PICTURE iv

OF THE DAY



Harking back to familiar territory here. But isn't that what its all about?

SCHEDULE

IF I HAD TIME AND MONEY THIS IS WHAT I WOULD BE ATTENDING

Two exciting collections of contemporary art are being shown at the current time. Although I am unable to attend them myself I thought I'd spread the word. First up is a group exhibition featuring the work of Hayley Goodsell, who is showing the ever enigmatic interactive piece 'Jay and Terri'.



The two telephones offer two separate looped telephone conversations where the artist has contacted a sex line. In a deeply personal and insightful conversation the listeners find themselves exploring their voyeuristic side, often awkward but always humorous. The monolithic installation acts as a beacon, drawing two strangers in a shared experience to the separate telephones, performing the everyday act with unexpected consequences.

I'd love to see how this installation works in the space of the contemporary gallery. I'm sure the curators have done a great job in their selection process and give this exhibit work to play against in the exhibition space.

The show is called SALON08 an held in the VINEspace gallery in Bethnal Green, London. See the websitefor more information. Running from 4th Dec - 21st Dec.

The second show I would love to attend is the opening of a gallery space near Manchester by two up and coming artists Oliver Irvine and Amy Thomas. They have transformed a three-story high street building into an installation space as a temporary project until they progress to a residency program in China in the coming year.

The Gallery has not yet opened but from the website there appears to be a great variety of work on display, and I expect some performance perhaps on the opening night. There are a number of similarities in my work and the work of these two artists, both finding romance in the themes of post-apocalypse and isolation.



The Gallery, entitled 'Atoi Arts', opens on the 13th of December. For more information, images and location please see the website.

GIRLS

GAMES

Possibly the funniest thing I've seen in a while is this advertisement for a sexy girl gamer website.

Now I know girls play games as well as guys do, right? I don't think I've seen anyone, guy or girl, who loves Nintendo as much as we are led to believe...

404

SOME PEOPLE JUST KNOW HOW TO DO IT



From the website of photographer Dan Ponting. This image made me laugh so much, and then I realised Dan had put quite a bit of work into making it look this good. Photoshop ninja. Congrats Dan and I hope the website is up and running again soon.

PICTURE iii

OF THE DAY

Another image from a new landscape series I am working on.
Enjoy!

GAME ADVERTISEMENTS

SHOULD HAVE MORE RAPPING IN THEM

Not exactly 'news' but hilarious all the same.

PICTURE ii

OF THE DAY

PICTURE

OF THE DAY

TEAM FORTRESS

CLASSIC?

Its been pretty quiet for me recently and I've made this new map for the very old Team Fortress Classic game that I still play from time to time. I'm  already getting some great feedback from it and its a great fun fast map to play. 

Very traditional TFC. Its not trying to be clever like TF2.

Anyone is interested you can download it from a number of the mapping websites like FPS Banana.

Here are a few images if you just want a peek:

WESTON

Super Mare

Some images of the exhibition in Weston Super Mare, at the Lloyd Gill Gallery. There are more images of the rest of the work on show on the website.






The paintings are for sale, and if interested please contact the Gallery Director, Lloyd Gill, or the artist, Jason Rouse. The exhibition runs until the first week of October, so still plenty of time to get there and view the rest of the work. Amongst others there are some fantastic pieces by Fred Schimmelschidt, semi-abstract forms referencing areas of science to create unusual and contemporary paintings. Check the website for the rest of them, and it is well worth visiting the show if you can to see them in the gallery space.

PUBLICITY

Weston Super Mare

Its been a good fun time recently with the group show in Weston Super Mare getting quite a lot of media coverage. This has been a great stroking of my ego, especially after the fiasco with London Baggage damaging several of my paintings in transit. More photos of the exhibition coming soon, but first some clippings:

(I'm so chuffed to actually have press clippings)

YESTERYEAR

AND YESTERYEAR AND YESTERYEAR

Some excitement folks! Lots happening recently! Will elaborate in a while but first the excitement will be focussed on a review of the Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow exhibition in Nottingham:

Metro Review

Reviewed for Metro by Wayne Burrows. Have a look its a great read! I'm just happy to have a bit of press coverage as the show wasn't greatly advertised or anything (there were a few flyers in a handful of record shops-it must have worked though). Actually I'm glad its been written about as that means someone was definitely there. Which was questionable.

Pretty harsh review but hey I think I like it.

Website of Wayne Burrows as I figured I'd like to know who be writing about me and on what merit. Guy also writes poems. Good for him-I wish him all the best with it in the future.

In other news I have just found out that I was chosen as one of the top ten student artists by the Saatchi Online Magazine Editor (Rebecca Wilson) along with none other than Al Pritchard, who had show his 'Doom' video at the Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow exhibition.

Just returned from Weston Super Mare from my exhibition at the Lloyd Gill Gallery- More information and photographs to come soon but its really been a great experience and the paintings look fantastic in the gallery. Will post more info at a later date. Seems things are looking up for a change. Watch this space for details from my latest show...

TRAVEL

Further Adventures in the world of Art

Well I should be off to England again tomorrow to prepare for a show in Weston Super Mare next week. It opens in seven days-I can hardly wait.

Hope this one goes as well as my previous exhibitions this year, and it is quite exciting to be exhibiting as a graduate (artist). Still, unemployment really sucks!

Hope Ryanair wont screw me over again, I hate flying with them-they really aren't that cheap and you feel so violated flying with them. WTF-what other airline tries to sell you scratchcards mid-flight? And the constant abuse of the airplane's P.A. to advertise their shitty cheap booze.

