When I originally found this map of Doncaster in a big box of assorted maps underneath my desk I thought ‘This is perfect’, I know a few people from Donny so I’m sure I can come up with something smart and urbane. Then, of course, inspiration deserted me and left me staring at a map of Yorkshire with no grand plan in sight.
After staring at the map for what could have been a week I decided to get in touch with someone from Donny to try and help me find a little inspiration. They gave me the following to work with:
1. Jeremy Clarkson – his mother had the Paddington bear factory
2. Kevin Keegan
3. Lesley Garrett
4. John Parr who did St Elmo’s fire tune, actually comes to our local pub
Very hard Hugo we are just a little mining town up North
And that was enough to get me on my way. First I thought I’d try the route of the Paddington Bear factory but sadly couldn’t come up with anything good enough, so moved on to number two but football is lost on me so I decided to move on to number three which didn’t really give me anything to work with either. This meant I had to try and come up with something using number four and I truly thought this would be the one. Who doesn’t like a catchy 80’s hit for inspiration? Again, however, I came up empty. I was just about to lose all hope of finding inspiration until I read the last line back to myself again and there it was…Just a little mining town up North.
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.
Time catches up with us all. This old skull has been feeding the flowers for so long that it’s difficult to know where the flowers end and the skull begins. The skull doesn’t even remember it’s name anymore; it’s been there for so many years. But all is as it should be. The circle of life turns slowly but it does forever turn…
Perhaps weirdly this is all based on a canvas that had been in development hell for a couple of months until eventually we put up as it was and that somehow opened the floodgates so we created an enhanced batch on supersmooth A2 paper featuring a background colour blend, extra bonus flowers, some gold leaf and spiffy rounded edges. Let us know if you need one for your wall…
The main, pertinent and only real question you should be asking yourself right now is ‘is that a googly eye?’ I’ve done my research and can guarantee you it isn’t.
Just yesterday the other half of id-iom asked why I was using a googly eye as a weight to hold down a stencil. I told him I wasn’t but he didn’t believe me until I lifted up the much painted tuppence coin in question and showed him. He still didn’t believe me even after I had put the coin back down. So there you have it. People will believe what they want.
Insect Week day 3 and we’re back to Ladybirds – which are funny little things. In English they’ve been called ladybird, ladybug, lady beetle, lady clock, lady cow and lady fly. Apparently the name references the fact that the ladybird is red and so was the Virgin Mary’s dress when pictured in the Middle Ages. But that’s not what today’s mural is all about.
Today’s tale is a story as old as time, ladybird loves leaf but unfortunately that love is not reciprocated. An epic chronicle of love, longing, hunger, revenge and everything in between that spans the generations. Imagine Game of Thrones with ladybirds and you’re pretty much there. No one is getting out alive. That’s all I’ve got apart from this lovely mural but you’ve got to admit it would make a good show…
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