Beautiful, Losers.

, originally uploaded by AllOfUsAreLost.

Been really driven lately, thanks in part to watching “Beautiful Losers” on DVD.

A few days before, i’d watched “Bomb It” but got really put off by all the lame graffiti attitudes. I don’t need a bunch of gang-style shit in my art world, thanks. Not that a lot of those guys aren’t ultra-talented, because they are, but it seems for every great artist coming from graffiti backgrounds, there are 10 fucking idiots just wanting to get their name/gang recognised, and tag just to aggravate people, or because they can. I mean, come on guys, bit of common sense.

Anyway, fuck those people. Beautiful Losers was pretty much a feature-length art porn for me, absolutely amazing and inspiring. So much so that it’s thrown me off my university work ethic, but given me so much damned drive to paint and make images. It’s really exciting, it’s been a while since i was last this productive, so i’m making while the making’s good! Especially enjoyed the Barry McGee bits, Ed Templeton is a legend and the Margaret Kilgallen is fucking sad, not just because her stuff is so mindblowing!

But yeah, got my hands in lots of pots at the moment, and even some stuff being exhibited. It’s a start! I just wanna find my own space / empty shop / shitty cafe and get some peoples art on the walls, throw a show. Southport is a ghost town, and Liverpool is getting overshadowed by over-conceptual art hipsters and fine art hate, you guys. Let’s just paint some awesome shit and show the world.

Out.

Ps. HIMYM is the best TV i’ve watched in ages. Barney Stinson is also very inspirational.

Normal Activity.

“Crewger” – Acrylic, Spray paint on chipboard. 2009.  Getting into the spirit of Halloween!

THIS IS A LONG POST, POSSIBLY BORING RECAP OF WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO. THERE’LL BE IMAGES THOUGH

So it’s that time of the year again, University beckons, and my blogging habits tend to suffer a little. I’ve gotten into a better habit of uploading images to my Flickr weekly, so that’s halfway to posting updates i guess..

Been ultra, ultra productive though! Anyone who actually makes it here and has a browse will have plenty to gawp at. My new Uni classes call for me to make a 1 hr 30 commute into the city, there and back, sometimes even for just 20 minute lectures, which is not much fun. Fortunately, being an art course they accept that a lot of the time it’s easier to just work from home (in my case, i’m working on large panels of wood, a piano, and a small boat, so taking work in isn’t really an option..)

Given the freedom to work from home and ‘report in’, means i get plenty of studio time, as well as relax time. Get up, few hours of video games/TV, then brave the weather to my studio space and start throwing materials around!! Now when i say i’ve been ultra productive, i could be MORE productive, maybe paint for 5 hours then read stuff, instead of painting for 3, internet browsing for 3 and a power nap, hah.

Anyway, yadda yadda, less of the boring details. All that needs noting is i’ve been super busy, working on perhaps too many things at once, but at least i know half of them will get finished. I’m hoping to get some stuff exhibited some time soon, fingers crossed, hell i might even clear out a few rooms and hold a house-gallery visit myself! Mayhaps turn the Boat into a floating gallery?

Check out some of the new stuff i’ve been working on below, or just jam on over to my Flickr photostream if you’ve got a spare half-hour.

Ghett-up and Go.

WIP. "Live by the Sea, Die by the Sea (The Ghettup and go, Got up and left)", originally uploaded by AllOfUsAreLost.

PRODUCTIVE WEEK…

…to say the least. I feel like i’ve managed to wrangle myself into quite a work-positive mindset, you know, now that i’ve not had Mario-Fever! Nintendo Games are the enemy of productivity, so colorful and upbeat, but so moreish at the same time! In an “oh jeez, just gotta get those last 3 coins…somewhere!!!” kinda way..

Finished now though, did Galaxy too in the same weekend. No distractions until Christmas time now. Not digital distraction at least.

This week, i’ve seriously been hard at it, even had to force myself to take a day off i was getting so mentally drained! I know it’s no 9-5 job, but i’ve been hitting the studio every day 4-10pm+ since… well since the last time i posted something i guess. Maybe going out and getting a wheatpaste piece up got the paint in my system flowing?
Anyway, since then, i’ve started maybe.. 4 or 5 paintings, and finished all but one of them, which i started with the intent of grinding into for a month or so. Likewise for sketches and paste-up pieces, a good handful of drawings i’m really feeling, hopefully some of which will be littering SPT walls and decayed stuff real soon.

Lots of text to read, as always, not that i really had all that much to SAY, but hey.. I barely leave home in summer to see any real people, so i gotta reach out! Be friendly vicariously, or something..

Attached image is the “grinding” painting i’ve been working on. I see more and more inspirations and influences on me the more that i work on it. Kaiju, Shadow of the Colossus, Ghibli Movies, BFG are all in there somewhere, riding on those brush strokes. Gas Tower crept in there too, the big, emasculated bastard!

Yadda yadda, go here for more images of what i’ve been up to this week: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allofusarelost/

Allofusarelost.

Street Rules.

In the act I, originally uploaded by AllOfUsAreLost.

