Mickey or a ringie?

Today’s eBay piece is ‘Mickey or a ringie?’. Click on the link below to check it on eBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392185026863

In the Isle of Man there is something of a superstition whereby Manx people can’t say the name of one of those little furry things that were blamed for the Black Death, pestilence in general and a whole host of other nefarious things. The reasons for this have dissipated into the mists of time but the superstition remains and due to this quirk in Manx folklore there are a number of socially acceptable local alternatives which include joey, longtail, ringie, iron fella and roddan.

Recently young people have also begun saying ‘r-a-t’ owing to the influence of English immigrants but older people on the Isle of Man don’t tend to listen to those Jonny come-overs too much and certainly not on such serious subjects as these little buggers. There is a comparable taboo against uttering the word ‘rabbit’ on the Isle of Portland. Here ends the lesson.

Cheers

id-iom

Title: Mickey or a ringie?
Size: A2
Media: Acrylic and paint pen

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Ro Don’t!

Let’s take a trip down memory lane. The year is 1948 and most of the UK is looking for a good long sit down for a year or two. Twelve year old Tom Carruthers however has other ideas. After witnessing the ravages of war first hand he wants to create a noble protector so it won’t happen again. After some basic genetic tampering with a (what would now be highly illegal) chemistry set and some stuff he found in his dad’s shed he managed to embiggen his pet rat, Twinkles, by a factor of 2. Fearing he’d get in trouble from his dad for having a giant rat he did what he thought was the decent thing and let his now super-intelligent rat free into the London sewers. If we skip forward 50 years then Twinkles is still very much alive but now he’s still super-intelligent, has grown to over 200 foot in size and goes by the name Ro Don’t. If you have a problem… if no one else can help… and if you can find him… maybe you can hire… Ro Don’t.

If that isn’t the best B film you’d watch this year then I’ll eat my cheese shoes. It is A4 in size and made using Watercolour, acrylic and tipex. Drop us a line if interested.

 

Cheers

id-iom

The Willowz

Given Hollywood’s proclivity for constantly remaking films we thought we’d jump the gun with a promotional poster for our dark reimagining of Wind in the Willows for the 21st century called ‘The Willowz’. Think of it as a loose sequel to the perennial children’s classic. But darker. And with more animatronics.

It’s set 15 years after the original where kind and benevolent Badger has become a mad and despotic dictator. He’s killed all the original characters and sold half of Wild Wood to developers to fund his ever growing addiction to prescription drugs. Some say it was all due to a bout of TB he contracted in 2006.

Our heroes consist of a female human eco-warrior who has managed to round up the descendants of the original Mole, Ratty and Toad to end the tyrannical rain of Badger X as he’s now known. Cue a Stormzy remix of the original animated Wind in the Willows music and we’re good to go…

ON A3 paper made using the magic of Watercolour, acrylic, paint pen and glitter. Drop us a line if interested.

Cheers

id-iom

Mickey or a Ringie?

Mickey or a Ringie?

In the Isle of Man there is something of a superstition whereby Manx people can’t say the name of one of those little furry things that were blamed for the Black Death, pestilence in general and a whole host of other nefarious things. The reasons for this have dissipated into the mists of time but the superstition remains and due to this quirk in Manx folklore there are a number of socially acceptable local alternatives which include joey, longtail, ringie, iron fella and roddan. Recently young people have also begun saying r-a-t, owing to the influence of English immigrants but older people on the Isle of Man don’t tend to listen to those Jonny come-overs too much and certainly not on such serious subjects as these little buggers. There is a comparable taboo against uttering the word ‘rabbit’ on the Isle of Portland. Here ends the lesson.

Cheers

id-iom

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)