For the Record

Some times when people see my work (or any other stencil artists for that matter) on a computer screen it doesn't seem to deliver much justice on the work that goes in to a piece. Some may say that it is just an image tweeked on the computer or even not hand cut and I just wanted to post this photo I took just before I painted 'China Town' which is all the necessary layers of stencils on top of each other, to show you the viewer the paper that I have hand cut for many hours in order to create as detailed a piece as I can manage.

The Long Road Home

If you may recall back to a couple of posts ago you may remember that I painted a skate deck for the creator of my website, the gifted Gav Strange @ Jam-Factory. So instead of posting the deck in the post I got into my car and began the long drive down to Bristol. The journey down took just over 5 hours with a much needed petrol stop just a few miles out side of Bristol as I was running on empty. Thankfully I had a sat nav telling me where to go and parked the motor outside Gavs flat to be welcomed by the man himself.



After parking the car Gav gave me the tour of his flat MTV Crib style and I got to meet his fellow flat mate Sully.



After the tour we had put the kettle on and had a cuppa tea and had a banter and then Then headed out and about to check out some of the sights of Bristol.
Banksy had worked his magic just round the coner from Gavs flat which was cool to see but funny as well as I was one of the many people snapping this piece.



As it was Saint Patricks Day we head to a cool place that also doubles up as a cinema. I had a Guinness whilst Gav chilled with a Lemonade. Gav was however well impressed by the barmaids skills of making a shamrock in the froth of the Guinness, do't think he had seen it before to which I told him that "after a few pints of the stuff you forget it's even there."



After our drinks we chilled back at the flat and had some toast and more tea, being flat mates with Sully you'd think that Gav would have learnt by now not to steal his last piece of toast as Sully packs a mean slap across the back of Gavs head.



Gav was well juiced about his new piece of art as he recreates the origonal photo.



We headed out to get a pizza at Pizza Express dodging through all the drunken folk pretending to be Irish for the day. The food anyway was preety good but the waitress wasn't up for the Glasgow banter. Getting back to the flat I met Gavs other Flat mate Amy who is well sound. Aswell as Amy Gav also shares the crib with the talented RichT who was away doing some work in Wales I think, anyway his work is sick and is darted pretty much through out the whole flat.



I was also admiring the origonal painting that Gav owns by Mr Jago.



The night was young so Gav cracked open a bottle of the good stuff and showed me the fun that you can have with a Nintendo Wii.




The following morning it was time for me to head up the road after some geeking it up time checking emails and sharing some music, I then headed back up to Scotland hitting a snow storm on the way up. It was a lot of driving in two days but it was well worth it. Gav was a great host and it was good to see him again and hopefully we hook up in the future real soon. Thanks a lot to Gav for letting me come down.



A few days later and I headed into Glasgow to pick up some framing that I got done for my new OBEY prints which I recieved the other week from mr postman.



So all in all I had a really good chilled weekend but now it's back to the grind stone to get on with some serious work which I'll keep you updated with.
peace

Take em down to China Town

This is the newest piece that I have completed from my New York series which didn't start out as a collection of pieces but after completing 'NY Azz' and 'Escape' I continued browsing through my photos from my last visit. I found China Town in New York an interesting experience compared to other china towns hat I have been to. I'm well pleased with the outcome of this piece especially the way it continues to feed my hunger for detail. I have been working on this piece for a while which I will be taking to my priends at The Red Door gallery. It has been too long since I have submitted new work to them as things have been a bit crazy. Speaking of The Red Door Gallery I would like to thank Chante for all her support for the past year as she is sadly heading back to her home land of New Zealand and hopefully not for too long. I wish you all the bst for the future and thank you Chante.
Below is a close up of some of the detail featuring a tired Klingatron in the background, I started working n the final layer and and just couldn't stop and so found myself staying up well late to finish.



But what else has been happening, well for a while I have wanted to get some more stickers made to paste up any where I find my feet taking me. I had an idea late one night and stayed up late one night working on illustrator to create what is now my new profile icon for my Myspace page and then I thought it would make a cool sticker, better than the last one I did as it involved my pattern.



So I got in contact with Edinburgh based Sticker Monkey to hook me up with a quote and then send me out some samples, which the cheeky monkey did pretty swiftly, so now with some minor adjustments to be taken care of I should have a batch of stickers pretty soon.
So I have been pretty focused on getting 'China Town' completed but was over the moon when I recieved a package from Mr Postman delivering something that I ad been looking forward tofor a long time. I ordered myself a pair of the limited edition K-Swiss Logan Hicks Trainers.



The box is in its own right a work of art featuring Logans signature pattern that has been laser cut, which is signed and numbered by the man himself. I got number 13 of 200 and the sneaks also come with a sweet t-shirt. There was some problems with the sneaks getting delivered across the water but they made it and I want to thank Logan for all his help and efforts to get the problem solved as I know he is a busy guy.
So that is what has been happening lately and I'm excited about the weekend that is coming up as I am heading down to Bristol to geek it up with the web design mastermind that is Gav @ Jam-Factory which I'm well excited about so stay tuned to see if I can get a Guiness down Gavs pipes on Paddys day.

I'm off to see the wizard of OZ

Well I wish I was going to the land of Oz but at least my work is, I am so excited to be a part of the Adelaide Fringe and displaying my work with such a great selection of fellow artists. I recieved an email with the flyer attatched and it looks great. So if by chance you are reading this and you are from Australia the get yourself to Adelaide to check out the fringe which judging by the content described on the website sounds like an amazing time. i would like to thank Satta and JD for getting in touch to make this happen. Thank you both.
I have been busy working on a new piece which I'll be taking to my good friends at The Red Door Gallery in Edinburgh. After completing 'NYAzz' I continued to go through my holiday pics from New York to see if there was any other photos of interest, more will be revieled once the piece is completed but here is how it is looking so far.



I love New York as I have mentioned I'm sure many times before but there is no place like home so stay tuned for what is is the pipelines for newer work. Again more will be said in a couple of blogs time. But what I can say is that I am happy to have 'Blinds' returned to me from Opus Underground down in Newcastle because I became really attatched to that piece as I worked on it, which is a problem most of the time for me towards my work. My parents really like 'Blinds' and so you may say christmas has come early for them as it is now hanging in their home but knowing me I'll probably ask for it back one day.



Just a short update again this time just to spread the word about the Fringe Adelaide, stay tuned for more to come.