// July 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Art, Random
Mian Wessel - Untitled
Rene Farda - Mind Invasion
Helen Gillam
Jennifer Burton
Behind The Old Truman Brewery
Behind The Old Truman Brewery
Behind The Old Truman Brewery
Behind The Old Truman Brewery
// July 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Art
Eeeeeeee I’m dead excited! I was very kindly asked by Artist Susan Mortimer to submit some work for her Censored zine which is featuring in this years Act Art exhibition.
Act Art is a one night only event which gathers the subversive, provocative, underground art world together for an art extravaganza. Time Out has this to say about it…
“Over its seven previous incarnations, Marc Massive and Oliver Frost’s ACT ART has established itself as one of London’s most rich and stimulating live-art bashes, offering a remarkable range of formal and thematic work from a broad range of the cream of the art, fashion and club scenes.”
This years theme is censorship and the zine by Susan Mortimer follows the same theme. I know Susan through Empty Shop and have featured in one of her Mail Art zines before. She puts in a tremendous about of work collating these beautiful booklets which come in limited runs; this is my piece…
Useful links:
Act Art - click here
Susan Mortimer’s Mail Art - click here
Empty Shop - click here
// May 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Art, Graphics
Yup, that’s right - it’s everyone’s favourite animal in everyone’s favourite colours… or… my current favourite animal in my current favourite colours (well it is my blog)
You may have seen me promote this on Facebook as a Threadless design, if so then look at it again and if not, then look at it!
// March 30th, 2010 // No Comments » // Art, Cartoons
The best thing about going through old sketch pads is finding a portrait of yourself in a weird style with bong eyes and a toothless man with a fish…
// March 14th, 2010 // No Comments » // Art, Cartoons
Sketched this out yesterday. I’ve been doodling this idea in various form for about about a year now but I’m quite happy with this. Just need to make a decision on the fringe and then find a wall…
// March 11th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // Art, Cartoons
So, there’s this great blog called ‘Covered‘ which is basically a place for people to submit their versions of existing comic book covers. I heard about it through my mate Andrew Waugh (check out his recent Planet of the Apes comic, it’s ace) who had some work featured himself.
Anyway, I figured I could go in for a bit of that and submitted the following two pieces. They both got rejected.
Luckily I have my own blog with about two readers (one of which is me) so I can post them here and make myself feel better!
// December 19th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Art
I’ve been a bit slack on the old blog posts of late, but I have been super super busy so it is with good reason; Empty Shop stuff has been snowballing with the progression of our new premises (coming very soon so keep your eyes peeled) and lots of behind the scenes development. 2010 should be a very exciting year for us if all goes according to plan - lots of projects and collaborations as well as loads of art!
Anyway, I have found a spare ten minutes so thought I would post up a piece of work I did this week. The painting is something I picked up from a charity shop a few years back and I have been wanting to do something with it for ages. Whilst curating a one day pop-up-shop in Middlesbrough the other day I came up with this and someone instantly thought it was Santa - maybe on a subconscious level it is a cynical comment on the materialistic marketing driven shambles that is modern day ‘Christmas’ …or maybe not!
// November 7th, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Art, Cartoons
So the other day I came across a box of old doodles, cartoons, random drawings and sketches - basically a combination of old sketch pads and scraps of scribbled on paper. I figured it was kind of sad that they were just stuffed in a box only to be remembered every few years, so now thanks to the awesomeness of blogs I can begin the mammoth task of compiling them all online giving them a new audience and a new home.
Essentially it’s a gradual compilation of random thoughts and pieces of work, most that never amounted to anything other than amusing me for 5 minutes …I guess if nothing else it will interesting trip down memory lane.
Clown: Jan/Feb 2004
This was from a sketch pad I used when travelling in Australia - Thinking about it I’ve been working with the idea of clowns since 2002!
____________________________________________________________________
Cartoon: Early 2007
Part of the prize for winning Young Cartoonist of the Year in 2006 was providing a commissioned piece for an Insurance company who sponsored the competition. This was an initial idea which wasn’t used as it turned out it needed to be much more specific. I still like this, I don’t often sit down and try to think of things, I like to put pen to paper and see what happens but this one was thought up to a brief and I was quite chuffed with myself (although I am a sucker for a good pun!)
Click to see my winning entry for Young Cartoonist of the Year
____________________________________________________________________
Random Drawing:2003
Just a random sketch. Most of the stuff in these little sketch books were done on train journeys or when I was bored. This is an example of the putting pen to paper and see what happens as mentioned above. No idea why I drew this but I really like the aesthetic - and drawing in Biro is always good.
____________________________________________________________________
Harry Potter: 2003
I have loads of pieces like this - ideas that came to mind and were scribbled down. A lot of this stuff was used for a mini comic series I started back then called ‘Doodle-O-Rama’. I think I planned to use this one in No.4 which never got made, I also toyed with the Idea of a ‘Doodle-0-Rama Compedium’ a few years later but never got round to it… maybe I should finally do it?
____________________________________________________________________
Dead Clown: 2002
Clowns again! I used to work in a restaurant and at the end of the night I’d get bored and doodle in note pads. ‘Dead Clown’ became a thing I kept going back to, there are quite a lot of these, and quite a lot of ways to kill a clown (not that I endorse clown murder).
I’ll put another one from this series next time.
____________________________________________________________________
Thanks for looking, please leave some comments and subscribe to the RSS feed to keep on top of new posts.
// September 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Art
This is a drawing from a few months back. It was for an exhibition at Empty Shop art gallery in Durham which was to do with re-imagining postcards.
The show was curated by Jack & Vera and was super neato!
See the rest of the exhibition here
// August 20th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Art
Last weekend I was commissioned to create some wall art for Durham’s City of Culture bid launch which took place at Empty Shop, an art space in Durham (which I also happen to run!).
I was asked to interpret their logo in a way which was accessible to all - so I did!
I also threw in a few references in to what I think the culture bid means to me, like the awesome independent music scenes that are happening and also a reference to the old Robin’s Cinema building which is sitting empty and could be an amazing venue for something, well, in the right hands!
Since these small scale pockets of creativity don’t really get a shout out too often I figure I’ll give a few of them a plug…
Empty Shop - An independent art space in Durham with a unique approach to the otherwise monotonous art world
Discount Horse - A group of boys and girls from Durham who are pretty much a self sufficient musical tour de force
Jam Jah - A monthly music night held in Allington House giving us a great alternative to the soul destroying clubs of Durham
Sex Deaths of Karen Novotny- These two guys are not frightened of putting riffs alongside washes of noise. Better than wtaching 2 mediocre breakdancers do the same thing every week!
That’s it for now folks - NOW LOOK AT MY PICTURES!!!
I am available for commissions so if you would like some wall pieces done get in touch…
Email: stufflooksgood@ratpasty.com
Empty Shop TweetsCopyright © 2010 Rat Pasty. All rights reserved.
