In-Vest

So there I was in the pub the other day professionally ignoring the football when this guy came up to me and started pontificating about how secure an investment of Bitcoin surely was. He told me he could increase my investment 100 fold. It surely seemed a little too good to be true but I entertained him because there was still 40 mins left on the game of ballfoot to endure. Come full time he was still banging on about a new crypto wallet or some such rubbish. It took all conversational skills I’ve garnered over the years just to get a word in edgeways and in that conversational sweet spot I somehow managed to get him to accept a small portrait of himself by way of my investment. I’m not really sure how i’m going to get my investment back but I did manage to get rid of him. For now at least. The Bitcoin investors are easily startled but they’ll soon be back. And in greater numbers.

Cheers

id-iom

When life gives you lemons…

When I was mixing up the black ink for printing these I put in more pigment that I thought necessary and it was proper black. At least it looked it. Strangely though once it had been printed it came up grey. I did a couple more just to check I wasn’t going mad and then thought about crying. Screen printing can be pretty frustrating sometimes. Rather than throw a sulk and just chuck everything in the bin I thought I’d make the best of the situation and salvage what I could and these are the result. I like them more than I should probably because I know just how close they came to being binned. It turns out I’d used an old pigment or possibly old base goop and it somehow loses it’s ability to hold decent colour. Everyday is a school day.

Anyway they’re on A2 paper and are made using the magic of screen printing and spray paint. Perhaps I’ll get round to doing them again in black and completing them as per my original vision someday. Who knows? Drop us a line if interested.

Cheers

id-iom

Ytuaeb gnipeels

There’s nothing worse than making a schoolboy error whilst resolutely proclaiming to be a professional. So any self respecting artist should really know better than to walk into the trap I did. Although I’ve never done any lino cutting before I know what the score is as i have screen printed on many occasions and the same rules apply. Being excited to start my lino cutting I jumped straight in without the necessary amount of thought and only on completion was my flaw evident. I forgot to reverse the image and text so it would print the  correct way round. D’oh…

Cheers

id-iom

Totes amazeballs

Not content with printing up some t-shirts with the id-iom certified logo we’ve got our hands on some blank tote bags and so decided to print up a couple of those too. Basically I’ll stick an id-iom logo on just about whatever I can lay my hands on.  It does look classy though if I do say so myself.

As you can probably tell this shot is not at all staged. Just me walking down the street completely natural like. I’m even pretending to use my phone so my arm isn’t hovering strangely in the air as I try not to obscure the logo. The troubles we have to go to…

Cheers

id-iom

Things not to do on the hottest day of the year

Given that it was 34 degrees in London yesterday and I could easily have stayed at home in the relative cool I decided a good walk (just to work up a sweat) and some screen printing was in order. Say hello to id-iom’s new ‘faded stamp’ t’s. They’re for our percy pile so don’t think you can get your grubby mitts on one…

Cheers

id-iom

Urban art exhibition @ Chapel Arts in Cheltenham

Now the Cheltenham Festival may have been and gone but if you live anywhere near the area here’s a hot little tip for you. We’re exhibiting a few pieces alongside other artists such as My dog sighs, Korp, Dice 67 and Zabou at the Urban Arts exhibition at Chapel Arts on Knapp Road in Cheltenham. It’s running from this Friday (25th March) until the 16th April. It’s always good to make it down on opening night if you can – some lovely artwork, a beer or two and if anyone asks you can sound like you’re doing something cultural. It’s in the balance at the moment whether we’ll be able to make it or not but if we do we’ll see you there…

Cheers

id-iom

Der Froschkönig Oder

Der Froschkönig Oder

Trust id-iom. Just as the UK votes Brexit we start getting to grips with German. Typical. This piece is for all those gals (or guys) who have found their lovely little frog prince and just need to seal the deal with a kiss. As you can see not only is this fella a king amongst frogs but he also has a catchy little gimmick to catch your attention – a small helium balloon showing how much he loves you. Just one kiss and he’ll transmogrify right in front of yours into the man of your dreams. You’ve just got to get over kissing a frog first.

Cheers

id-iom

Je l’aime a mourir

Je l’aime a mourir

Being the social media savvy types we undoubtedly are we thought we’d jump on the Valentines bandwagon with a little contribution of our own – but being given to a more cynical and pernicious state of mind we’ve given it a slightly darker nuance and then hidden that nuance behind an almost impenetrable wall of langue Francaise – as the French would say. From there it’s up to you to work it out.

Cheers

id-iom

Skin and Bones – We got a gun!

In my continuing efforts to drum up some interest in the zombie book I’ve written I’ve done another small artwork based on it. Here we can see that they’ve finally got a gun. Now, I’m not entirely sure of the real world use of a gun in most zombie situations as it surely just attracts more of them to your location – which is the last thing you want – but it’s definitely a good backup. In this instance they are taking some revenge and trying to find their friend. Don’t worry too much as they are mostly doing it from the confines of an armoured Range Rover. Here’s a little taster:

“Eventually the car finds it’s way to the cricket pitch and they drive a slow circuit around the outside of the ground. I want to jump up and signal their attention but something tells me to be wary. They pull up beside the bonfire just as one of the school kid zombies from earlier emerges onto the south edge of the field. The driver guns the engine and the Range Rover pulls forward on a collision course with the zombie. I can hear the sickening crunch of bone even from my position some distance away.”

Cheers

id-iom

A portrait of the artist as a young man

Since I’d done a self portrait yesterday I thought it was only fair that today I did a portrait of the other half of id-iom. I’m not entirely sure if I’ve outdone myself but I think it’s just about recognisable as him. He’s got the same screen printed background featuring the id-iom seal of approval and I’ve coloured his nose in green as he just mentioned the other day how he rarely uses the colour green in his designs (for some reason best known to himself) so I thought I’d remedy that here. Right, what’s next?

Cheers

id-iom