In love as in death

Skull with lillies, acrylic paint on A3 paper, available on Big Cartel

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Where the wild flowers grow…

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…

Cheers

id-iom

The eye. Is it googly?

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. 

Cheers

id-iom

The death of black gold

With BP and the other big petroleum conglomerates saying that we’ve reached peak oil consumption, that would seem like a good thing for all. For years petroleum oil has been known as black gold due the price it gets if you can just get it out of the ground. But as we now all know the use of petroleum in everything from plastic to petrol has been choking the planet for years.

Now with green energy coming to the forefront it seems to be the death knell for the industry and that can only be a good thing. Hopefully we as a population will lean in to renewable energy, along with changing our attitudes to things like fast fashion, cycling and eating less meat. We can only hope…

It is A5 in size and made using triblend markers, fine line pen and paint pen

Cheers

id-iom

Corona virus world tour 2020

The news has a lot to answer for. Usually I’ll wake up with a random song playing in my mind. Yesterday however I woke up from a dream where I was tour manager for Covid 19 and was setting up their world tour alongside Corona Virus. Being the imaginary hard metal bands that they are we needed some appropriate imagery so rather than do anything constructive with my day I did a quick internet search to check no such frippery already existed then set to work designing their poster. 

Weirdly, it turns out that most world tour posters seem to have a dark background with white text but that was definitely the look Covid 19 would go for. Once I’d put the poster together I thought the Muse would be done with me but, no, it was time to move onto merch design. After slapping the various logos onto a t shirt template I was finally allowed to stop. And this is what we’re left with. Being an artist is weird. 

Cheers

id-iom

Fool’s Errand

A fool’s errand is a task or activity that has no hope of success. A fool is a person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person or a jester or clown, especially one retained in a royal or noble household.

Isot Maddrell wasn’t entirely sure if it was just her or if everybody got treated like this. She was fresh out of school and had only had a few small jobs but it seemed to happen every time. 

When she was working part time at the pizzeria her boss would send her to the fridge to look for things that didn’t exist, like the dough repair kit, then burst out laughing when she’d come back empty handed. When her dad managed to wangle her a junior role in a very well known Michelin starred restaurant the head chef there delighted in asking her to fetch the souffle pump. In all fairness Isot was a hard worker and was really just trying to be helpful but her bosses always left her feeling like she was the butt of the joke.

That was until the day she decided that working for other people was just another form of indentured servitude. She is now a famous international artist known for her many idiosnycratic works such as Glass Hammer (2011), Can of Steam (2012), Dough repair kit (2012), tin of tartan paint (2013), sound powered phone batteries (2016) and Brick bender (2015). ‘Who’s the fool now?’ Isot chuckles to herself as she spends yet another weekend in San Tropez…

Love

id-iom

The Hand in Hand lives on…

Sadly our local pub has closed recently. It lives now only in our memories. In better news however it’s hopefully due to reopen with new management after a bit of refurbishment. It’s unknown what they’ll be doing decor-wise so I thought it best to capture a little of it’s old character in case it disappears altogether.

Some of the old wallpaper was of indiscernible age but had a favourable design  so I thought I’d generate a little commemorative artwork from that for no other reason than it seemed like a good idea at the time. What we’re left with is ‘time to drink’ featuring a modified wallpaper design featuring a little cocktail set and a skull and crossbones. And there you have it. 
I like it and think I’ll go ahead and turn it into a larger stencil so it’ll make more sense on a bigger wall… 

Cheers

id-iom

Two become one

The other day we were doing a graffiti workshop where people were spray painting skateboard decks. To facilitate this we brought out our big bags of random stencils that we have cultivated over the years. As we were sorting them out before the workshop we came across two pieces stuck together. After a little needling, some swearing and the application of careful hands we managed to extract this thing of beauty from in between them. Two become one, as the Spice Girls famously sang.

Although it is now pretty much useless as a working stencil I think it would look good framed but then what do I know?

Cheers

Id-iom

I see faces

Whilst painting I managed to spill my cup of tea. Usually a catastrophe of such proportions would cause me to curl up in the fetal position and start crying over the waste of such lovely nectar. This time however, before my tear ducts could react, I saw something in the spill.

Before I knew it the Muse was upon me and I searched frantically for a pencil lest my creative urge abandoned me. After about a long minute of searching I found one behind my ear (damn those days spent on building sites) now all I had to do was a few quick lines and the Muse disappeared to relieve Molly Quirke (age 9) of a small case of creative block related to drawing a horse.

Love

id-iom

Memento Mori

Ever heard of ‘The Penge Society of Awkward Walkers’?  Apparently they have an annual moseying competition where points are awarded for style, grace and speed. If I’m to believe the other half of id-iom he clinched it from the standing champion, a one Mr Fiac Cain, in this year’s final.

I used to do a bit of professional moseying myself back in the day and couldn’t really take this kind of thing lying down so set up a match with the other half and finangled Fiac Cain as referee. Two birds with one stone and all that. My winning mosey was a graceful mashup of my interpretation of a swan in flight and Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn’. Nothing else came close.

As per the Ancient Rules of id-iom I demanded a piece of art showcasing how the loser felt for my prize. What I got in return was this piece titled ‘Memento Mori’. I’m interpreting the skull as his, not mine…

‘Memento Mori’ is A3 in size and made using imagination, a little resentment, acrylic paint and smoke from a magic candle. If you’d like to give it a new home just get in touch.

Love

id-iom