It's Not For Lack Of Trying Boss

NEW BLOG NEW BLOG NEW BLOG NEW BLOG

2009-03-13T23:39:00.002+11:00

www.jiratpatradoon.com/blog

CRISIS

2009-03-12T00:29:00.003+11:00

I've been secretly building and testing out my wordpress blog and actually making posts over there but now my website has exceeded its bandwidth limit for the first time ever and it has closed for business until I can fix it. This blog is my only way to communicate to the interwebetry!

So, this is what is happening:

Thanks to Kim, Will, and Wayland who devoted HOURS UPON HOURS to help me paint the wall. Without their help I would be dead, or still painting, or both!! ?

First Solo Show

2009-01-27T20:57:00.004+11:00

Stranglehold is the first solo exhibition of Sydney based artist James Jirat Patradoon. James continues to explore his take on fantasy hyper-masculinity with screen-printed portraits inspired by slasher movie villains, pro wrestlers, biker gangs, and Elvis.

This series examines notions of deferred masculinities: confused and misdirected rites of passage informed more by cartoons and action heroes than reality itself. Drawn in a style influenced by the comics and cartoons of his youth, James' images of fist-fights and tough-guy bravado consider the idea of violence as the purest form of masculine statement and its integral place in the male mythos.

See more of James' work at www.jiratpatradoon.com

Opening Night
Wednesday 4th Feb 6:00pm
Exhibition continues till 20th Feb.

First Draft Gallery
116-118 Chalmers St
Surry Hills, Sydney
Opening Hours
Wed to Sat 12pm-6pm

National Beasts

2009-01-06T02:03:00.005+11:00

A while ago I posted about winning the First Draft Gallery poster competition - the grand prize being a free show at some point in 2009. The directors got back to me and the only slot available is at the beginning of February, which gives me little over a month to make new work for the show. Not exactly the time frame I had planned for my first solo show but beggars can't be choosers.

I've been spending the holidays trying to wrap up some illustration work and do some new drawings for the show at the same time. I don't even have an invitation sorted out yet, things have been so mega chaotic. I haven't managed to keep a train of thought for longer than a couple of seconds. I am pretty stressed out.

Tough times with the recession also meant I got laid off at work for a month, so the screenprinting studio access that I was relying on to make work for the show is pretty much ruled out, however I do at least have the days free to draw, so it is kind of a blessing in disguise. I am rivetted to know how I will pull this one off. You'll know when I know.

Also I've moved out of the hipster paradise that was Darlinghurst and after a lot of jerking around by real esate agents and landlords, finally found a nice little terrace to move into with some friends in Ultimo right across the road from the Powerhouse Museum and in a good proximity to Hurricanes at Darling Harbour. My new stomping ground will be Chinatown - I am excited to take night-time photo essays of torn up bill posters, crabs in fishtanks, and garbage on the street!

Here are some new years resolutions:
- Go to the beach more often
- Save enough money to move to Paris to live in 2010
- No more coffee
- No more partying on Oxford St
- Get all my suits tailored

I return to work in February, which, funnily enough, will be like a holiday compared to the past couple of months (and the fatal month coming up).

PS The photo of the delicious profiterole stack is meant to offset the blatant negativity of this post. I took the photo whilst waiting in line at the Beard Papa near Shibuya Station, I had about six in one go, they were del-eee-shis!! I have very fond memories of Tokyo!

What I Did In Error I Meant In Jest

2008-11-21T03:36:00.006+11:00

I missed the Trailblazers show to draw this:
I spent a day on the body and a day on the head. I'm not sure if I'm happy with the head, you can only really appreciate it zoomed in so you can see all the cracks in the leather etc. I wanted to present these guys as real ritualistic psychos with their masks hidden away in boxes beneath their beds, bringing them out at night for their gang wars and assaults. The gang is called the Cold Cadavers.

I'm not sure about the mask.

In other news I bought these two books today.

I don't consider myself a collector of many things because I've seen what it can do to people from working in a DVD store for two years. However, when it comes to books I am completely guilt free. I love my books. When I was travelling Japan I shipped over two parcels full of Japanese art books and carried some in my luggage as well. I did the same on my trip to New York. My grandkids are going to have the best fucking collection of books and if they ever sell them my ghost will haunt them till they get every book back.

One book still eludes me though...
It is called The Octagon by the photographer Kevin Lynch. I saw it in a Barnes and Noble in Chelsea, it was the size of a table(around 20x26")and was $7500. It had around 800 portraits of UFC Fighters taken on a Hasselblad. Thank fuck they are finally releasing a smaller version at the end of this year.

A Fish Has No Word For The Sea

2008-11-18T23:46:00.002+11:00

I've been going easy on myself and intentionally trying not to think about making art. It has helped a lot because most of the time I am in a panic mode over what I should be doing next or if I am doing too little etc etc. Most of the time I am stressed out.

A lot of my ideas are becoming clearer, making more sense. I've had a lot of recurring thoughts over the past couple of months not knowing how they relate to each other. I'm writing about them here because it is better than being on a post-it on my desk or another page of scribbles and ramblings in my journal.

When I finished Honours at the end of 2006, the thesis and the work was a culmination of a lot of the ideas I had up until that point. Since then a lot of things have happened to inspire my artm-making and feed my concepts. I would only ever notice how my ideas were developing whenever someone did an interview with me and the questions would be the same but the answers would change slightly over time. A lot of things are the same as before but the concerns over masculinity and violence aren't so much a focal point anymore, instead things have broadened and I am looking at personal identity and fantasy as a whole. Who defines us, what defines us etc.