Well I'm stuck with them for the time being. Beggars cant be choosers, especially when the price of oil keeps escalating (Zoom airlines, anyone?)

Picture of the day is something I found on eBay and it makes me piss my pants laughing everytime I see it. Enjoy

DAMAGED

The joys of shipping large paintings

Well I finally got my paintings after they had been in shipping for two months. I've just unpacked them and they all are damaged in some way or another. They seem to have been shipped by a group of elephants.

I wouldn't mind but the select few paintings I had salvaged and had paid a ridiculous amount of money to be shipped overseas are going to end up in the skip just like the 90% of my work from the last three years, which I could have done without paying someone to destroy them anyway.

The worst off is Watchtower I (Double Cross), which sadly, was one of my favorites. There is a massive hole kicked through the middle. I'd post a photo but I'm too broken.

That brings me down to having two paintings left- Outpost II (Lighthouse) and Outpost IV (Bridge), which luckily will be exhibited at the Lloyd Gill gallery in Weston Super Mare on the 6th of September. If they don't get damaged in transit. See you there...

TOMORROW

And Tomorrow and tomorrow

I have some images of the exhibition in Nottingham curated by Danny Griffin. Photographs are by Dan Ponting (which I have stolen)





Show last until the 30th and is hosted in the Arts Organisation by the railway station. If you are interested in viewing some exciting new work from a variety of artists drop by, as these images online don't do the exhibition justice.

In other news, I have another group exhibition in Weston Super Mare, entitled 'The Future of Contemporary Art' and held in the Lloyd Gill Gallery. The flyer is below with more information and featuring Outpost IV (Bridge) amongst other artist's work.

MORE

More to come.

Ive recently exhibited in the Truman Brewery in London as part of the Free Range festival. The whole exhibition went very well and I had a great time in London seeing all the other graduates work. Sometimes I reckon its more important to keep an eye on what other people your age are making than any other contemporary artist.

Some photos of that show to arrive soon.

Two more exhibitions coming up soon. The first of which is 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow' at the station centre in Nottingham. The opening is on monday the 11th of August so if you are able feel free to arrive and enjoy free wine.

Here is a flyer for it



I have been working on some new Skyboxes for this show, as you can see from the flyer. These ones have been inspired by the kitsch nature of German Romantic painting and the notion of finding religion in invented landscapes. The images are computer generated parodies with a tongue in cheek approach. Have a look below and make up your own mind...

Half-Life at the Holborne

'If Gordon Freeman was a Painter'


Well I have some paintings in the stairwell in the Holborne Museum of Art in Bath. They look pretty good in the historical context of the museum and I'm very happy to have been part of the exhibition there.

The paintings are of two military installations, and the contemporary themes are juxtaposed well, probably more so than if they were my more traditional looking landscapes.

I took a few quick photographs on my phone





If anyone in Bath/Bristol able to get a look please do

DEATHMAPS

Unusual Half Life 2 maps with visualised player death stats

I've stumbled across some very interesting statistics gathered by STEAM from some of their games. Obviously they keep statistics on who is playing online so people can check their ranks etc but I had no idea that they kept stats on players during the game. Hmmm...

Still, they produce some excellent, if slightly haunting images. For example, there appears to be a high death count around a cliff, obviously a number of suicidal players out there.





I just have to do something with these images...!

Watch this space

FORTHCOMING

Here are some images taken on my phone of two paintings completed this week.

Both paintings are typical of my eerie empty landscapes taken from Half-Life 2. The paint equates to reality in the eye of the spectator and through painting these images they become more real than the source that they came from. They also relate to historical painting but approach the nature of paint from a contemporary perspective.




Expect some better photographs on my website in the forthcoming weeks.


These will probably be the last paintings I'll be doing for a while.

SKYBOX

Some new work based on skyboxes in computer games.

Basically the skybox is a six sided cube that is created around the game environment to give the illusion of the surrounding area being larger than it actually is. Therefore, many of such skyboxes don't include foreground detail.

What I have been doing is drawing references to romantic painting and creating (some ridiculous) panoramas based on four of the six panels of the skybox (minus the top and bottom). Without the foreground the landscape details such as mountain areas often disappear into hazy lakes or Friedrichesque mist.

Click for full image...

CLIMAX

The Picture of Dorian Gray and... well, Starwing.

Having never before completed Starwing (SNES, 1993) I was amazed at how the end boss employed different 3D technology to the rest of the game. You see, the entire game engine renders wireframe shapes with basic coloured flat textures, whereas the end boss is the only thing that has a full colour texture wrapped around its wireframe. The sudden split in technology gave me quite a shock, and it truly made getting to the end of the game worthwhile.

This brought to mind the 1945 adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, where the film is in black and white up until the final scene, when the painting is revealed in its terrifying colour.

An unusual comparison, yes, but I have always been interested in such changes in technology and how they can be manipulated.







Yes, I get all my info from Wikipedia.

OVERTURE

No better time than the present to begin

Well it seems like I have now broken all the macs in the library. Im still here cause Im getting paid to do so, seems pretty good if Im just watching one hit wonder music videos from the eighties.

although the comments for this particular video do lead to some level of distrust for people being able to speak their minds on the internet...

"tasha first get in bed with your gay boyfriend get on a tredmill and listen to all the music between 1960 - 90 then well talk and call u a bitch even more"

...I am undeterred regardless.

Styx - Come Sail Away


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