march 29th: sudden opening

gouache on book page

tuesday/soul

Holly Miranda "Waves" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

monday/beauty

Mountain Man "Mouthwings" [part 1 of 3] from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

simply random

keeping it simple and random today. a few pics from the week and few links of note...

great acoustic footage of local natives

lynne yaeger on a lifetime of collecting (via sight unseen)

march 24th: constant emptiness

gouache on a very old cardboard panel

notes: this is quite simply indulging my love of obsessive mark making and meditative thinking. i love that this piece of cardboard was once saturated, it's all puffed up round the edges and so soft.

sometimes, drawings don't make it the first time around. If I start hating something early on in the drawing process I generally know that this feeling won't subside and the drawing won't 'work'. so it gets sent to the pile of the unfinished. this piece has been in and out of that pile over the past few weeks. i kept propping it up to take a look at it, it felt like something was there, and finally after a few weeks and a little more work i'm happy to let this one join the ranks of the finished drawings.

vintage photo loveliness

great mistakes

march 19th: profound whatever

typewriting on book page

notes: this piece happened by mistake but has come to be a favorite this week, the softness of the paper coupled with the muted grey of the type is perfect to me. after a calamitous day in which it feels like i've achieved very little the title sums it all up; profound? whatever!

notes on notes

march 18th: simple rumination, ever evolving...

pencil, gouache and typewriting on book page

notes: much of the time i see these geometric shapes being referred to as looking like origami or fans but this isn't the case. they are thoughts. i like to make these every now and then. sometimes just to get me moving along creatively and invariably they work. i like to get together a nice piece of paper, favorite pencil and steel ruler, sit and clear my mind and then make lines. i tend to sit and think about some of the big questions in life, like why are we here? or why am i who i am? and i let the shape evolve as i'm thinking. sometimes i wish i could make these drawings animated as i imagine that the lines and folds of each shape would just spill out around the starting point forever.

i've decided to keep including notes with each drawing as I upload them. i'm finding it really useful for me as a reference on my thoughts on a drawing during the creation process mainly because it all gets a bit random sometimes!

sounds like

march 17th: everyone and everything all of the while

typewriting on book page

notes: actually, i think this is about sound as well. having had a cold for the past couple of weeks i was getting really irritated by sounds in my head and how i couldn't hear the person in front of me speaking but a child screaming 20ft away was blinding. this is kind of a visualization of a cacophony of sound.

march 16th: total cadence

pencil, gouache and typewriter on book page

notes: i've been enjoying not only the repetition of punching typewriter keys but the rhythmic quality of using the typewriter to draw with. quite often i think about conveying sound in my drawings but that's something i haven't explored or thought out too much as yet.

i've had to put a pillow under my typewriter on my desk. i think the noise might annoy the neighbors!

playing around with some simple mark making on my typewriter this morning but not quite getting what i want from it. i think i'll take a break for lunch and then see if i can get something good out of it later...

4ad have started filming live sessions with their artists. i put off watching this one for aaages for no particular reason but since watching it yesterday i can't stop playing it, it's filmed so well and you can really appreciate all of the layers of sound in their music. give it a go, i think you'll love it...

4ad sessions :: efterklang

new mini print set

there's a new mini print set available in the shop this evening, a lovely collection of empty spaces and places. i decided with this set to go with rounded corners - what do you think? i've been thinking about doing it on the mini prints for a while and decided to take the plunge. a bit too twee maybe?

extraterrestrial

march 15th: beyond comprehension

pencil and gouache on reverse of an old mounted photograph

notes: something to do with an article i read about SETI and how everyone who works there believes in an equation based on 'reasonable assumptions' that determines how many other intelligent civilizations (approx. 10,000 in our galaxy) there are likely to be out there. my thinking is if there are other forms of life out there then the likelihood that they speak one of the languages on our planet are slim to none. we are not always especially good at communicating with people around us in the here and now, how can we expect to interact with highly evolved or even regressed species billions of light years away? all of these thoughts have been melting my brain today.

so after a brief period of pottering and experimenting this morning i just ended up feeling fired up and got straight back into it. it's funny how creativity sneaks up on you...

this morning...

was a beautiful, spring-like morning! so i took myself out for some early morning thrifting and it was nice to wander around in the sunshine. i've finally shaken off my cold and was feeling a little trepidation at the thought of starting to draw again! i've only completed one drawing so far this month so it's time to get cracking. i cleared off my desk, laid out my favorite drawing apparatus and introduced a typewriter into the mix. i've also selected a pile of not too important pieces of paper to work on and am about to have a bit of a getting back into it session with no pressure to create anything of importance...

more vintage photo loveliness...

i keep a small folder of favorite vintage photos that i've picked up over the years. i'm always particularly drawn to ones that are damaged, blurry, abstract or under/over exposed, these are always the most interesting shots in my opinion...

random

i was going to show you my first drawing in over a week today. then i coughed and dropped my paint brush (loaded with paint) on it. instead you get random outtakes from my camera and a few links.

coma :: a photographic ezine

stephen gill :: buried & nobody's bookshop

here's the rest of january's mix that I forgot to post with tracks from efterklang, local natives, midlake, spoon, miracle fortress, papercuts, monsters of folk, thom yorke and samara lubelski.

enjoy!

vintage photo loveliness

from my collection...

lurgy day

so, i have the lurgy and i've reached that point where there's no point in trying to work against it and pretend like i feel okay and that i might get some work done because i actually feel like doing naff all!

i have restricted myself to not working on any nice pieces of paper because i am likely to ruin them and am only doing rough work on plain paper today. i came back to my desk this afternoon to find these strangely satisfying after some time away from them. an intriguing note to self in the corner reads: maybe fingerprints are maps to secret portals to another world? indeed!

notes on the subject

2nd march: on and on and on

gouache on hardback book cover with found writings and stamps

notes: something to do with never really knowing anything; what good is knowledge anyway?

so it occurred to me today that i never really give too much away about my drawings, as in their subject matter or thought process behind them. just a date, title and medium. do you find this enough or would you like to know a little something more about each piece? or would leaving a few brief notes with each drawing ruin the mystique? i left a little note about this piece above so you catch my drift. too much information?

my dance the skull publishing

i've mentioned the work of aleksandra waliszewska here before, it's pretty brutal and certainly not for the faint hearted but so intriguing. i found out the other day that she collaborated with my dance the skull publishing to produce a limited edition book of her work. at only 20 pages it left me wanting more, much more, but who can really argue over such a great little book for £4?

holga

about four years ago after being inspired by the mountains of fantastic photographers on flickr no doubt I purchase myself a holga. i was still in a fug and trying to get my creative ideas together and thought this might be something i'd like to experiment with. needless to say, i used it once, put it back in the box (the first film i used was still in there, no idea what's on it) and never used it again. until yesterday. look at the dust on the poor thing! i wanted to take some more atmospheric shots of my work space so thought i'd dig it out and give it a whirl. i also had an expired film leftover so i'm giving that film a go first - could be good, could be bad, we'll see...

concerto for beatboxer and orchestra

There was an intriguing piece in the guardian over the weekend about the recent performance of one of the world's leading beatboxers, schlomo and composer anna meredith's concerto for beatboxer and orchestra which led me to get googling to try and dig up some audio treats for you this morning. I think this preview of the performance is absolutely stunning and if you're interested in finding out about how the project came together there is also a short documentary here.

Oh to have been there for the actual performance!