 of self-isolation. Marcus has no idea what day of the week it is and is proud of that fact. He has now reverted to a more primordial being. Self grooming was scaled back and has now stopped entirely. His beard is taking on a life of it’s own and his untamed afro is becoming more voluminous by the hour. Reality has ceased being real. His primary concerns now are hunter-gathering, sleeping and watching television. In that order. Most conversations take place in his head. He’d quite like to know when this is all going to end so he can plan accordingly. It’s 11.45am however so he’s only got 15 minutes to prepare for cocktail hour and he doesn’t want to miss the 2 for 1 promo deal… As a side note Marcus’ hair extension was surprisingly time consuming to create considering it’s just a big bit of spray painted paper. Luckily time is currently the one thing I do have plenty of. I think I’ve taken Marcus as far as he can go. Time for a whitewash…
‘I always feel like somebody’s watching me’ sang Rockwell in his 1984 hit (which features Michael Jackson on backing vocals assumably because Rockwell’s dad was Motown CEO Berry Gordy). And he wasn’t wrong. In today’s always-connected society the feeling that you’re being watched is very real indeed. Because you probably are. Being under lockdown hasn’t really helped to allay this anxiety for Marcus here but he’s getting on with things as best he can. Aren’t we all.
Well, there it is. My first solo mission. I’m pretty pleased with the final product – from the skin tone to the wallpaper. Now I just need some sunshine again and I can move on with some modifications before whitewashing and starting all over again.
The year is 1981. The place is the newly opened Lion’s Den club in Miami’s South Beach. Our time-travelling warrior poet Azrael Goldbeard is taking some well earned time off in the early 80’s as he fancied a bit of some sun and some disco dancing. Although lesser known than it’s New York counterpart, Studio 54, the Lion’s Den is very much along the same lines. Debauchery is the name of the game and Goldbeard is very much enjoying his time here. He’s currently thinking about nipping back to 77 and see what all the fuss was about. It’ll be a while until he’s back in grim and grimy 2019…
Last time we met time-travelling warrior poet Azrael Goldbeard he was in his undercover human form sometime in the 1970’s but since then he’s mistakenly jumped to 2019 Brexit Britain and it has got him well and truly wound up. He’s not thinking of a spiffy haiku now but has reverted to his powered up warrior form as he can sense the awesome amount of negative energy all around him.
His beard is now composed of pure energy and his eyes are literally leaking the power of a dwarf star. We can only hope he decides to put this energy to good use rather than taking off and nuking the entire site from orbit and hightailing it back to the 70’s. I, for one, welcome our new galactic overlords…
When a prestigious London art handling company gives you a call asking for paint to be applied in a creative manner to an otherwise dingy area outside their warehouse then we’re only too happy to oblige. Given the nature of their work we eventually settled on a design that featured some little installers who are installing the company logo. How very self-referential. But you know the art world.
Unfortunately, due to some parked cars, we were entirely unable to get a decent final shot so that will be forthcoming sometime this week hopefully. However, if you’re the kind of person who really digs work in progress shots then have we got a mother lode for you today…
It’s not like team id-iom needs much in the way of reasons to head to the pub so when we got the call from a new pub, The Perky Nel, in Clapham South (on the site of the now deceased Gigalum and Oblivion bars) to say they needed some inspired interior design to brighten up an area by the kitchens we were happy to oblige.
After a bit of toing and froing we finally had an agreed design bringing a bold nature inspired heart design to the area around the serving hatch. Featuring flowers, badgers and an SW4 banner it’s a little ode to the Common. Although how many badgers are still knocking about in there is anyone’s guess…
We were invited up to the suitably swanky Hill House in Norfolk to adorn their already impeccably adorned walls with some large scale outdoor id-iom artwork. Given that Hill House is often hired out for parties and events we thought we’d try and come up with something suitable and ‘In vino veritas, in aqua sanitas’ is the result.
The Latin phrase translates as ‘In wine there is truth, in water there is health’ and it is a sentiment of which id-iom and, I’d like to think, Hill House itself approves. The table tennis table in the same outdoor space was looking a little worse for wear so we decided to give that a little makeover too in order to match the newly minted mural. The place was lovely, the weather was great and the staff (when we saw them) were equally so. It was all work though as being artists-in-residence for the week left ample time to stroll the grounds with a shandy in hand examining the very many cute bunny rabbits that also shared the garden dispensing nuggets of truth…
Due to being the harbingers of gentrification that we are it was only time before our previous studio was turned into a spanky new development. It would have been good to get some before and after shots of all the walls as they were demolished but this is all I’ve got. You can see one of our pics peeking out from behind the rubble. Oh well, nothing lasts forever. Onwards and upwards…
I was just looking for something else on my computer when I come across this rare image of the younger half of id-iom actually doing some work! I know because I took the shot. Any pics that you may have previously seen showing him doing something that looks like work will undoubtedly have been staged or digitally generated using Photoshop. What’s more incredible is that he’s also up a small pair of steps (which are just out of shot) so that makes the whole thing doubly rare. He doesn’t like using ladders at the best of times. Even small ones. If only I could remember what had driven him to such extremes. Perhaps I was suffering from whooping cough or the more dangerous man flu at the time. Who knows?
There’s nothing id-iom likes more than a good pub so when we got the call from an imminently opening pub in Streatham called The Mere Scribbler and were asked to do a portrait in their beer garden of Frances Burney – after whom the pub is named – we jumped at the chance. Frances ‘Fanny’ Burney was a 18th century novelist, diarist and playwright who progressed her career in the area. Given the limited number of pictures of Fanny that are available we didn’t have all that much to work with other than a handful of severe looking portraits from the time. After a bit of toing and froing however we finally had an agreed design. There’s no detail in her hair as they are going to get some ivy on the wall which will, in time, hopefully become her hair so the plain yellow is a bit of a stopgap til then. If ever there’s a decent excuse needed to go to the pub then I guess that’s it…
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