Friday 18 November 2011

London swings

this is where i'm off to for the best part of a week, starting tomorrow. I'm leaving behind a half started painting of Bonnie and Clyde laying dead in the poppy fields of the wizard of oz. No snow will wake them up, no wicked witch had sent them to sleep. Though i'm aware of the ideas present in the combination of those two images, of youth and innocence, of a violent passage into fantasy, of home, it's more the origin of those ideas which i'm interested in, the images themselves. The combined force of two cultural icons - hitler and the eiffel tower, for example. You can't really take those images at face value without being aware of the stories behind them, but you can't have stories without imagery of one kind or another (and i include words, and imagined images). By imagery, i mean something which the story can be hung on, words, for instance - spoken, written or sung.. It's the medium which contains the idea, and the medium which can inform the idea, and which you respond to and argue with, and take with you - the medium, the imagery.

London, a place i'd like to live eventually, although not permanently. There are many places like that. In fact i can't think of a place i can imagine wanting to die in, to stay permanently. From Alaska/Norway (one of the two), to Romania, Dudley, an old wooden shack in the woods, Manchester, Scotland, Berlin.. maybe the daytime in the woods and the nighttime in the city.. who knows, I don't really want to stop anywhere. My indecisiveness will kill me sometime, somewhere, perhaps between the second and third stop on the 7.23 train to Edinburgh. I don't really want to grow old, not old, more the lack of independence is the worry. How can you be independent if you commit yourself to something, somewhere, and without independence where's the life.. A reason for indecisiveness perhaps. Or a denial of the present situation, that without committing to something, you remain in a sort of void, floating between alive and dead, committing only has the appearance of being permanent, but really it's not, you can always go back, claim you made a mistake, change courses.

I didn't get the job i went after, but i'm kinda not really bothered. I'm annoyed that it cost £30 to travel down there and they couldn't even give me a reason why not. But really, i see so many people going through the same thing, and without a job they aren't doing anything, i'm painting, i'm animating, i'm making a comic, i sort of feel like i'll be alright anyway. But every job that passes comes with a sort of mourning, that that was a route things could have gone, but didn't, that was the life that could have been. Mourning is comforting, but i have no interest in pursuing lost lives.

Wednesday 14 September 2011

ideas,

i hate manifestos, and i will never stick by any rules, other than that one. In fact, making a list of dos and don'ts is the best way of getting me to do the don'ts, because i am a child.

But it struck me just now, looking up from the polished and perfectly framed images of the tv screen, that the room looked emptier, more subtle, less constructed. That well composed image, that streamlined, graphic designed perfection which invades every sign and symbol, every bus and storefronts, is draining the world of its own beauty. A world which is very much chaotic, and very much undesigned, badly composed, and all the more beautiful because of it.

So, as i've already been heading in that direction, it seems a natural progression to reject perfection, which was always overrated, and to plump for erratic, chaotic, acidic, and generally bad compositions. I don't want my work to be in any way associated with a storefront.



My three ideas, of work not about me, are coming along quite well.. in my head. So far i've only done a few sketches and notes.

The Percentages Agreement. i originally thought of painting churchill and stalin as if it were a bright sunny day and they were sipping lemonade on deckchairs whilst deciding the continents fate, then for some reason i liked the idea of churchill with donkey ears, so i drew them, and they reminded me so much of Bottom from A Midsummer Nights Dream that i drew Stalin as Titania, apparently (as upon talking to someone else i understood) that is quite a good analogy, The Dream being the war, and this completely unexpected and strange relationship blossoming within it. So i'll carry on with that idea i reckon. it also allows me to paint anthropomorphic characters, which i always like.

Bonnie and Clyde seems to be leaning towards photography, not of me taking photos, but the idea of photography. It seeming that they captured the imagination of the public, and have lasted so long as mythical people, because of those amazing photographs of themselves. Also, i recently came upon a load of family photographs, in which my parents seemed to have unknowingly reproduced these photos, of themselves in each others (and other peoples) arms, leaning on cars.. no guns though.

The Periodic Table. The more i find out about the periodic table the more interesting it gets. Firstly that it was made with holes where it was predicted as yet undiscovered elements would slot in, and they were right, when these new elements were discovered they fit perfectly into the gaps left for them. That in itself is fascinating, simply leaving gaps in a story, predicting how it may turn out, fate.. Then there's Antoine Lavoisier's story, one of the guys who helped develop it, how he was beheaded in the French Revolution following being branded a traitor by Marat (the guy David painted after he died). How the judge at his trail said "the republic needs neither scientists or chemists", and how only a year and a half later he was exonerated by the government and his possessions were returned to his widow with a note of apology.. And the nice idea that most of these elements are named in honour of the people who discovered them, Marie Curie naming Polonium after her native Poland, Mendeleevium named after Mendeleev, the main person responsible for the creation of the table..

