Brave New World

We had to read 'A Brave New World' -Aldous Huxley, for an illustration project. I thought it was a really good book.

The story is basically about a society in the future. where free will has essentially been taken away. babies are made in factories and everybody belongs to everybody else. - I'm not going to give away the story but its interesting.

I thought the book was an interesting look in to humanity and the way people think and behave, especially the way people can be influenced subconsciously to believe, learn or do all kinds of things.  considering it was written in 1931 I think its messages about society and the way it works, and the hierarchy within society.  

Amsterdam

I went to Amsterdam for a short trip in October. an impromptu visit with Claes for his birthday.

Went to uni in the morning. Bought our tickets in that evening. Got to Harwich port. Had a few hours to kill so we found a pub. Pub had a definite locals vibe was a bit of a dive but not too bad and cheap! Ended up making friends with the locals. They bought us drinks. Went back to the ferry nearly missed it because we'd spent to long in the pub. Were the last people on the ferry. Found our cabin. Dropped our stuff. Straight to the bar on the ferry. Jug of beer. Into the smoking room. Spoke to a few different groups. English. Dutch. American. Continuing to drink jugs of beer. Brought all the groups in the smoking room together. Everyone talking drinking. Whiskey. More Beer. Just us and the American group. More Drinking. Drunk. Cabin. Sleep. Loud alarm going off in the cabin. Wake up. Blurry. Hungover. ALARM. ALARM. ALARM. Up. Shower. Dressed. Hungover. Alarm. Last people of the ferry. Out in the wilds of Holland. The Hook of Holland. Small port town. Cold! Train Station. Claes throws up. I laugh. Buy a drink. Get on the train. Don't really know where we're going. Tired. Hungover. Sleep. Wake up 3 Hours Later. Amsterdam. Busy. Bike everywhere. Thousands of bikes. Nice train station. Surreal. Cold! Coffee shop. Tea. Hangover cured. Lunch. Beers. Walk around the city. Busy. Shops. Trams. Squares. Plazas. Canals. Old buildings. Beautiful Architecture. Beers. Coffee Shop. Play Pool. Back Out. Wander Around. Andy Warhol exhibit? Expensive. No. Coffee Shop. We need somewhere to sleep. Hostelbookers.com. Bus. Slottania. Get room. Drop stuff. Bus. Amsterdam. Coffee Shop. Dinner. Beers. Beers. Beers. Coffee shop. Pool. Bus. Slottania. Vending machine. Sleep. Up. Bus. Amsterdam. "Do you know where to get pancakes? ". "Whats Pancakes"?. "What??" French. "Crepe!"."No". Pancakes. Beer. Coffee shop. Wonder. Tourist stuff. Coffee shop. Lunch. Beers. Long Johns. Wander. Coffee Shop. Beer. Dinner. Beer. Red Light. Beer. Red Light. Coffee Shop. Mystery Kebab. Drunk. Cold. Bus. Slottania. Cat. Vending Machine. Sleep. Halloween. Up. No more rooms at Slottania. Lastminuite.com. Mystery hotel? Cheap. Yes. Booked. Bus. Amsterdam. Coffee Shop. Eat. Beers. Wander. Bar. Coffee shop. Dinner. Beer. Night. Taxi. Mystery Hotel. 4 Star. Swanky. Minibar. Sleep. Up. Late. Train. Amsterdam. Rush. Train. Hook of Holland. Ferry. 5 minutes late. Can't get on. Pay for a cabin for the night ferry. Beers. Ferry sits there for 40 minutes. Search the town. Coffee Shop. Pool. Ferry. Sleep. Alarm. Harwich. Train. Home.

Had a lot of fun in Amsterdam. I would like to have spent more time there. unfortunately I didn't take any pictures..    

Bored

This is a found wooden Board illustrated by myself and Reece Reilly influenced by the Sickboy show...

Sickboy at the Dray Walk Gallery, Bricklane.

