Author Archives: Art_Rat

Recycled postcard

October 13, 2011 – 3:56 pm

Here is another recycled postcard originally used in 1999 as a promo for inmemoryof.co.uk.


Sam Bright, was what you would call a real character. He couldn’t wait for the moment to tell a story or crack a joke. A soldier, a coalminer, a chef at Blackpool Casino, a fish and chip shop owner, a shopkeeper, a pallbearer, these were a few of his careers.

During the First World War he found himself as a cook, responsible for the well being of his comrades. The meagre rations that the army supplied needed supplementing by scavenging. Often he went on ‘raiding parties’, sneaking into French farms, pilfering this and that. He once found himself in a Frenchman’s dovecote. This was nearly his final mission. The farmer gave chase and then levelled his loaded rifle at him. He wasn’t really proud of his thieving but as he explained, it was war and his mates were hungry. One of his most poignant tales was about a march to the ‘front’. In the hedgerow Sam spotted a ham bone which had a bit of meat left on it. They got to the frontline and as the history books tell us conditions were appalling and the rations were low. Sam remembered the ham bone, and on the march back retrieved it from the hedge to use in the next stew.

Trench warfare lost him many friends and the sight of an eye. He spotted a German sniper who unfortunately spotted him. He was wounded and his commanding officer suggested that he remained at his post to give his comrades a better chance to fallback, promising his family a medal for his sacrifice. I’m not sure what he said but he was invalided out of service and was treated at Guys Hospital in London, where they patched him up and cosmetically made a fine job. Apparently this damaged eye was assisted by a rabbit’s nerve.(?)

When Mary was in her teens she was aprenticed to a chemist in Sheffield, travelling by train every day from her home.

She was the woman behind the scenes in their grocer’s shop, where they were famous for their home made ‘ice lollies‘. People still remember them for their delicious treats, which they made from ‘Tizer‘ and other bottles of ‘pop’.

She was a ‘Spiritulist’ by conviction, with local business men and tradesmen alike knocking on her door for advice and guidance, and her ‘messages’ influenced deals and life changes all around her. The respect she had was far larger than her diminutive size.


Related articles
Tags , , , , , | Permalink | Comments (2)

All my love Marni

October 11, 2011 – 12:19 pm

Here is another recycled postcard that was originally a promo for ‘Cassette Culture‘

Related articles
Tags , , , | Permalink | Comments Off on All my love Marni

I’m enormously lazy

October 9, 2011 – 11:35 am

Duchamp: I would have wanted to work, but deep down I’m enormously lazy. I like living, breathing, better than working. I don’t think that the work I’ve done can have any social importance whatsoever in the future. Therefore if you wish, my art would be that of living: each second, each breath is a work which is inscribed nowhere, which is neither visual nor cerebral. It is a sort of constant euphoria.

This Window: I would have wanted to work, but deep down I’m enormously lazy. I like living, breathing, better than working. I don’t think that the work I’ve done can have any social importance whatsoever in the future. Therefore if you wish, my art would be that of living: each second, each breath is a work which is inscribed nowhere, which is neither visual nor cerebral. It is a sort of constant futility.

This is futility in audio form.

Tags , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comments Off on I’m enormously lazy

Articles written for other sites

October 6, 2011 – 6:04 am

The image above is a detail of a drawing I did in 1978

The swirled black paint is like knitted wool

 

I have always felt there is a link between Art and Business – the processes of realizing an artwork and a product are very similar. Below are a couple of business related articles I have written for Technorati.com. These processes are like a woven web (no pun intended).

  1. October 5, 2011I Would Rather Have A Tooth Removed Without Pain Relief!
    “Come and visit my new website” – No thanks!
    This constant bombardment of self promotion from twitter, facebook etc. is driving me nuts. The Internet is a more sophisticated tool than this. It is a travesty to allow it to become a vehicle for pure unadulterated, egotistical spam.
    in Small Business
  2. October 4, 2011Owning A Small Business Has Become A Nightmare
    Is it time to throw in the towel or roll the dice?
    Horoscopes in newspapers are based on star signs and birth dates; these predict the day’s events. These predictions are based on the laws of probability and chance. You could read your daily horoscope and make the prediction into a self-fulfilling prophecy, you could go out and find that ‘Tall dark handsome man’ or go on ‘A long journey’.
    in Small Business

Notes:

  • Fingerprints on white borders – nightmare on a short print run. A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger = fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. Impressions of fingerprints may be left behind on a surface by the natural secretions of sweat from the eccrine glands that are present in friction ridge skin, or they may be made by ink or other substances transferred from the peaks of friction ridges on the skin to a relatively smooth surface such as a fingerprint card. Fingerprints records normally contain impressions from the pad on the last joint of fingers and thumbs, although fingerprint cards also typically record portions of lower joint areas of the fingers.
  • Action Painting – Pollock. Print dribbled paint.
  • Rediscovering the printing process after nearly 40 years has been an interesting process – disappointingly modern inks are not as rich in colour (earthy colours are very plastic like) and modern waterbased inks don’t become part of the surface, they sit on it, which is incredibly frustrating – the reason I took up printing in the first place was because of the absorbed flatness of the pigments.
Related articles
Tags , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comments (4)

« Previous Page — Next Page »

« Previous Page — Next Page »