Art from the New World - Sneaky Peak @Bristol_Museum

The shows looking great.  Gary Baseman's characters getting some practice in. And lots of smiley people. Press morning at the museum.

Buffmonster being interviewed by the BBC.

One of Gary Basemans girls.

Double sided book installation by Mike Stilkey, greeting you in the foyer of the museum.

Stunning work from Colin Christian.

Bring your credit cards - merchandise.

Even more merchandise.

Awesome double headed diamond dog sculpture (just seen in the distance - apologies for Iphone quality pix).


The show looks really great, it's so nice not having to travel to London to see this sort of quality of work.  For me there is a couple of artists work I really would of liked to see (uh hum...Frank Kozik, Tara McPherson, Ashley Wood, Glenn Barr), but I presume that is because they're tied in with other galleries. Or don't need the coverage.


Incidentally my interview with the lovely Mike Stilkey will be featured later on in this blog.


To see some better quality pictures of the work shown see Cool Huntings notice.

@Bristol_museum Start of Mike Stilkey installation #aftnw

Met the lovely Mike Stilkey today who's starting work on his book
painting installation in the foyer of the Bristol Museum. Very
exciting. As is the Buffmonster in the main museum (but my picture is
of a blank wall), so I didn't include it. Hoping to post an interview
soon.

Having a Retro Moment in the road

AnyForty - Versus Exhibition

The dynamic colour work of Matt W Moore (MWM Graphics) - he who was mentioned a couple of blog posts ago, has work heading to the UK for an exciting exhibition put on by AnyForty at an undisclosed Bristol venue.  Minimal details have been released, but its all looking exciting.

So this summer is already looking good with 'Art from the New World', and some promising exhibitions on the horizon from our favourite street art galleries. And since when has Bristol become the art capital of f...whatever?  This is Bristol - rumoured to be twinned with Jamaica. Maybe Bristol's finally grown up.

Joe Sorren - Painting in progress

I like a bit of 'process', as clearly the last post has demonstrated. So to continue on this theme and with another artist from the upcoming 'Art from the New World' exhibition, here is Joe Sorren's progress on a 'The Overture' from his blog. To see the full progress - go to Joe's blog.

Mark Ryden painting 'Incarnation' on time lapse

In preparation for 'Art of the New World' at the Bristol Museum - this is one of the featured artists, and a fantastic look at Mark Ryden painting a recent piece for the Gay 90's exhibition in New York, (April 29th 2010). 

Cheo at the Deaner

IT Crowd

The wonderful IT Crowd has started filming again and from what I understand my Lucky Luchies are still in the realm of Moss and Roy (up on a shelf). V cited, especially as Graham Linehan has some more special guests in the show (Kevin Eldon and Limmy).

This pic is from a recently twittered on-set image by ITCrowdsupport

New Organisational Purchase :)

Kate MccGwire

I've seen Kate MccGwire's work mentioned in a couple of blogs recently - and could not fail to be knocked out by it.  It's made a 2nd time appearance in the Juxtapoz blog, and I just felt the need to share the love. 

Just breathless.

I could drone on like a love-sick teenager - but I think it just speaks for itself.

Natural Warmth, Knitting and a Belgian Gas Commerical

Life on the Croft - The tale of Ron, Squidgy and the mean dog warden

I see these guys alot on the Croft.

Exit poster

Large Banksy film posters are all over the tube in London. Someone's
putting alot of money behind this film.

I've gone to heaven

The Specials win an award at the NME awards.

Matt W Moore

Colourful discovery - Matt W Moore.

I just love this page on his website MWMGraphics - which covers you in waves of colour.

MWM : CRYSTALS & LASERS
Since.Upian Gallery - ROJO Artspace Network
211 Rue Saint Maur - Paris, France

From his site:
"An ambitious creative spirit, MWM (Matt W. Moore) has traveled to Paris for one month to prepare, from scratch, for his first Paris Solo-Exhibition. He arrived with no art, no supplies, and no firm plan for this new series of canvas paintings. The ideas for the artworks have actualized while processing time spent absorbing French Culture, exploring the City Of Lights, the vibrant colors, the exaggerated geometry, and the diverse architecture and fashion of Paris.

