Many many things

*Cough cough* bit dusty around here isn't it? Has it really been four months? Is anyone still here? Hello? Is this thing on?

Sorry blog. I know, I know, I'm always pretty bad at updating but I've got some totally legit excuses this time. I won't list them here but if you know me well enough to know what they are then I hope you;ll forgive me. And as much as I love reading dramablogz (I like staring at a car crash as much as the next man), that isn't, never has been and never will be what this blog is all about. Suffice it to say that a lot of changes have been made, life is very exciting and new and I have moved house from Stalybridge to Chorlton.

You'll be pleased to hear (read?) that despite my blog radio silence I have not been slacking on the creative front. Brace yrself.

First things first. Everything Ever has been accepted into the Spring Open show at the Egg in Liverpool. The open night is the 18th of May, I will be there and I hope you will to. Bambi was also accepted, one of his pics is even being used for the flyer coz they proper badly love him there. My, erm, impression of a watercolour painting Venus Fly Traps is going to in a zine made by my friend Sian called Pushing Too Many Pencils along with a comic thing by Greg and a recipe thing by Helen so that's very nice, a little Moreton Lodge Clan reunion. It looks amazing, it's quite limited but I should be receiving 20 copies in the post at the beginnig of next week so if you'd like one let me know. I'm keeping one and one or two have already been bagsied so don't be tardy.

New stuff then. Lego from Akoustik Anarkhy emailed me the other week to let me know about Northern Quarter Stories, an aptly named website dedicated to collecting stories about the Northern Quarter. It's a great idea, Hayley from Skyliner has been interviewed for it already and says some nice things about pubs and mysterious public artwork which you should listen to. I designed a beermat and a badge for it. For technical reasons the badge isn't being made and, interestingly, the badge design is now being used for the coaster but that's fine by me because I preferred my badge design to my beermat. Here they are anyway.

This first one is the badge design which, as I say, has now been printed onto beermats. Hayley tells me they're in the Castle pub on Oldham St. I intend to go down there tomorrow and steal a couple (I hope they don't read this).

This is the design I did for the beermat which isn't being used but that's fine because the other one's better anyway.

Next up was a last minute job so I had to do some recycling. Phil from This City Is Ours / From The Kites Of San Quentin emailed me about a charity gig he was asked to play and sort of ended up co-organising and promoting. They needed a flyer for it so I cannibalised a drawing I did of a human cannonball which I did for a band a few years ago but they didn't use. I always thought it was a bit of a shame because I really like it so it's good that it's getting a proper use. I might do something else with it at some point anyway.

As you can see, it's on the 9th of May (this Wednesday) at the Roadhouse, it's a great cause, a great lineup and a great price so see you there.

Another one for TCIO next. Last Monday they released their first album, I Live To Die And I Die To Live by Depakote as a pay-what-you-like download and fair play, it's excellent. As such I am proud to say I've designed the cover based on a photo they sent me and the image sent out with the promo emails  which is quite nice so I'll show you that as well while you're here.

So this is the cover. I was sent a photo that they wanted to use which is great and pretty much just added the text. The font that I used for the artist name is something I designed a while ago, again for some badges for a band that never got made so I'm glad that it finally got used. I had to edit the letter P slightly as the curved bit (I don't know if these things have proper names, I'm sure they do) was a bit small but with a bit of Photoshop trickery it ended up much nicer.

This is the image I came up with for the promos. I thought I'd share it as I think it works quite well and not many people would see it otherwise. Very simple, just a picture of Depakote inside the This City Is Ours text, but I've not tried anything like this before. Turns out it's dead easy.

So yeah, I told you I'd not been doing nothing! I've done a mixtape as well but I can't upload it yet as Soundcloud has taken issue with the fact that it recognised the first track. You'd think they'd be more flexible with mixtapes but never mind, rules are rules and I will just have to find a way around them. Ha ha. To close, some dates for your diary.

Tomorrow, Sunday the 6th of May, Sounds From The Other City festival takes place at various venues in Salford. TCIO are co-curating a stage, I am hoping there will still be some tickets left on the day so that I can go after I've been for a cheeky one in the Castle because the lineup is excellent and I know that lots of lovely people will be there.

