the [aftermath]

Photos of some of the exhibits. . .more to come

The preview night was fun, met up with some creative guys, a few contacts made and thoroughly enjoyable night. The nerves came when I was on the bus over and like any performer, these go as soon as the curtain came up. The audience came in quite slow at first but the gig got going with Nu-Funk and Soul from the Trailer Trash crew. All in all there is a fine selection of work, very illustrative and well-to-do. A surprisingly wide bunch of ideas and outcomes. The A0 Stray Dogs series are quite something else though...kind of cathedralesque. My work looked good within it's space and had a good vibe about it.

The gallery is going to be open for the whole of September and hopefully we will sell what is on offer...we just need the people of Burnley to empty their pockets and buy some original work. I'm offering seventy for each of mine and a fiver for the unframed prints. We all went to the Bridge after and had a drinkie with the exhibitors and some guests. Andrea came a little late but apologised...I think she had a good night, she seemed happy enough.

15 LPs in 15 Minutes

As a response to a Facebook message I hi-jacked; late, late last night...


1|Frank Zappa...Live at Filmore East:
A fun record to listen to and just for 'Tears began To Fall' alone.

2|Stereolab...Mars Audiac Quintet
The turning point in my audio pleasure and still makes me fuzzy inside.

3|Mogwai...Rock Action
A band grows up and makes a pop album.

4|The Lynnfield Pioneers...Free PopCorn
Unknown band to me until 3.30pm yesterday and now is my favourite album at the moment.

5|The Beastie Boys...Ill Communication
Hardcore, Jazz, Hip-Hop and Funk rolled up in neat little package

6|The Aphex Twin...I Care Because You Do
Could've chosen Drugks but this has a special place in my heart

7|Neu!...Neu!
An influence to many how care and to many who don't.

8|Slayer...Reign In Blood
The first album I bought when I was a wee nipper.

9|New Order...Power, Corruption and Lies
Worth the black eye when I stole it off my big brother when a teenaged oik.

10|Kitsune Three...Compilation
A bumper LP with much goodies that a stick can be shook at.

11|The Damned...The Damned
The first punk album released and is still fresh heard today.

12|Natural Born Killers...OST
Not just a soundtrack but a mixtape form a good friend.

13|Everything, Everything...Man Alive
Something compelling about the band and good live to boot.

14|Bis...The New Transistor Heroes
Lo-Fi Disco Punk from Scotland that still gets aired regularly in the kitchen...A forgotten gem...

15|Throbbing Gristle...TG1
Blew my mind on the first hearing an aural masterpiece.

This was so hard to do and I know that I have left out a great deal...15 albums to choose over a lifespan is just too tragic to comprehend...[o_O]

biz cards

These were designed and made up late last night and are very LO-FI.

Tonight is the Exhibition Night

It is on... The opening night is this night. Start From Scratch will opening it's doors at 6pm and the masses are going to descend. There are at least twenty of us exhibiting and that IS value for money. I paid a visit to the gallery space yesterday and the venue is well ample enough for what is planned. DeeJays are from 'Trailer Trash' so the sounds will be funky.

I have priced up the prints at £70- each and assorted prints for a fiver so I'll recoup costs of the prints. Most of the artwork is of the illustrative type with canvases, mirror-work and other graffiti-type pieces. It does look good and is what a small ex cotton mill needs for it's town centre.

I have made 26 goodie bags that I will give free which includes:

three photographs,
double-sided business cards
a bag of Haribo sweeties
and a clothing peg.

The contents of the bag do appear random but they are included for reasons of which I'll explain;

The photographs are to show the build-up of the final three prints and to further explain the concept in imagery instead of wording. The business cards are self-explanatory, the sweets are to enhance the sensory receptors. And the clothing peg, something to remind the recipient of me and my artwork.

So it is on...the exhibition starts at 6pm.

CREATIVE TRANSIT [invite]

=============================================
This is just the preliminary layout design. The text are templates for tiles that my friend is kindly going cut for me.

START FROM SCRATCH [invite]

Countdown for [start from scratch]

It is now Monday the 6th of September and in just a few days which will be Friday 10th September; I will be involved in one of my first exhibitions that is organised outside of an educational facility. This is the first of the exhibitions that I will be involved with this month and in October. By sheer luck and guts and of course a fair amount of networking allowed me to go as far as I have. I wasn't just three months ago that I bumped into a stall holder at BeatHerder and began talking about Polaroids, Tee-Shirt designs and Graffiti appreciation that got this ball rolling.

Start From Scratch will start for me on Friday at 6pm and end the morning after a private party at Koko's. This is a great opportunity to networking and make friends with fellow artists, musicians and the like. I have a guest list with names that I have added for moral support. Andrea and her boyfriend, Charlie and Chrissy are coming and hopefully Neil [recordshop owner guy] will be there.

I have printed the large scale Polaroids at a professional company and they look fantastic now that they are mounted and framed at a little lace called [tilt]. tilt has customised three frames at cost price and he also mounted and framed the two digital prints that I am displaying at Free For Arts. I need to settle on a pricing system now that it is getting serious. I obviously have to recoup my costs, make some profit and pay the commission to the curator/gallery owner. For the framed photographs (in Burnley-Start From Scratch), I will have to charge in the region of £75- each...they are supposed to be a triptych but who knows. The Adidas five piece are lovely and can be sold individually for £10- each...

I had a meeting this afternoon with James Moffat, the leader of the Mute-Free For Arts exhibition where we talked about the venue, spaces, limitations and set pieces. It was a balls-up at first though with the venue being closed for the inspection that was going to take place but we had a comfy chat and generally got to know each other.

The third exhibition is the Collective Vision v's Creative Transit show. My set pieces are framed and ready to go. They do look good and I am quite proud with what I've achieved and reckon the concept is spot on. University starts in two weeks and that is going to be a social stirrer