En l'air

Is this art or pollution?

Hands and Homage

Invigilating at Massimo Bartolini's solo show 'In A Landscape' on a quiet day. 

The orange-nailed hands are mine, I wanted a photograph of them together neatly folded on my knee in proper invigilator fashion.

The hand prints are not mine but those of the curious around one of the sound holes in the sculpture.  Clustered and smeared together, it is almost as if they are paying homage to the notes coming out or touching a revered idol.

Twenty Five Years Later

Twenty five years ago I worked in a textile factory laboratory and office.  In the spare time at the office, I often used to doodle.  I made one particular doodle that I particularly liked and copied it.  It remains, an A4 sheet of paper with a small doddle copied many times on it.  It is dog eared now but I'm glad I still have it. 

Recently I decided to immortalise it in print and while I was printing it I thought back to working in the office and how stifled and trapped I felt.  I would never have imagined, when drawing this doodle, that one day I would be in a print studio in Kilkenny, twenty five years later printing it.

On The Desk

Today I am mainly still messing about* with my parasite drawings

print + ballpoint pen

ink + ballpoint pen

* when I was at art college, one lecturer always told us off for saying 'messing about'.  We should say 'experimenting with'.  So of course, I always say 'messing about'.

Sunshine

Sunshine is my Jack Russell/Chihuahua cross.  He is the greediest creature I know.  He actually trembles when he is watching you eat.  When he has eaten his dinner, he is as round as a barrel.

He has no coat to speak off.  No fur hardly on his chest and just bare patches under his 'arms'.  In winter I put jumpers on him which he likes but he is so small and wriggly that they usually fall off him again.  I drew this quickly when he was sat up in a purple jumper like a little man watching me.  His head really is that small.

Origami Printing

For Christmas I got some origami paper.  It was beautiful and as I've never tried anything like this before, I followed some online instructions to make a few origami pieces.  I found it very addictive to the point where every day I try and learn a new piece or practice making ones I've already learned.  My memory is shocking and I frequently forget after a few days how each one is made if I don't keep practicing.

So then, looking at the flat origami shapes, I thought about making larger versions and printing from them.  It worked after a little trial and error and here are the results.

(It is only a coincedence that I am posting this now, so close to Valentines Day as I am not sentimental, nor into any of that gushy, once a year, lovey-dove fest.)

I thought that the ghost print of the origami would be the best and I tried it in gold.  It was NOT GOOD.  There was no detail and the sewing on the paper origami 'plate' didn't help.

The actual print from the origami itself was better.

So I tried it in black ink against a roughly inked up background to contrast with the lines and precision of the origami

The different levels of ink on the origami give different results but what was really nice and intriguing were the ghost prints from the back of the origami

Then I printed a star.  The origami has to be flat so I need to learn a few more to continue this series.

Crane*

*Not suitable for printing!

Old Stuff # 6

Maggie's Moustache Entertains

In November Maggie's Moustache 4 came into being.  It is called Maggie's Moustache Entertains and is one of the best ones yet, being an uplifting tale of country and western music, attempted suicide and glitter.  I know I would say that but it was about a year in the making and I think it really captures the surrealness of a moustache that goes about in the world as a separate entity to it's 'host' and also the feeling of that particular part of K where I live and where time seems to have stood still since about 1982.

It was the same fantastically low production values as all the other, ie printed at the local library and I sold it at the Yulefest open studio in Kilkenny and gave a couple away to friends and edition one is all gone.  I am already writing Maggie's Moustache 5 which is going to be feature length - whatever that means for zines.  What I mean is is that it's going to be a long story and they are sometimes the best of all ...

Old Stuff #4

Old Stuff #3

Old Stuff #2

Old Stuff - Unseen

I am going through my photo archives, deleting as much as possible, but will occasionally be throwing one or two that I like up here.  Here's #1

Autumn Return

July, August, September, October ...

Four months or thereabouts.  The next few posts will hopefully show and tell what I did in this time.  Beginning with

One 

Little

Photograph

Piggies

I have been printing piggies for a friend.  These photos show the prints and the plates and the things in between.