Wednesday the 9th of May is the gig from the poster up there at the Roadhouse with Kites and friends.

Friday the 11th of May me, Kelly and Bambi are off on an adventure. We're going to Brighton for The Great Escape festival, or more specifically the Akoustik Anarkhy stage. Over the course of the weekend the Longcut, Plank and Driver Drive Faster amongst others will be playing and therer will be DJs until the wee small hours so it's funtimes guaranteed. We're even staying at a hostel just around the corner from the aA folks. On the Saturday we're heading to London to go to the David Shrigley show at the Hayward Gallery and seeing Greg, hooray. It's going to be the Best Weekend Ever.

Friday the 18th of May is the open evening for the Spring Open show at the Egg to coincide with Light Night which is a Liverpool-wide arts festival thing I believe. Should be good anyway, me and Bambi will be there along with a crowd of people I hope to drag along with me.

Busy busy busy. After all that there's only like a week and a half left of May. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be the Perfect May, like that song Perfect Day, but with an M instead of a D. The next update will not be far off, I promise you. I know I always promise you but this time I mean it. Let's never fight again, blog x

Andy V's Sketchbook Project 2012

Right, I don't think I mentioned it at the time but I am taking part in this years Sketchbook Project. Basically, you get sent a sketchbook, you fill it, you send it off, and then it gets taken on tour around the world (including a yet-to-be-confirmed date in London) followed by being kept on permanent display at Brooklyn Art Library in New York. Pretty sweet. Bambi's done it as well, and his entry kind of illustrates the best thing about the project: the variety. His entry is very much fine art; it's a collections of paintings fitted into the book. Mine, erm, isn't. The category I chose was The Worst Story Ever Told, so that's exactly what I've done. I was aiming for a lo-fi, stream of consciousness style surrealist humour. When I showed it to Jo, she laughed in all the right places, so I guess I've done OK. Anyway, it goes kind of like this.

The Worst Story Ever Told

or;

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Fourth Wall

(A Documented Minor Breakdown)

There we go. Might do some prints of some of the pages, might get it printed as a zine or summat, I dunno. Let me know what you think of it though!

This City Is Ours vs Broken Bubble

Alright mate, here's the latest.

Phil This City Is Ours asked me to do a flyer for the next night. It's a Broken Bubble special, and if you click on their name right there, you'll be able to see their Bandcamp. You'll probably notice that they're WELL into kaleidoscopes, and who isn't, right? So I thought I'd do something like that, but with a cityscape (coz This City Is Ours, innit). I found this photo of Manchester courtesy of Hayley Flynn who writes the excellent Skyliner blog. If you thought you knew everything worth seeing in Manchester, you were wrong. She can prove it.

So anyway, it started like this:

And then I got my grubby mits on it and it ended up like this:

I'll probably do a how-to post soon but I'm not in the mood now. Come along though, it's at Centro a week on Saturday and it's free. Be good to see you there!


OH and while I remember, I've got this new mixtape thing. Give it a spin if you've got a spare hour, or even if you haven't you can download it and play it in the background can't you.

Dead Pheasant Unite!

Handful of images of when the Dead Pheasant crew met up for tea and cakes.

No need to send out a search party

Its been a very long time since I have posted anything on the DP blog site. So it's time I have brought every one up to speed. The last 8 months have been up and down for me. I was made redundant from my designers job. A lot of my time was spent trying to find a new job but I did try and carry on my art.

With more time on my hands I wanted to loosen up my art. The way I think things through, the way I paint and draw I wanted to re-invent everything. With the supplies I had, I went to work. For a while I had been playing around with faces but it needed something more then just a single drawn face on a canvas. What I came up with was these for images. Drawn with a paint pen on thick card paper. I think that it has a certain style towards them. I don't know where I'm heading with this style but I'm liking it more everyday.

I looked up similar artists like David Choe (www.davidchoe.com). He came up with a method of drawing a face using to spray cans in each hand. The results are pretty amazing. Of course they wound't be fully coloured master pieces but none the less the style of them are a sight to see.

