Paula and Robbie had been dating for just over 6 months now and were attending their first dinner party as a couple. Everything had been going well, the main course had just been taken away and they were awaiting dessert. That’s when it all started to go wrong. Paula managed to catch Robbie’s eye over the table and that was enough for her to know something bad was going to happen. She’d seen it happen once before – although she still wasn’t entirely sure what ‘it’ was.
It starts first with a look of wild incomprehension, followed quickly by some barking noises and then Robbie would start speaking in tongues. This could go on for some time before he’d suddenly shake his head and start speaking normally. Paula decided she’d seen enough so hurriedly excused herself from the table and went to help in the kitchen…
A mullet can be either ‘any of various chiefly marine fish that are widely caught for food’ or ‘a hairstyle in which the hair is cut short at the front and sides, but is longer at the back’. Looking at today’s piece I think we know which route we’re heading down…
The funny thing is that Schmigal here didn’t know that. He is a cultural historian living in the distant future and having found reference to the mullet he had to investigate further. In the future the haircut has disappeared whilst the fish remain so this reference to ‘business up front, a party in the back’ made no sense.
Once he’d done some cross referencing however and found a picture of Patrick Swayze from some time (he guessed) in the late 22st century he knew what it was all about. Now, in 3041 the mullet is about to rock the world once more – and Schmigal will briefly become the most famous man on Saturn 7.
He’s on A4 and made using acrylic, paint pen and pencil. If you have a forward thinking mullet wearer in your life then you’ve just found the perfect gift…
With the end of lockdown now in sight, we can now start to start thinking about the future and that’s exactly what Margery here intended to do. Before she fell asleep all she could think of was holidays to far flung parts of the globe where she would be invited to urbane parties with exclusive guest lists where she was the guest of honour. She wasn’t yet sure why she was the guest of honour but that’s what she hoped to find out over the next night’s sleep.
Sadly that wasn’t the case. Instead of dreams of living the high life with the world’s elite, she had dreams that left her more exhausted than anything else. She found herself traipsing through clouds like the Care Bears but instead of frolicking in the sun she was chasing ducks but didn’t know why. It was all very confusing for her. On top of that, her teeth kept falling out and growing back every time the ducks would quack at her.
This seemed to go on for hours until at one point when she was within a couple of inches from grabbing a duck when her foot started to sink into the cloud she was walking on. Suddenly she fell through the cloud and was hurtling through the air towards the ever nearing earth. Just as she was about to hit the ground she woke up with a start, knocking the glass of water on her bedside table all over herself and her cat which proceeded to dash from the room clawing her leg viciously as it scarpered for safety. After looking at herself in the mirror and assessing the bags under her eyes and the damage done from the cat she wasn’t particularly looking forward to going back to sleep anytime soon…
You know Christmas is on the way when we get a call from events company Elsewhere as they need a little id-iom design pep to complete their party preparations. This year consisted mainly of design for print and laser cutting a load of bespoke Elsewhere Christmas decorations. The Party in a Pear Tree wallpaper design was used both as a wallpaper and as some giftwrap for the fake presents under the tree. It would seem id-iom is the complete design package after all…
For our fifth visit to Whitecross Street Party we thought we’d go for something mysterious and classy. Whether or not that’s worked is up to you to decide. The lady is based on a picture of ‘plus size’ model Robyn Lawley. Why on earth she is referred to as ‘plus size’ is beyond me though. If you saw her in the street I’m pretty much ‘plus size’ would be the last thing you’d be thinking. It’s an odd world we inhabit.
The lettering we’ve used all over the piece is Lord Byron’s poem ‘She walks in beauty’. Apparently he went to a ball and met his cousin by marriage, Mrs Anne Beatrice Wilmot, who was in mourning and wearing a black dress set with spangles and next morning he’d come up with what is widely regarded as his most famous work. Inspiration can strike at strange times it would seem. Once you’ve combined that with our extra busy striped background then you’ve got another certified id-iom piece. It’s on a 120cm square board. Just drop us a line if interested.