All very interesting. and what is the point? well...as much point as anything else i suppose.

Monday 1 August 2011

new painting, a-n blog


My latest painting of my beautiful.

I've also started a new blog over on a-n website! http://www.a-n.co.uk/link/wastelandnumberseven It's a bit difficult to input html as they don't have all those useful buttons like you have here. Blogger will remain my favourite place to blog, but i'm hoping a-n will give me more of an audience, which i can then direct around!:)

adam

Tuesday 26 July 2011

chalk dudley

i've been working my way very relaxed through simon schama's power of art series, which is uploaded on to youtube. It's cemented my feeling that i am painting the right thing, to not worry about painting things just because i think they'll sell, or because people click 'like' more on facebook, things like flowers and prettified landscapes and cats, dull things, dull ideas, empty. But this series makes a point of showing that the best art is confrontational, extreme, extraordinary and very usually hated. From Caravaggio to Rembrant to Turner to Rothko (and 4 others) we find artist after artist who dealt with very real and uncomforting material. This encourages me, it's very encouraging, it assists my confidence to ignore those haters who dismiss your work unless it makes them feel comforted. I don't mind making comforting images occassionally, when i want to, but i have refused and will continue to refuse to coddle and hide my vision.


we saw simon schama at hay on wye festival giving a talk, it was very good and funny, that reminds me i have a video of him dancing to that pulp fiction chuck berry song, will have to upload it.

Have also had a couple more rejections (or chalk cross moments) from Jerwood drawing prize and halls open competition, and applied to so many jobs and residencies i've forgotten. So i continue to intern at The Public, a building which appears more silly and impractical with each visit.

here is my latest painting


And here is a photo of my exhibition at dudley library, my first solo show.
hopefully many more to come

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Little Chalk Crosses

A letter arrives, beginning;

"Dear Artist,

Thank you for submitting your work to be considered for the Bulldog Bursary, your effort is greatly appreciated.

Although your work was not short-listed for the final selection, the committee hopes you might submit future work to bursary and to the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Open in 2012.[...]"

I do, yes, resent being addressed as 'Artist', and being told I wasn't selected in a sort of roundabout, "you should have figured it out by now" sort of way, especially when I paid £6 to enter and a total of £57 to get the painting to and from London. Which, i might as well add, was utterly unneccesary when you consider that much more prominent art competitions select a shortlist based on online digital submissions, which would have saved me £57. But when a gallery writes you letter to tell you you've been declined, you can maybe see that efficiency isn't to their strengths. This is further stressed on their website, www.mallgaleries.org.uk, where up to 6 competitions, with varying rules and submission details, all use the same registration pack and application form, hence the confusion over when i actually had to get my paintings back.

But, for all the weaknesses of Mall Galleries and Royal Society of Portrait Painters, i can't help feeling that maybe they'd got it right by rejecting the paintings i submitted.



I like them both. The first one, of my dad holding a pigeon, is especially good around the hands and pigeon.. not the face then. And it could be viewed as unfinished, both the background and the coat are very flat, plain, ad un-nuanced, the face is dry, and although as a whole i like it, it does need some work. The second painting, perhaps the most complete of the two, is of my girlfriend, maybe it says something that the most complete painting is the one i did in uni, with a full support system in place. But, in terms of consistency, these paintings do not fit well together, they are not a united front, they are disparate, erratic, and could have been done by two completely different people.

But what i feel is most worthy of learning from this, is the unfinished..ness of my recent paintings. The colours, too simple, too reliant on heightened bright sections, and easy complementaries. Too reliant on outlines, and i'm too easily bored and too easily willing to move on to the next work. With no-one to be able to tell me when, no, i have to wait until i review my work in a few months time, and then i tell myself, as if i was looking over my own shoulder, "that's not right."

try, try again.

Saturday 14 May 2011

Trans Siberian Railway

Some photos landed in my inbox the other day (i say landed, i mean dropped). They show the route of the train exhibition, the Trans-Siberian Railway exhibition, which takes around a week to travel from Moscow to Beijing and which i had the above image in. I didn't go on the train, as much as i'd have liked to, but i was sent pictures of it's journey, which was nice, though a little like it had been kidnapped.