With nothing to do during the day sept to sit around, watch crappy day time tv and draw or even to boot up the old ps3. I wanted to keep active and not fall behind in shows, so I set out on the net to see what i could enter.

I remember around each summer theres a project to do with sketch book in America. After an hour of searching online I came across The Sketchbook Project. The idea behind it is that you get sent a random theme for your sketch book and a small sketchbook is sent to you. As well there were some simple set of rules to follow. You have to use the sketchbook provided and you can not over exceed the dimensions of the sketchbook either. You may add pages to the book if you wish.
My theme that i was sent was timetravel. I had all these visions of things that I could draw. Some relating to tv programs like LOST and Quantum Leap or books like The Dark tower. After 4 weeks and only getting trough 8 pages of the book I got bored with it. The whole thing, hated time travel by this time so I went on the Art co-op website to get some inspiration. See what other people are doing.

It seems the rules went out of the window. I was looking through of already submissions and there where people just using other sketchbooks and other methods to get their art in to the show. But the organisers didn't mind either. The biggest piss take of one tho was that someone sent in a homemade wooden box and filled it with photographs of clouds. So thought well this is a piss take now So I am going to do my own thing but stay with the rules just in case.

I ripped out every page sept for the covers and replaced the paper in the sketchbook with a thick paper that was A3. The sketchbook given was only A5. I filled each page with a A3 painting but by this time it wasn't anything to do with but anything that came in to my head. When I was finished I was able to fold the pages down in to the book. It made it the size of a brick but I didn't care.

The project will be going to all of the major American cities (New York, Chicago etc you get the idea) but as well London, Melbourne and Toronto. Tho this isn't a solo show or a gallery show of selected artists I'm glad I did enter it. Just for the fact my work is been shown in major cities in other countries.

Once the tour is finished the art work will be in a permanent display in Brooklyn Museum of Art.

During summer I wanted to dive in to the abstract work and wanted to see what I would come out with. I would get a canvas and would layer paint over each other. I would then swipe away layers of the paint away using a screen print swiper.

Like I said in a previous post I came away from this experiment with 4 paintings that I liked above the rest. Two of them was in the Winter blues 2011 Gallery show in liverpool and the other two ("Apox" below and "Obsidian" bottom) are the others that I feel strongly about.


So with summer and a sense of adventure. My friend and fellow artist Sam (Allofusarelost), I took to the street on what could we find. It was a spare of the moment adventure and armed with a bottle watered down poster paint and some wheat pastes we set out on our cruisers.
We found a park and ride that have not been use for years and a rail way bridge. The bridge seems to be a hot spot for graffiti. You have your everyday crappy Blar Blar waz ere crap but there was also some decent street art there. People had been there with rollers and brushers to create their art.
To see what else I have been doing in the last 8 months I will be posting more posts on here and my tumblr. www.zephyrbaby.tumblr.com

Toys Toys Toys

This summer having a bit of time on my hands from been made redundant I thought I would do a couple of custom designer art toys. 8" Munny with Dunny ears and a couple of the new animal custom toys brought out by Kidrobot.

Winter Blues 2011

Been a long time since I have posted anything for DP so I'm kicking off with one of the latest art shows that I took part it. The show was at The Egg Cafe gallery in Liverpool. For this show I submitted two pieces that I did during the summer before. I thought i would dive in to the world of abstract art. I wanted to create a visual piece with out using a brush.

I would get the paper or the canvas I was using and spread layers of paint on them. I would take a screen printing swiper and swipe layers of paint away. I would use acrylic paints but I would also make my own medium of paint by watering down liquid latex and then add certain inks and tea. I came out with some amazing colours.

The show it self went really well. There was a big turn out and a lot of people to speak to. This was the first show that I attended by myself and not know any one. The two pieces were Matterhorn's Campfire (image above) and Largeman's abyss (Image below). Named after a book and a film.

