Sleeping with the fishes

Who here doesn’t like an idiom? We certainly do. We haven’t painted one for a while so have decided to rectify that with ‘Sleeping with the fishes’. It’s unclear what led Tony 2 Chains to end up in this position but it’s clear he’s been here a while as there appears to be an octopus living in his brain cavity. It must have been bad though as they appear to have stapled his lips together. Harsh. 

I’m pretty sure everyone is down with ‘sleeping with the fishes’ but if you’re unfamiliar with the idiom it’s an old school gangster cliche which means to be killed and have one’s body disposed of in a sea or other body of water. Apparently the earliest recorded use was in 1833 but the phrase was popularised by the 1972 film The Godfather. Mario Puzo’s 1969 book on which the film was based doesn’t actually contain the phrase but there is reference to a large dead fish wrapped in a bulletproof vest to signify the same thing, although the phrase itself isn’t used. So now you know.

Cheers

id-iom

Advertisement

Time to dream

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…

Cheers

id-iom

The Moon Rabbit cometh…

Leporine lord of the shadows Barry the Bastard has once again crash landed in my life and decided to make my life a complete misery by invading my dreams and trashing the place. 

Like a lot of these things it all started innocently enough. I was chatting to a friend on Zoom without realising they had their pet rabbit Mr Snugglebus on their lap and was I telling them about my well founded fear of rabbits when he hoisted the sneering rabbit into view and tried to tell me they were cute. That was my first mistake. The second was to think that Mr Snugglebus might keep his big trap shut. Now, I’m not calling Mr Snugglebus a grass but I’ve now had six consecutive nights of rabbit based nightmares featuring Barry. Sleep is my enemy. The Moon Rabbit is coming…

I think perhaps I need to get out more. This lockdown is getting to me…. It is A3 in size and made using the magic of one’s sleep deprived imagination, oil paint, paint pen and acrylic. Drop us a line if you’d like it to grace your walls… 

Cheers

id-iom

Dreaming of being busy

After sleeping quietly in the corner of the studio for a couple of years it was time for Darren here to hit the streets. He’s been dreaming of busier times which have never quite materialised. Life is harsh Darren my friend…

He’s on plywood, was pretty tricky to produce and comes complete with lots of small nails and thread around the lettering. What on earth was I thinking? I can’t imagine what will become of him with all the sleeping he does but wish him all the best.

Cheers

id-iom

They Sleep We Live

They Sleep We Live

I think the title and the face says it all!! ‘They sleep we live’ is a mantra I’ve repeated to myself from time to time. Despite his pretend sad face you can see his smiling eyes emitting their intensive glare. There’s even a small bluebird of happiness in shot. What more could you want?

It’s A3 in size and is made using the magic of acrylic, spraypaint, stencils, screen printing and paint pen. Signed on reverse.

Here is the ebay link

For further information about us and what we get up to you can visit our flickr (www.flickr.com/id-iom) and twitter (@thisisidiom).

Cheers

id-iom

 

The Talented Dreamer

The Talented Dreamer was something of an odd commission because we had to come up with a picture based on a poem that was written for/about the commissioner whilst he was still at school many years ago (although it is still very fitting).

After ‘leaving it on the backburner for a while’ (i.e. not knowing what on earth i was going to do for this picture) I finally managed to come up with the design seen below featuring the full text of the poem. After getting it back from the framer there was the nervous moment of handing it over but thankfully it seemed to go down well and (as far as i’m aware) hangs in pride of place in his bedroom.

The Talented Dreamer by Michael A Miles

“He knew of all the things he could do

The wonderful, wonderful things he could do

His mind was filled with pictures too

Of all the wonderful things he could do

A jack of all trades and master of none

He never quite managed to get anything done

But there’s one thing he does with consummate ease

He does it so well it’s simply a breeze

He’s a truly great master of this it seems

With the wonderful talent of wonderful dreams”

You can click on the picture below to go to a larger image.

Cheers

id-iom