Reception

Thanks to everyone who made it along to the NYSG Reception on Friday night. Big shout out to Brian Siskind as well who very kindly took some very decent photos for us - check out his link, he does some great stuff producing music and his own fine art photography. It was quite a wild one, I am now in detox and am taking a bit of a break before the next assault on the studio.

Over and Out.

Lonesome and Longer

Slightly better photo of The Road Is Lonesome which in now a fairly hefty 83 inches long. If nobody buys it in the States it will be going to London for exhibition in September, and it's a long way to go for such a long drawing. Place your offers here. It's pretty lonely, have some compassion...

Really don't. the drawing will be fine. Don't feel you have to buy it. And size isnr't anything.

Divergence II

"Alignment between what you think and what you say, what you feel and what you do, between what you see and notice and your response, is not always accurate. Many times it's even completely broken. Whatever are the reasons for this, it seems like we want everything to be fine with us but without us, without our commitment and integrity.
For mind and heart, listening and speech, thought and emotion, action and reaction can be either opposites or allies, it's also a matter of awareness and choice. Who do we want to please and what for? Are we really choiceless? Divergence is just a portrait about this fine line that divides or unites our beings when relating to others."

This is a pretty interesting concept that the Divergence video is dealing with. Certainly something I relate to a lot. I think I'm spectacularly bad at saying what I mean,or maybe I'm too good at it and even thinking what I mean sometimes is a struggle, and especially when it comes to writing notes, which can possibly turn out offensive when I really mean them to be funny and endearing! Whatever which way, people often seem to react pretty badly towards me when I only really have the best of intentions.

I have just sold a piece of rubbish on the floor - a compositional sketch with a flipflop print on it - I must have stood on it. I need to remember to keep the rubbish that is my working drawings as they could make me a good living - note to self.

The Lonesome Road Gets Longer

I've been extending this drawing to make the Lonesome Road a bit longer. It's now something of a beast. Will post a better photo later on.

Shit Happens

No, I didn't do this, but I would like to meet the man(?) who did. This was spotted at 14th Street Metro station this morning - a positive start to the day! Not sure how big my readership is but if you're reading this, grafitero, please get in touch, would you like to go for a drink?

Casa De Rodriguez

My fantastic neighbour on Stanton Street, David Rodriguez, with his fantastic hats. Check out the link in creative accomplices

Divergence

A still from a video piece I've taken part in this week, by the Spanish artist Laura Clemente Castillejo - see her link in my creative accomplices. It deals with the differences in what we think and what we say.
Certainly these can be very different, and probably for the best, although some people seem to be better at keeping these separate than others..I'm not so good at it myself.Probably the Glaswegian in me..

Champagne?

No images to post at the moment. I am finalising things and extending a drawing for the "installation" if one can call it that, I'm setting up for next week's grand Artist's Reception in the gallery.

It's pretty hot out there and am feeling pretty exhausted with it all. I've been pretty productive over the last 8 weeks but I now feel in need of a holiday and am looking forward to a well earned rest in the chilly air of the motherland next month.

I was bouyed yesterday however when someone told me that the air in New York in autumn is just like champagne! What a fantastic simile and NY soundbite to add to the list! I look forward to some headily autumnal days ahead drinking in all that Cristal for free...

Ibn Kendall

I drank an inordinate amount of Brooklyn beer with the artist/Jamaican goat farmer Ibn Kendall at the weekend. He does some very interesting work - check out the link.

Fall

"But the young Icarus, overwhelmed by the thrill of flying, did not heed his
father's warning, and flew too close to the sun whereupon the wax in his
wings melted and he fell into the sea."

I've been re-looking at the work of Bas Jan Ader the last week or two - One of the most notable themes of his work is Failure and it is more and more inspiring every time I look at it! See link

The Promised Land

Finally, I've got a title for this piece. I ended up putting in just a very simple slightly curved horizon and it's turned out to be very much a romantic tragic hero on a quest for the sublime. It's got a very old world feel to it as well, not as confrontational as much of my work but I think it's a winner.

Pioneer

This will be all the figures now. They remind me of the flying geese formation which is coming out a lot in the work at the moment without any specific intention. The furthest forward guy is the Pioneer and this "Pioneer" theme has been around in my work for some years now, in varying forms. Still not quite sure what will happen with the background but this isn't too far from completion now.

Belly Dance

Sung Min Lee has completed my belly button sculpture! Not the prettiest portrait, but I hang desperately onto the hope that it looks better in real life.. Also, it is part of an installation of about 100 belly buttons so hopefully it'll get lost in the crowd!

5 Go To A Sample Sale?

As I exited my apartment this morning, I rounded the corner to find a huge queue of hysterical and impossibly glamorous women in a line, surrounded by police and photographers. It turned out they were trying to get into the Alexander McQueen sample sale. As I ambled past in my charcoal-stained studio rags, I wondered if perhaps it wasn't only my chakras that were a bit off - were my life priorities a little off-centre as well?

Toying with the notion of going home to change and get in there as well, I pushed on to my nemesis of the week - The Man With Nowhere To Go..And having had a productive day, he is now gathering force if not any particular purpose.

All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Go

This is the start of a very big drawing, about 1.5m square. I went to a psychic this weekend on the Upper East Side to help me with my creative block. She told me my chakras were very much out of alignment! I think I knew that already...I don't know where I'm going or where this guy is going at the moment, so I'm just going to keep drawing more of him in until I realise.

I asked my model if he knows where he's going but he definitely doesn't have a clue. I'm almost tempted to start another blog competition, suggestions on a postcard, but I have a feeling this is one I'm going to have to figure out for myself.