I wrote what happened on my tumblr at the show : -

Last Thursday (24th November) was the opening night for the Winter blues art show. Tho this would of been the 4th art show I would of been in this year, it’ll be the first one that I would of bothered to attended to. Not that the other shows where not worth going to, I just had other things on the nights that they were opening on. So with this in mind I sent out the word about the show and tried to form a band of people to go with. But it seems they where all busy or they did the cool kid Hollywood thing of “get your people to call my people.” Bunch of phonies getting worse each day. Determined to go I set out in to the windy night armed with a copy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Hoped on the Liverpool train. Normally this ride is full of noisy people or theres at least one drunk. Tonight tho it was like a ghost train. No one in my carriage. Gave me time tho to start my book.

I arrived at the show a bit late. 15 Minutes, my thought was I don’t want to get there on the dot and no one else be there. Out side the building there was a couple smoking. “Well at least people turned up” I said in my head. Nothing worse then no one to turn up to a show that your part off. Climbed the spiral stair case the top floor where the show was taking part. I open the door and walk through.

I was greeted with a room full of people. Bit of a mixture of panic and excitement. What caught my eye tho was a woman pointing at a wall of paintings and been in a bit of a state. To make her worse she dropped her Iphone and cracked the glass screen. I seated myself a couple of tables down and sat in the middle of one of the big tables. Thought this way I could here what was going on with the woman but also I could over hear what other people thought about the show. After ordering some food and get a cup of tea in I came back to my seat and opened my book up again. But the woman was still going on. After doing a bit of ease dropping I over heard why she was going on to her husband. She was another artist taking part in the show. She had a problem with that her paintings had been split up on the wall which they were displayed on. Another painting had been put up in-between hers. I looked up and staring at the painting that had split hers up. It was one of mine. This actually made my night. Not that I’m a bad person… well I hope that I don’t come across as one but I thought “At least one of my paintings has made a impression on some one, good or bad I’ll take it.” At this point I was smirking away.

Food came and I was trying to do the hipster look of reading a old school sci-fi book whilst eating food and not giving a dam what other people thought of me. In my head I pulled it off. Finishing my food I had a walk around to see the other pieces of art in the show. I tend to get to be a critical bastard when it comes to other peoples art work. If it doesn’t interest me at all I’ll over look it or just think nothing of it. I guess thats a bastard thing to do and not in the spirit of things but what can you do? Some one who I did like was a piece by Hazel Mutch. She had painted blades of grass with inks. Impressed that she had used inks to a great effect. I have tried in the past countless times to use ink in my work. I just can’t seem to get blends right. So kudos to you I thought.

I never know how much to price my art work. With me still been a struggling artist still trying to make a name for myself you can’t really charge much for your paintings. If the painting is good enough people will pay. Well that’s what I’m told. Having a look around there was prints of peoples work. Nothing wrong with this but I always think you could put the original up for show but then have a note to say “prints on sale not original”. The prices that these people wanted tho was going in to the £££. So ridiculous to think your going to get that money for a print at a small art show. My paintings are only going for £50/60 each. I have only paid £95 for a Sam Flores print once, who is a well known artist in L.A. All other prints were around £40-60, but it’s there call on the price.

I returned to my seat and ordered another pot of tea. After sitting of for a while I over heard a woman say “Zephyrbaby thats a fancy name.” I tend not to say who I am when people mention me. I like to see what they say about me not knowing who I was. It seems for this show people enjoyed one of my paintings more then the other. I only entered two for this show. Largeman’s Abyss and Matterhorn Campfire. Largeman’s Abyss was named after the film “Garden state”. While Matterhorn Campfire was named after a chapter in the book “Dharma Bums” by Jack Kerouac. Matterhorn Campfire was the one pulling in the most people. I decided to get up and hover around it. There was other paintings near it so I decided to have a close look at them. What I could hear people liked the colours used and how it seemed to be painted (it was put in the description that i hadn’t used a brush and i guess people were trying to guess what i had used instead). I went over to the organisers of the show to have a chat. They said that my painting has got some good comments about it. I was pleased with this.. well who wouldn’t.

I finished off my cup of tea and decided to call it a night. Pretty successful I thought. Good comments and good food. Got the train back then called a taxi at the station for home. By this time the heavens had opened up and the walk home didn’t look to inviting.