Another week, another string of miserable, wet days. No fun for someone who’s been generating sketches and photocopy enlargements for wheatpaste pieces, waiting for good warm evenings with no threat of nightly rain!

Somehow i think the weather is picking which spots i paste at, and which piece would be best, because there has been the odd hot day/evening after i’ve just finished a few images, that i’ve managed to go out and get something on a surface with some permanence. Those are the times that make it all worthwhile, i guess.

Regardless, in between those glimmers of street-art hope, i’ve filled the time with a fair bit of painting, using up a few of the skip-dived panels that’ve been cramping my studio for over a month now. Mostly experimental stuff, reverse painting being my recent “i’ve-never-tried-this-so-i’ll-try-it-now” semi-obsession. I like the element of surprise that comes with painting all those fine details first, and then hoping that the rest of the paint you pile on top doesn’t wreck the layer previous. I kinda like it, and i reckon painting this way will loosen me up, but also make me appreciate what it is to be able to take time with details, shading etc. on a regular painting.

I’ve still got a few sketches primed ready for that time though, an always growing collection in fact. Until then, i’m gonna stick to this reverse-business, mostly because i have a GIANT piece of perspex that’s just asking to be painted on (70″x47″ as it were) and so i better be on my reverse A-Game if i’m gonna prevent a reverse-disaster of large proportions.

I’ve got high hopes for the next few weeks, weather-wise, and have scoped one or two good spots that are not in direct contact with wind and rain, so it’s high time that i get some of these wheatpaste sketches scaled up beyond A2 size, dontcha think?

As always, pictures in the Flickr account, and i’m gonna start trying to do more “Free Fridayz” posts on: http://WWW.FECALFACE.COM/SF so keep your eyes peeled, if you’re still with me!

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

Shico II., originally uploaded by AllOfUsAreLost.

My sketchbook seems to be filled with a lot of “Giant” sketches recently.

I’ve finally gotten round to adjusting my stuff to a larger scale, mostly with the help of an OHP, and with the leap in size, the things being sketched have tended to leap in scale. At least scale of ideas, anyway.

It’s been a likely noticeable pattern throughout my personal ideas and University work, large forms and beasts at the forefront of images i sketch down. Ever since Shadows of the Colossus i’ve felt like i needed to find my own “Colossi”, something to conquer, a distant threat looming above everything in plain sight. Hell, if we took a real close look at my history, chances are there would be a very clear interest in Giants, Monsters, Castles, Planets, End Bosses etc. etc.

I suspect that with the complete destruction of the Gas Tower close at hand, there’s a spot to be filled in my “giants to conquer” brain-space. The odd thing is that instead of searching for more Colossi to consider a threat, i’ve been actively *creating* these things, or at least intending to. Perhaps it’s similar to how Batman will never kill the Joker, if one ceased to be, the other would find themselves without a cause in life.

It seems human nature to create a Big Bad, something to point to, to blame, to be able to refer to and say “if it weren’t for that Giant, looming threat, we’d all be happy, let’s strive to defeat it!” I suppose in that sense, i’m no different to anyone else, just operating a little more literally, and perhaps mentally a little better off?

Once day someone’ll tell me that my Giants, my Colossi are just metaphors for a larger problem, and on that day… well on that day, i’ll get around to CREATING A LARGER PROBLEM.

New Flickr images, some are Giants, some are not.
One definitely is, from my in-progress “Shico” series, Shico II is a guy on a watchtower, with a somewhat clear intent.

Killer, Killer Bees.

Swarm., originally uploaded by AllOfUsAreLost.

Where did summer go!!?! I’m talking the clear-skies, hot sun at 9am summer we had a few weeks back. Check out the bee-swarm i saw not too long ago, engulfing the pavement, taking in the great day!

I mean sure, it’s a lot warmer still, but the torrential downpours, and irritating winds of recent have really hampered my plans. I tend to do most of my work in the evening, and so my days tend to drag unless i’ve got something i can be doing. Odd chores, copying to be done, supplies needing to be grabbed from town etc. or even just a bike ride to the supermarket, all these things aren’t getting done because of the damned weather!

If i had the money i’d grab my rucksack, get my bike on the train, head to Liverpool Airport and grab the next flight to whereversville, somewhere not necessarily blazing hot, but you know, warm, calm, maybe with a great forest or something. Mind you, i suppose this is what everyone in England says at one point or another.

I should just make the most of the crap weather by going out and causing mischief while everyone’s stuck indoors, maybe…

Production line.

Production line., originally uploaded by AllOfUsAreLost.

Been out trying to find the best, cheapest photocopy-enlargements around Southport this week, as i had a pretty productive burst of creative energy last weekend.

Quite a few new sketches and images to be scaled up, detailed, and generally fleshed out into full finished works, and so i’ve had to bit-by-bit tidy areas of my studio in order to get anything done.
I started with my desk, because i needed my printer first things first, and it being clear really allowed me to get quite a few images produced in fairly rapid succession.