'Images courtesy of KITCHEN projects, 2011' (well, apart from the first one, which is mine.)

Friday 22 April 2011

Burden


well, this is the final of a four-part image, in that i've repainted it four times. I'm happy with it. This draft is called 'Burden', i took out the other guy he was punching at which seemed to create some confusion as to what he was angry at, almost as if he was fighting himself. And i think by making the landscape hilly, the land reflects some sort of inner turmoil.

Sunday 17 April 2011



yes, i've carried on with the home serial, as i'm calling it. This one is based on a memory of a space, of my father's uncle and aunt's. We called them auntie evelyn and uncle reg when they were alive. In the hallway it was rather dark, and this big grandfather clock greeted you. Now the house is owned by my aunt, my dads sister, and there was a bit of suspicion about who it was left to. So, i haven't been there in around 10 years, but the memorys insist. I have another one for the room at the end on the right, as a child i remember a white wedding dress being hung up in the bedroom there, it was a scary house, and a creepy scene. It will do for the next painting. But that's it, i'm not quite sure whether this series is about more generalised spaces that i remember, or particular events, i've been mixing them up as they both seem to work quite well, though in slightly different styles.

Sunday 27 March 2011

the loser with a whale in his eye



I'm a little upset. My painting studio is at the bottom of my dads garden, it's a very long garden, shaped like an L from above, as there is a piece of garden at the bottom which shoots off at a 90 degree angle to the left, and goes behind the bottom of his neighbours gardens. Growing up this hidden place was where me and my brother made a den near a huge sycamore tree, now cut down. Where we had bonfires. Where i had a basketball net when i was going through that phase.

For just over a year now i've been in the greenhouse painting away, with no problems. Now, my brother and his friend have decided they want to put up a greenhouse in my dad's garden and grow things. Fair enough, there's enough space so why not. But, it seems they've been into my studio, snooped around at the paintings, and are sniggering at the willy on show in the above.

In some respects i am extremely private, i enjoy a certain amount of solitude. My working space is my own, i require a space which is mine, which has boundaries, where not just anyone can wander through uninvited and act like schoolboys. So, at the moment, i feel very threatened and vulnerable. It's bad enough not having a place of my own, or earning money, or missing the most important person in my life. I don't want people trampling through my space as if they own it.

Wednesday 23 March 2011

i am

i am interested in the horror of the world, nuclear disaster, wastelands, i often think of the end of civilisation, the last strands of humanity. I'm interested in humanity, usually under the influence of sentimentality and nostalgia. I create modern paintings with the remnants of long gone, archaic ideas of beauty, gender and sex. Occasionally and consciously inverted, surreal. mine is a strange world view, straddling both old and new, conservative and anarchic, gentle and brutal.

Saturday 19 February 2011

it's important...



It's important not to get bogged down with political 'what ifs' when considering whether to support the protestors of the middle east. There is a tendency amongst politicians, and the general public, to wonder what would happen if the apathy inducing tyrants presently controlling the middle east were to fall, it's easy to worry that such a gap in tyrants, such awakeness amongst the people, would allow for a Muslim Brotherhood type islamist government, who then by some miracle give up their borders and form some sort of huge Caliphate, with links to al-qaeda and the ability to detonate nuclear weapons..

The reality is that the dictators posing as 'leaders of democratic countries' are violently attempting to silent the mass protests. After the relatively easy revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt, the people in neighbouring countries have been understandably roused with anger and hope for change. The neighbouring governments on the other hand, after the relatively easy fall of the dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, have started shitting stones, and in turn have put on a rather heavy boot (a heavy boot in the form of tanks and shootings).

All we can do in more priveliged countries is put aside our petty and unfounded worries, and support the people who deserve the same freedoms that we have, the same choice over who leads them, and the same freedom to peacefully protest without getting shot in the head.

Friday 18 February 2011

scrubbers

did you ever see scrubs ?

i imagine the real thing would have much more humour to it (considering that scrubs had.. none)
but if you've ever wanted to dress up in scrub uniform (not a uniform for the tv series, but a uniform for nurses and doctors) whether for your own peasure.. or for medical reasons.. for a party.. a strange party. Or a waking dream. Or if you don't really want to dress up in such clothing, but know someone who does, maybe a woman, for which you'd need the women's scrub outfit.. or a man.. for which you'd need the opposite..
then you'd better click one of the links.

