They will come…

Today’s eBay piece is ‘They will come…’ You can check it on eBay on the link below:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392175642063

I decided that I wanted to produce something that looked like a vintage anti-Nazi propaganda poster for the Isle of Man and one of the perks of being an artist is coming up with some outlandish idea and then being allowed to bring it to reality regardless of any other factors – and today’s piece is a good case in point. I had just finished Ian Tregillis’ enjoyable alternate history book ‘Bitter Seeds’ about British warlocks fighting Nazi superheroes in WWII and thought to myself that Nazi bashing is pretty much encouraged in other media – books (like Bitter Seeds), computer games (like the Call of duty mini-game where you have to kill as many Nazi zombies as you can) and film (Inglourious Basterds springs to mind). So I thought I’d jump in on the action through the medium of art.

As the Laxey Wheel is one of the most iconic and easily recognisable of the island’s historic landmarks I thought it would be a good place to start. Throw in an improbably large evil Nazi owl descending from a darkening sky with it’s talons outstretched to snatch at the wheel and you’re off and running. Then all you need is some patriotic sounding text and you’ve got yourself some fake Manx propaganda c.1939. Right, what’s next?

Cheers

id-iom

Title: They will come… we must fight!
Materials: Screenprint, spraypaint, stencils, watercolour and paint pen
Size: A3

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Owl be alright

Owl be alright

I was walking down through the woods near the studio when to my horror a small owl dropped from its nest ahead of me. To make it worse it fell to the feet of a group teens with murder in their eyes and evil intent for this little avian beauty. After i shooed off the offending youths and  picked up the poor owlet, I held it out on my outstretched arm and asked her name.

“Athena” she replied

“After the goddess of war and wisdom?” I asked

“The one and same”

“Are you OK?” I blurted out to the small owl

” Yes i’m fine, thank you for your help but owl be alright” Athena proclaimed

I stared at her wondering if she had meant to make a joke, and then she winked at me with eyes full of mischief. We chatted for another few minutes on a range of subjects before we said bye to each other. Athena then flew away never for me to see her again although i sometimes get a whatsapp message giving some sage advice after she has seen something stupid i’ve done on Facebook.

Cheers

id-iom

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

They will come… we must fight!

Manx anti-Nazi propaganda c.1939

I decided that I wanted to produce something that looked like a vintage anti-Nazi propaganda poster for the Isle of Man and one of the perks of being an artist is coming up with some outlandish idea and then being allowed to bring it to reality regardless of any other factors – and today’s piece is a good case in point. I had just finished Ian Tregillis’ enjoyable alternate history book ‘Bitter Seeds’ about British warlocks fighting Nazi superheroes in WWII and thought to myself that Nazi bashing is pretty much encouraged in other media – books (like Bitter Seeds), computer games (like the Call of duty mini-game where you have to kill as many Nazi zombies as you can) and film (Inglourious Basterds springs to mind). So I thought I’d jump in on the action through the medium of art.

As the Laxey Wheel is one of the most iconic and easily recognisable of the island’s historic landmarks I thought it would be a good place to start. Throw in an improbably large evil Nazi owl descending from a darkening sky with it’s talons outstretched  to snatch at the wheel and you’re off and running. Then all you need is some patriotic sounding text and you’ve got yourself some fake Manx propaganda c.1939. Right, what’s next?

Cheers

id-iom

Title: They will come… we must fight!
Materials: Screenprint, spraypaint, stencils, watercolour and paint pen
Size: A3
Please email if interested

We’re going to rock down to Electric Social – and then we’ll take it higher!

id-iom's How to Get Your Man at the Electric Social

Electric Social downstairs wall

Electric Social dripping bulb logo

Electric Social cassette

Crack squirrel on bar

 

Gotta make it home for Eastenders!

Magpie on doorway - looking just a little shifty...

He doesn't look so shifty from a distance

A slightly worried looking rabbit. He knows what the squirrels are up to...

King Stoat

Mick the magpie looking for a good holiday read

Owl in the woodland

You have to look close but he's there...

Your lunch smells lovely...

Magpie in the woodland

There's a mouse! Where? There on the stair!

Since when can squirrels read?

Aha! That's why she has that enigmatic smile. Because of the cute squirrel.

We’ve been a little quiet of late but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy! We have in fact been very busy working with dangerous animals and giant stencils on a new bar that has opened in Brixton.

The Electric Social on Acre Lane is now open for business and looking spiffing – complete with id-iom enhanced interior! Downstairs we have done a 10 metre section of downstairs wall with an Electric Social lightbulb wallpaper and a big piece over it entitled ‘id-iom’s How to Get Your Man’. Then upstairs we have done a large Electric Social cassette tape behind the stage. Scattered throughout we have painted numerous happy woodland animals. There’s mice, rats, magpies, a stoat and an owl. Unfortunately there’s a couple of bad eggs that have slipped in too – as the bloody squirrels have only been at the crack again! They’ll be chewing on the wiring again before you know it…

The Brixton crack squirrels were actually inspired by a couple of ‘true’ stories (I use true in the loosest sense of the word – mainly that it was reported by The Guardian and The Sun newspapers).

NEWS JUST IN – it’s been confirmed that one of my favourite DJ’s – A Skillz – will be playing at the the grand opening of the Electric Social on Friday 30th September. Now I just hope they were serious about that bar tab for us…

Cheers

id-iom

PS – You can see bigger shots of all the work on our Flickr page (plus a couple of extra shots not uploaded here)