Upcoming work/Ideas

I have been trying to get back into the studio and I have this very specific couple of ideas that I want to get to- One of them is an image of the Lovers card from the Tarot deck, specifically the Ryder set.

Like all of the cards, there is a great deal of stuff going on in the picture, I want to play with that a bit.  

Not that I know much about the Tarot deck. 

Back in the 90s though, I was back in school for my masters at the now defunct Bretton Hall University, my room mate, the good Stephanie (long story) was working on these large paintings of deck, creating her own interpretations of them. I don't have any images of her work but I do have some sketches I made during these epic late night drawing sessions ( she would routinely dye her hair with greens and reds from this brand Manic Panic -Live fast and Dye-your hair  It stuck with me. All fuelled by consuming large quantities of chocolate covered espresso beans, me with my long hair....It is right out of an episode of Portlandia) Here are some of those drawing/paintings-

We emailed recently, and neither of us has had a chocolate covered espresso bean since.

Monotypes

The prints were made in 2000, when I went back to my university for my graduation ceremony. I was not supposed to be using the facilities as I was all but graduated so it devolved into a cat and mouse game of me printing then hiding when the head of the program was looking for me. They would go around the studio centre, I'd grab my stuff from where I hid them, and make another print.

A tad bizarre process really. I'm trying to make prints about solace, loneliness and longing and I'm running around like a 5 year old, cutting shapes out and planning images in my head as I would hide in individual studios, washrooms etc.

Etching

This is the first update in a number of months, I thought I would start with some etchings from a few years back. They were done when I came back to my studio in Yorkshire after a hideous bus trip to Amsterdam.
This image is of night, somewhere in France or Belgium. I used a rag to daube extra ink onto the plate for a painterly effect, whose un-reproduceable qualities make it a Variable Print.Basically, its a method of adjusting the amount of ink on the surface of the etching plate to create the dramatic atmospheric effect. This place was dark and forlorn and made all the more so by a bunch of techno-kids who pulled up in a VW golf, all loaded up on uppers. It was the Gend'arme and their dogs that scared everyone the most. Even though the techno boys were wearing cowboy hats in Europe.

To illustrate the technique, this image is more or less a straight print.


This is the same etching with "inky effects" This is the Lieddeseplan Square on the edge of the Red Light district where i stayed at the crappy Bull Dog cafe in 1992. What a dump, the guy in the bed beside me held back vomiting for 3 hours from 6am till 9am and then went back to the bar to stay drunk.
I was walking by this place in 1999 in the aforementioned bus ride and was struck by panic to see the place again.I decided to sit and draw the passers by.