So yeah, gathered about 10 hq images ready to be full-sized, then i just need to scope where to stick them! That’s the fun part. Check the busy desk, and plenty of other images at my Flickr (links at the side, but the url is http://www.flickr.com/photos/allofusarelost/ )

Fun projects aside, i’ve finally dug out all my power tools etc. and so can begin on all the sculptures that are littering the far corners of my sketchbook. Rumour has it that the Gas Tower will be non-existent within the next fortnight, and so first on my agenda will be a series of smaller, but equally as epic Tower-pieces, which i’m pretty excited about. No idea where they’ll end up, but if you can imagine a cross between: Lifeguard towers from Baywatch, an AJ Fosik piece and a Treehouse made from scrap wood, then that’s half–way there!

Laters.

Well, haven’t we been busy.

Shico, more detail., originally uploaded by AllOfUsAreLost.

So here we are again, it’s the start of my summer break, which means that i’ve got around 2 months to try and fill!

Been a few weeks since the “I Art Southport” degree show, and i must say that it went pretty great, if i do say so. It was all very last minute, for me at least, rushing around trying to get everything perfect, looking like more of an art show than a room full of random objects. I think i pulled it off, just about… The Installation went up (and more importantly stayed up) with time to spare before everyone arrived, and once people were encouraged to actually step inside, i think it was a generally positive reaction. Most of the prints for my “Y So Azureus” piece, which i’d left for the taking, were snapped up. Still got 4 or 5 left that i could probably bundle in with anything i sell this summer, perhaps.

Anyway, the installation is since no more, tore it down in under 3 hours, which was satisfying after the months of labor that went into it! Managed to salvage a few scraps of wood, some of the better paintings, and more importantly, The Piano. Which is currently cluttering up my studio as we speak.

Tracking back, yes, it is summer now, officially for me. Gotta stave off the boredom / creative cobwebs, so i’ve been making my way through the stockpile of wood, panels, old paint and junk in the hopes of finding some beacons of inspiration. As yet, i’m still in a semi-lazy mood, but have some ideas which i think will turn out really great, if not at least be fodder for when i head back to Uni in September.

Recently i’ve been dabbling a fair bit in some ideas for actual street art, and while i’m not, and do not really care to be, a part of any graffiti scene, i am partial to some well executed wheat-paste pieces, and signage. So with that in mind i’ve been sketching up a selection of images for the streets, so keep a look out! I’ll post the odd image, but not any that i think will get me in trouble, gotta stay sensible. There’s plenty of wheat-pasters / fly poster-pasters around that manage to get stuff out without too much of an issue, so it can’t be too bad really.

But yeah, keep your eyes peeled for new wheat-paste characters / pieces around Southport, chances are you’ll know which ones are mine if you peek at my Flickr occasionally.

I’m gonna go back to working on some larger scale full-paintings, of which you can see an image of at the top.

As usual, check the Flickr, it gets updated a lot more frequently than my WordPress!!!

RIP Michael Jackson.

I don’t think that Michael Jackson’s death really hit me, until i watched his Memorial a few days ago.

The man was a living legend, perhaps the last of them. I never really cared for Elvis Presley, and the Beatles bore me to tears, but MJ was a hero, a superstar. Like they said, the worlds greatest entertainer. I’ve never been one of those insane fans, that’s just not me, but through all the crazy, crazy shit the guy pulled, i always considered myself on his side, and frankly i don’t regret it one bit. If people think that he was loved by so many because Thriller was awesome, or because he turned into a giant robot at the end of Moonwalker, well, you’d be half right, but if people were loved because of their ability to sing, dance, or turn into a robot, then the death of Optimus Prime would have been memorialised also.

I’m getting off track, but i just wanted to add what i had to say to the infinitely growing opinions scattered around the internet now. But these words will all live on, via some server somewhere holding them probably, but they’ll always be somewhere.

Anyway, yeah, the world seems an emptier place without Michael in it, probably more so once the whole shebang has died down in the media. I was lucky enough to witness the man in his prime, and be affected by what he brought to the world, and i’ll never forget him.

There’s a few MJ pieces that i’ve been putting together, as somewhat… public displays of my feelings. Keep your eyes peeled for some wheatpaste pieces around Southport, that may or may not have all been me, but i certainly approve of the message.

“For Dimensionalies.”

"For Dimensionalies."

Originally uploaded by AllOfUsAreLost

And so, i guess i made it to the end of another year of education!

This year has been pretty great, the sheer amount of weight from my shoulders from returning home for a year has made ALL the difference to me. Not to mention, the benefits of getting a student loan whilst being home are pretty awesome too.

Those factors, plus having a bunch of great, and trusting tutors has given me a *shitload* of freedom creatively, which i reckon i’ve used to good effect, or at least experimented accordingly!

I’ve never been much of a painter, always drawing things, or jamming bits and pieces together, but i got to stretch my painting skills quite significantly this year, not to mention printmaking and sculpture techniques. All of which i’m really jazzed about, because now that Summer’s here, i can get on with some of my own work (and actuallly have the time and energy to upload images on blog posts!)

So yeah, without further rambling. There’s a bunch of new images from my Degree Show, which was last Monday. Both Installation, and separate piece photographs, so you can sort of see how the puzzle/shack was put together. Just click through, and get onto my photostream! Apologies if you see anything that you might’ve thrown into a skip recently ^_^