of others: saul steinberg

Image © Saul Steinberg

Image © Saul Steinberg

Image © Saul Steinberg

Image © Saul Steinberg

Knew them, but hadn't ever put a name to them.

Great.

the victor

A gift. 
We like the inset images.

i live by the sea

Amended Decca sea chart, 4th February 1972.

tricky linguistics

Thanks to S for this. Funny and intelligent.

And while we're thinking about intelligent, go here to listen to Nicole Krauss talking about music and writing in Private Passions on Radio 3. Available for 6 days from now. Thanks for the tip off J.

feathers, wing, beak

Terns

Cormorant & Shag

Gulls

wrap

When I was studying for my Masters in London years ago, a really good friend sent me a parcel to the RCA and I was called to come down and collect it from the post room. The box was large wrapped in amazing hand block-printed flowery paper and had been much battered in transit. I was having a particularly hard time with my work at that point - and not alone in that - and so when I lugged the parcel back to my studio, I was quickly surrounded by intrigued friends. The box contained all sorts of things from second hand clothes to Russian sweets in garish floral boxes. All of it wrapped with care and love. The box spread a bit of joy to us all in that studio that day and really brought home the fact that you can spread quite a lot of good feeling via the mail.

That same friend and I met on a German exchange at the age of 14 and since the first day we've written copious letters to one another, always spending inordinate amounts of time creating individual handmade envelopes for one another. For a while I even thought I might set up a stationery business.

Wrapping stuff now seems to take as much consideration and time as the things the paper and ribbon contain. I like that the packaging is fleeting but I've started to wonder whether I ought to keep some sort of record, not because they're all really marvelous, but because they represent a volume of love.

I'm even thinking that come the holidays I might try to update my website again and have a page where you can download wrapping paper designs that I've made. Another good intention…

the seafarers part two

More images for The Observer's Book of Ships.

fait accompli

Work all up. Rogue hairs pulled out of frames. Everything pretty much straight. Private view nicely calm. Well done everyone.

the seafarers

Some beautiful little illustrations from The Observer's Book of Ships.

the art of lost words

Inergetical © Andy Smith

'A playful exploration of the relationship between language and image, The Art of Lost Words invites artists, designers and illustrators to create artworks inspired by endangered words from the past. Their imaginative responses reflect the diversity of media in which they create, from animation to handmade books and posters.'

I'll be showing my project In Absentia.

To find out more about The Art of Lost Words, read the Creative Review Blog and visit the text/gallery website.

From Saturday 19th March to Thursday 28th April, at Peninsula Arts.

Monday-Friday 10:00am-5:00pm, Saturday 11:00am-4:00pm (closed over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend)

Peninsula Arts

University of Plymouth

Roland Levinsky Building

Drake Circus

Plymouth

PL4 8AA

two nautical welcomes

 

 

blue skies + blossoms

 

studies in indirect communication vol. xxxvi: imbroglio part 2

I had to stop myself drawing in the end.

Relaxing, but at some point you have to ask yourself if there's maybe something better to do with your time. Particularly when you're stumbling over a myriad of other deadlines.

birds on birds / cats on birds

 

 

Birds on birds on tvs

Cats on birds on walls

of others: simon starling

300:1 (After Wilhelm Wagenfeld) © Simon Starling

300:1 (After Wilhelm Wagenfeld) © Simon Starling

La Source (Demi Teinte) © Simon Starling

Took some time out to visit the Simon Starling show at Tate St Ives last weekend. Could have been the work, but it could also have been a lot to do with the company and the wild winds and the deserted town and beaches, but for whatever reason, it was perfect.

Fell in love with the second room of works examining the Cornish chalk industry via a collection of prints, photographs, objects and films all linked by both material and context. But have put up here some images from two of Starling's projects that explore the half-tone. Could almost bring my graphics students here by way of a demonstration of how the half-tone works. 

The top two images depict 300:1 (After Wilhelm Wagenfeld), this being the piece on show at Tate. Starling's taken half-tone archival photographs of glassware designed by Wagenfeld as a starting point (linking Modernist aesthetics back to the artistic history of St Ives). In punching each image through with a pin to place it on the wall, by dint of arrangement, he selects one dot that makes up the half-tone of the image. The blacker the tone of the image is, the larger the dot has to be to create this effect. This is then converted into a sculptural form by enlarging the dot by 300 percent and creating a hand-blown glass sphere at the correct size. Photos have a varying numbers of pins depending on their size, and therefore a varying number of spheres.

The bottom image shows what happens if you recreate a flat tonal image using a similar process.

I just wish I could explain it better - but I'm sleepy and it's time for bed.

indirect communication at 50 mph

'driving back last weekend there was a wonderful speech bubble on a motorway signboard. It seemed to be malfunctioning, the pixel effect much larger than usual, and in 3 shades against the black background the led lights formed a rectangle in grey, then a single grey green light in the bottom left outside the rectangle and a single bright orange light within the rectangle itself.'

Image and words from J the other morning. 
It's lovely to know that people think about what you're doing from time to time.
Thank you.

first of the day

These spring days deserve splendid sea swims and breakfasts.

song for a corpus: the darkest place i know

I've been collecting songs about light and shade for some time now.

This is one of them.
And it sits with its feet in both camps: light tone, dark title.

light

 

  

Working all day in my studio yesterday apart from a quick sejourn to the framers.

And basked in this pretty much the entire time.

Spring really is here.

studies in indirect communication vol. xxxv: imbroglio

Drawing in process.

Click on the images to see bigger.