I'll have to apologize again for such a beefy 'lots of updates' blog post, I simply haven't had the time to do regular posting due to a hectic schedule/life creeping up on me. But fear not! I have an excuse or two, and they're pretty valid ones at that. Please, indulge me...
New ends
The main reason for my time being very limited and busy is that I've been moving flat. A couple of friends (Dave and Steve for future reference) and I have moved to the lovely leafy affulent area of Chiswick. Home to nice pubs, parks and expensive shops (We snagged a great deal on our flat). I moved in a few days after the other two and was welcomed by 'Pippa' outside my bedroom. NOPE-NOPE-NOPE!
So we've been quite giddy explorers discovering new bits and bobs in our area. I've come across a lot of shops selling greeting cards that I'm going to pop into with a few samples with a view of selling at some point. I popped into a local pub the other day, they had an advertisement on one of their chalkboards asking for artists to get in touch, which is what I did! I gave them my details and they said they'll zap me an email, so all very exciting.
Generally though, Chiswick seems like a very promising area in terms of being a bit more artsy swayed.
At the end of our main road there's a squat that has loads of great graffiti outside it. Dave was explaining how he and Steve knocked on the door of the squat a couple of nights ago and how it was met with no answer despite clear presence inside - which is understandable. He went on to continue to talk about this mosaic graffiti outside their back wall:
It's about an inmate on death row who was wrongly convicted, that's his real I.D card in the top photo, with his final statement in the next photo. The inmate goes onto say that he insists that he did not murder the victim and that he hopes justice will prevail finding the real killer. The statement actually twirls and twines along the rest of the wall, so it's quite hard to take a photo of all of it. Nonetheless it seemed like a very powerful piece of street art, and it's only down the road from us.
Fathers Day cards
My Father's day cards went down a treat to my surprise. I liked them but didn't think Father's Day would be as popular as Mother's Day sales. Overall, Mother's Day did better but Father's Day eclipsed Mother's Day with online sales. Maybe because we find it harder to find Father's Day bits and bobs or maybe there just isn't enough of a selection out there? Anywho, I was quite chuffed. You can find the designs on my Instagram if you fancy a gander.
Re-hashing old work
In relation to moving flat, I had to do the obligatory clean out of stuff I don't want or need anymore. I came across some old works from my days at art school. Some were decent, some were terrible. Considering it's the best part of 4 years ago since I graduated (Wait, what?!?!) I was pleased that some still held up in quality. The others I was very disappointed with. Rather than chuck them away I decided to recycle them, adding to their existing 'quality' with my 4-year mature, refined style. Here are 3 in particular that I've improved upon. Interestingly, I actually added photos of the originals to this blog when I first done them, so click on the hyperlink below each picture to see the original, god damn, awful piece!
Such a nice place! Rehashed (2014)
Protective layer (2014)
Original piece done in 2008
Noir meet up (2014)
I'm doing a few more re-hashes at the moment which I'll post shortly, but otherwise more card venues are on the horizon and I've had a few inquires that I'll divulge about at a better time, kind reader...
TTFN