Friday 11 February 2011

Let England Shake by PJ Harvey

Three songs from her latest album, no need for a running commentary, i love it.







Email Scam

I recently received an email from a Mr Raymos, unfortunately i wasn't the only one. Names, locations and professions may change, but it's the same scam to steal your money. Be careful.

Hello
I saw a preview of your work via a friend of mine Sarah Edward she reside in London United Kingdom she a send me a link to a site that previewed your work so am writing in request to know if you can direct me to your own personal website where i can view more of your work and see if we can reach an agreement in purchasing some of it.

I am aconstruction engineer by profession in Madrid Spain am going to be displaying your work in both my office and resident my friend also tell me about your creative approach to you work and it's creativeness i do not reside in the England which as been a major concern to me on our to purchase your piece can you send me images or website to your new work.
Thanks
Raymos

Wednesday 2 February 2011

The Tale of the Suspicious Spaniard..

I had an unexpected email last night from a spanish labourer who'd saw my work through somebody else's suggestion, and was interested in buying some things. All very nice, of course my first thought was that it was some sort of spammer, trying to rob of my much needed money. But there was no links in the email, no attachments, it was pretty straight forward, even the email address was without suspicion. And anyway, if you were going to try to scam someone of money, you're best bet isn't to pick on some struggling out of work artist.

I was also a little bit afraid too, it is much easier it is much easier to remain 'comfortably numb', to accept that no-one likes your work, no-one's interested, and no-one's going to buy it, because when someone comes up to you, out of the blue, with an interest in purchasing it.. i feel startled, cornered, i want to LASH OUT! But instead, i got over myself and replied very nicely, with a link to my personal website. Numbness and fear of some sort of success doesn't last very long when the other option is to carry on painting daily in a greenhouse.. in winter.. alone.

who knows, he might not get back to me.

....

Cecily Brown - a great artist, and a very good book.

Sunday 30 January 2011

Etsy

online at ETSY!

Etsy, the arts version of Ebay, now has a wastelandnumberseven shop! So alongside the shop at www.wastelandnumberseven.com you can now order my work alongside a whole host of other peoples!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/wastelandnumberseven

Saturday 29 January 2011

Robot



I find this to be quite an amazing video, robots, walking, they can walk up stairs, run, bicycle, play violin, just check youtube. But some reason this just makes me really sad, teary in a way. Is it the attempt at innocence in the design? is it the empty headedness of a 'being' which has none of it's own thoughts or desires? (are those numbers and codes it is programmed with, thoughts?) is it the childlike way it trustingly holds the hand of someone? or does it remind me about something of us.

It's all very touching anyway, in a cold sort of way. Someone commented on the violin playing robot video, that the playing "lacked soul". I, like many people i suppose, don't know what a 'soul' is, maybe 'feeling' or 'intuition' would be a better word. But it made me wonder if the whole of human life and activity could not live on, posthumously, within robots. Whether you could programme 'feeling'. To make a robot a living breathing record, an archive, of humanity.

It seems interesting also that robots take on the look of their makers. Surely there are much more effective designs for creatures, three eyes? 5 legs and a wheel? wings? but no, the attempt seems to be to make it look and move like a human. Assimilating human life.

On second thought, this sadness.. maybe it is some kind of hope, a brand new little creature, with no feelings, no thoughts of its own.. how are we to know, maybe that's not so different from ourselves? but experience, what little understanding i have so far, makes me doubt hope, it makes me sad when i see the brightness in childrens eyes, considering how little of it is left later on. but maybe that's my own shortcoming.

Thursday 20 January 2011

BUY MY WORK ONLINE!!! (or not.. up to you)

we've just finished the new Jules and Crispin, our late new year special:) and are raring to go on the next one!! www.julesandcrispin.com

[inter]sections - the latest magazine of peer-reviewed essays and reviews on art and other things from the faculty of American Studies at Bucharest University is now online! oh, and i submitted the cover drawing! http://www.americanstudies.ro/?article=144

also, i'm busy drawing something for a new blog (which i also have nothing to do with).. about horses and bikes, with hands.. very odd.. but here it is - http://horsewithhandsridingabike.blogspot.com/

oh, and did also mention you can now buy drawings and paintings of mine on my website, via paypal! very easy to use (only if you speak english though, unfortunately) and something which i've been nagged into doing despite many protestations by myself. (but it is lovely:) http://www.wastelandnumberseven.com/online-shop