This Exhibition in a word was 'Banging'

The Exhibition titled 'Heaven and Earth' is a series of Illustrations by the artist 'Sickboy' usually known as a graffiti artist this was only his second solo show ever. As well as the artists illustrations there is also a big made confession box, which is full of little rectangular blocks covered by different artists, who collaborated on the piece with sickboy, some of the collaborators include, Ben Eiene, Lister, Richt, and others. On the opening night of the show they even had an actual vicar giving confession at the show.

The pieces themselves were mixed media generally paint, pen, and spray paint. The paintings were painted on a variety of different materials, from found or gathered pieces of wood and metal, as well as canvas and also spray paint straight on a van inside the gallery. The work is generally abstract figures, but there are so many small details within the work that it's impossible to categorise exactly what each piece actually, IS.

Evan Hecox at StolenSpace Gallery, Bricklane, 05.11.11.

In a word this exhibition was 'Irritating'

The show titled 'New Works on Paper by Evan Hecocx', consisted of a series of illustrations on paper. The work in general is a series of black and grey pieces although more than a few of the pieces contain splashes of colour, but they are all predominantly black and grey works. The series of work is based upon London, the artist has created illustrations of areas in London, less travelled by tourists but probably fairly well known to residents of London, for example, Shoreditch, Hoxton, Camden town, Regent's Canal, Brixton and Battersea. The pieces are what I would call landscape pieces, being that they are generally of buildings and other landscapes, although figures are included in some of the works.

The works are mixed media pieces, mostly what looks like paint and pen pieces. The work is immaculately crisp, irritatingly clean lines and block colours as well as being filled with tiny little details which really make the work painfully good and to round it all of the perspective within each piece is absolutely perfect.

Word To Mother at Stolenspace Gallery, Bricklane, 15.10.11.

The Word To Mother exhibition at stolen space was, in a word, 'Sick'.

 The show, titled 'Essence of Adolescence' consisted of a series of paintings by the artist some on canvas, most on wood. Some pieces consisted of a few pieces of wood, all painted on, and brought together to create one piece. The work is a mixture of childhood cartoon elements, mixed with a street/graffiti style, as well as this there is also clear evidence of influences from tattoo art.

To create his pieces the artist appears to use mostly acrylic paints, but you can also clearly see the use of 'POSCA'  pens as well as pencil and some other materials.

The artwork was hung from the ceiling by string attached to the frame work or wood of the pieces and then hung at a slight downwards angle. This makes for a good viewing experience.

Artists I Have Bookmarked (and some other sites)

Jankowzki - http://jankowzki.blogspot.com/

The Yok - http://www.theyok.com/

BuffMonster - http://www.buffmonster.com/

Ben Eine - http://einesigns.co.uk/diary/

Hooked Blog - http://www.hookedblog.co.uk/

Blu - http://blublu.org/sito/blog/

Jack Douglas - http://www.jdouglasart.blogspot.com/

Drew Millward - http://drewmillward.com/2012/

ALO - http://alostreetart.blogspot.com/

Jeremy Fish - http://www.sillypinkbunnies.com/artwork/

Pat Perry - http://patperry.net/blog/

Tomer Hanuka - http://www.tropicaltoxic.blogspot.com/

Iain MacArthur - http://iainmacarthur.carbonmade.com/

Booooooom! - http://www.booooooom.com/sorted/art/

VeryNearlyAlmost - http://verynearlyalmost.com/blog/

Fecal Face - http://www.fecalface.com/SF/

Juxtapoz - http://www.juxtapoz.com/

Richt - http://news.richt-what.co.uk/

Monorex - http://monorex.com/blog/

Jimi Crayon - http://seymourdoomore.blogspot.com/

STIKA - http://stikarock.blogspot.com/

Don't Panic - http://www.dontpaniconline.com/london

Mr.Penfold - http://mrpenfold.blogspot.com/

Dudes Factory - http://www.dudes-factory.com/

Bo130 - http://bo130.blogspot.com/

DXTR - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dxtrs

McBess - http://blog.mcbess.com/

45rpm - http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatcollective

Some Artists and Art Blogs I check regularly...