A big thanks to Teddy for having us and, as ever, it’s nice to catch up with the various people that dropped by for a chat. Let’s hope we can bring back some glorious sunshine for next year…
She looks much like any other lady you might see swanning around town and to all intents and purposes she is. It would be difficult to distinguish her from a thousand others just like her if you didn’t happen to know her a bit better. And what would distinguish her in this modern world of tinder dating, digital photography and deliveroo would be the fact that she likes to do things the old fashioned way. That isn’t to say she isn’t aware these modern conveniences but just that she prefers the old school, hands-on style experience. And who’s to say she’s wrong…
This was for our fifth visit painting at the Whitecross Street Party and, as usual, we had a great time and the weather was lovely – as it has been every other time we’ve painted too. Which is odd when you consider how unreliable UK weather is. Anyway, it’s always good to chat to the other artists and catch up with old friends whilst attempting to make new ones. At least we managed to keep the beer consumption a bit lower than in previous years…
Also, if you like the piece enough to want to own it she’s available to buy from Curious Duke Gallery (which is at 173 Whitecross St).
Amo, Amas, Amat (id-iom @ Whitecross Street Party 2015)
On Saturday it was that time of year again to once more make our way to the East end to paint at the Whitecross Street Party. We’ve done it a few times before so jumped at the chance to get the paints out again in central London. For ‘Amo, Amas, Amat’ we have a rather androgynous couple sharing a kiss but to make things a little more tricky for ourselves we thought we’d try something a little different and use pound shop polyfilla to try and add some texture to the faces. So with just a single tiny pallette knife with which to apply the filler and beer to keep it moist we set to work. Thankfully it was nice and sunny so the filler dried pretty quickly whilst we were busy chatting then it was time to re-apply the stencil, apply some shading then add some LED’s to give the eyes a little night time sparkle. As usual it was a great day out and the boards will be now mounted on walls around the area in the coming days so keep your eyes peeled…
It’s pretty obvious that Sergey likes fun isn’t it? Just look at the big cheesy grin on his face. Only joking as his face is clearly a little sombre looking. Perhaps someone has just told him some unfortunate news. Anyway, we get some odd requests here at id-iom HQ and today’s commission was certainly one of those. One of our contacts on flickr got in touch and asked if we could use a photo of him and interpret it however we like. I had a look at his serious looking face and decided he needed an injection of fun to lighten him up a little. So here he is drunk on holiday in Cancun with all his spring break buddies. He’s at the front of the rambunctious pack pulling an amusing face for the camera. Go Sergey!
Sergey loves fun!
I should point out that the original photo on flickr wasn’t by me. It was by
We arrived at WXSP on Sunday at about 12.45 which given the state both of us were in was quite a feat. We’d been djing at a friend’s wedding the previous evening and were a little the worse for wear. It was also hot and we had zero ideas in the way of a plan for the day. But sometimes we work better that way.
After agreeing between us that there was to be no conscious plan we attacked the boards with all the gusto we could muster. A couple of afternoon beers helped the whole process along and before you know it we’d just about managed to knock the whole thing into some kind of shape. As we were thinking about calling it a day Artista showed up just in time for us to give her a pen or two and ask her kindly to draw a piece of toast on it. With the addition of some LED eye’s we were pretty much all done just as they started to clean up and then dismantle the boards. Ah well, they were never going to last forever. Until next time…
Just last week I went to a house party somewhere in North London. It was all part of some birthday celebrations which turned into a very long weekend indeed. On arrival at said party the door was answered by somebody who invited me in and slyly revealed that there was ‘all kinds of disgraceful going on’. I’ve tried to capture the chap from memory but this is the best I could do. He did look a little bit shifty. I did say it was partway through a long weekend so you can hardly expect my recall to be perfect. Anyway, after a quick perusal in a couple of the rooms I could only agree with him so settled myself in the kitchen with a bottle of vodka for the long haul. I was lucky to make it out of there alive…
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