These paintings were created entirely with spray paint, one of Matt's favorite mediums. But the designs are very clean, and appear almost digital in their precise details and craft. An honest, analog attempt to achieve the same depth and abstract geometry of his digital "Vectorfunk" style. The goal with each work is to have the viewers eye fall into the piece and get lost in the optical illusions, trying to figure out what is up, down, left, and right."

Geeking out with Futura 2000

ALIEN ASSAULT RIFLES COURTESY OF LENNY MCGURR & LEGO. from tabatha mcgurr on Vimeo.

This reminds me that I really need to make that felt At-At.

Made

A little christmas present I made for someone special - a Helvetica 'S'

The Journey Home

I love this journey home for so many reasons.

For Lee in the clouds x

Good Creative Business Advice

I read this and thought that this was great advice, even though it is clearly about ceramics, it can definitely be applied to a lot of my fellow creatives.

It's from Whitney Smith's blog, who creates the most beautiful ceramics which you can buy on Etsy. She tells it like it is, which is great, because sometimes you need to know you're not always going to get nice customers and your work won't always come out perfectly.

"received an email the other day:
It has always been my dream to start my own pottery business. Hoping to do that in the next couple years. Any advice?

My first thought was to just send this person to my blog, but then I thought it might be hard-- even with my half-assed tags-- to ferret out the advice amongst the bitching, crying, and general angst that my posts are usually engaged in. A rational person would walk away from my blog realizing that they do not want to start a pottery business, but ceramic artists are not rational people, at least not when it comes to clay. Look, we take mud and turn it into a freaking cup, so many of us have this idea that we can do anything we put our minds to. Ceramic artists have wills made of steel.

So I thought about it-- what would I advise someone who wants to start a business in making clay objects and then sell them? I made a list.

#1- Get a mentor. Find a successful clay artist and ask them to be your guide, teacher, and mentor. If possible, work for them. When I was first learning how to make pottery, I landed a job with ceramic artist Sandi Dihl. She is a successful artist who has been supporting herself with her work for decades. I leapfrogged ahead in my career by many years because I learned from her firsthand what it took to run a business. What to do, and sometimes just as importantly, what not to do.

#2- Don't sell mediocre work just because you can. A quick peek through etsy will show you that there are many people making unexceptional pottery, and selling it. Don't add to that pile, it is not the path to distinguishing yourself. Brutally assess your work. Find other people whose opinions you trust to brutally assess your work. Make something special that shows who you are and hone that talent before putting yourself in the marketplace.

#3- Realize that when you make pottery for a living, you are sacrificing a part of yourself for money. Every artist struggles with this, and every person who wishes to survive in our society must do this, so don't fool yourself that because you are an artist you can skip by. If you are running a ceramics business, then ceramics is your job. Maybe your dream job, but still a job. I've spent years cycling in and out of burnout and psychological stress from running my art as a business. Recognize that you will need outlets to help balance your life, and put them into place.

#4- Create a support network for yourself of other artists and creative types so that you can struggle and learn together, give each other advice, cry on each others shoulder, and critique and advise one another. Your mother, best friend, and significant other can't do it all for you.

#5- Don't eff up the business end of things, and don't spend one second telling yourself that you are an artist, not a businessperson. If you want to be successful, you must be both. Get interested in running the numbers. Learn quickbooks. Read small business blogs that specialize in the arts. When you are done reading this paragraph, read it again and replace the word "business" with "marketing". Then get interested in promoting yourself. Learn how to use social media and avail yourself of all the online tools that are out there.

If you've been keeping up this week then you may notice a theme developing. I promise to take each point from above and write more extensively about it in the coming weeks, and as usual, some feedback from my readers to keep me on track is always helpful!

Crazybusy at the Droplet do at 50/50

Crazybusy in Bristol this weekend, Sickboy, Droplet launch and Cheo. Managed all too (a long evening that ended with the odd Alco-milkshake (don't ask).

Anyways, here's the 50/50 Gallery and the Droplet Launch pix.