I've been thinking about plots that occur in people's imaginations, about themselves or about other people - how things like party-photos, myspace, facebook, and 'the scene' drive that sort of thing. Who is interesting? Who isn't? What does this person actually 'do'? What do we think they do? Why do we assume that?

Also things like personal marketing, PR, getting seen, getting published, who's who is the zoo and all that shit. The creative climate. Who do we give a shit about and why? Buzz. The swindle. Sales. Fame.

A metaphor popped in my head the other day of the action figures I used to play with as a child. They were all from different things, Robin Hood, Spiderman, Lego, Transformers etc. yet they all co-existed and we re-appropriated into these stories I would create. In one play session Kevin Costner might team up with Optimus prime to take down Spiderman's castle. In another play session they might all be trapped in a sinking ship. The point being each had their own personal mythology, but the new context of my narratives some characters changed entirely and others stayed the same, depending on how they looked, my personal affinity towards them, or the condition of the figrue.

I was also reading a lot of crossover comics when I was a kid, and in them and I would be concerned about how a character could be completely different in another universe, and how this new universe changed them, they would act and behave differently, be scared. Something at their core may stay the same but the writer may make them weaker in comparison to a stronger hero they ar eteaming up with etc.

At the same time, I was reading the Spiderman clone saga, where there were four 'spidermen'. Eventually Peter Parker had to give up being Spiderman and rotate between four new heroes, one of which already existed that he was kind of doing shifts for. I don't even know how to get into how complex those story arcs got but I read them with nail-biting ferocity, I was deeply affected by this story arc. Everything I experience about my own personal identity or other people's I relate back to this.

I don't know how much sense this makes at the moment but I'm hoping to get some clarity in the coming months and incorporate these things more lucidly into my work, make these machine-men in leather jackets start making some sense instead of just being fashion statements.

When I was minding the end of year show at COFA a couple of ladies asked which works were mine, I pointed to the giant screenprints, they mask "Tsk tsk tsk" sounds and said "...looks like someone should have gotten over cartoons a long time ago." the other said "You ARE in big school now..."

I just smiled, and was kind of confused, and it was summer.

2008-11-17T14:47:00.001+11:00

"Contemporary Art is in a growth stage in terms of the traditional art world taking hold of a new genre of artists, of whom many, coincidentally believe in the accessability of art. Consider a new generation of artists void of institutional art educations and mindsets, having being inspired by Pop Art’s revolution of the 80’s and the likes of Haring and others who went out of their way to see their work spread and available to anyone. This is what the new generation of artists hold as their strength above the traditional art world. The ability to sell their art on tee shirts, or vinyl figures, to promise value in a silkscreen or print, and be generally aware and educated of how to make their name and work, work for them."

- Adam Bryce, Economies of Art & Scale

via SLAMXHYPE

SINGLE POSTER SEEKS SAME

2008-11-13T12:51:00.009+11:00

I won the First Draft Gallery poster competition fundraiser last night with a printer's proof of Ask Anyone And They'll Tell You. The first prize is a show at First Draft in 2009 which is great news because it solves my gallery scouting problem.

One of the judges, Del Kathryn Barton, snatched up the piece, with all proceeds going into the support of First Draft's future.

It will be on till the 15th of November - go buy some posters!
116-118 Chalmers St,  Surry Hills
 open hours:  Wednesday to Saturday  12-6pm

Extra Cheese Phase 2 x James Patradoon x Riddell

2008-11-11T19:21:00.002+11:00

I don't know why I haven't posted these before, this is that helmet I was working on for the Extra Cheese show. I bought it with a pair of shoulder pads as well but the shoulder pads were really small and looked kind of pathetic so I didn't bother painting them. The joys of Ebay.

HARD PRESSED: Contemporary Printmaking

2008-11-10T13:02:00.002+11:00

I am in this show with a bunch of Stupidkrap people and some oldschool printmakers as well. Can't really make it up to Byron to see it first hand but by the sounds of it it should be a really interesting show!

You Know Better Than To Sneak Around Like That

2008-11-07T01:01:00.010+11:00

I've been guilty of some extreme hermeticism over the past couple of weeks, I will show you why:

I got to customise a Jeep Wrangler for Mountain Dew. It will be cruising around Melbourne over the summer!

These are some process images of how I did the IDN Neo New York thing - that random coloured version is when I did the flats and wanted to colour it, after playing with a few colour palettes I decided against it and left it black and white because it felt more brutal and 2000AD that way. The brief was to interpret a day in the life of a futuristic New York and cross that over with a Neo Toyko 2086AD kind of vibe. Naturally I drew a pair of NYC Cops/Power Rangers/Cyborgs/Fighter Pilots. Notice that they get commands from HQ via their belt in the form of ZORDON. That's right...I went there...

You'll find out what this is for soon enough...it is an homage to 90s horror bad guys like The Wishmaster and Candyman.

The gargantuan web update is coming along slowly and getting very very complex (as per usual). I am going into the woods with some Neo Shamans over the weekend for a mini holiday but when I come back I can finally start building the new site! Hoorah!

What Good Are You Then

2008-10-25T01:55:00.004+11:00

During breaks at work I've been doing research and development on the next phase of my website. I want something effortless to update but things are getting really complicated with wordpress and php and shit like that. Navigation is a really big issue for me as well.

After this IDN thing I need to get my shit together and nail this one.

Flicking through my old copies of The Face the other day I noticed how much it reminded me of blogs - or how blogs remind me of The Face. Roger has a good blog called Degourget that is pretty rad, I appreciate the nice blurbs.

I want to splice this blog up with some fashion posts, image feeds, and artist features. I wonder how that would end up? A big mess maybe? PROBABLY.

I now give you five blogs that I read religiously:

Yimmysyayo
Sleep Deprivation And Stories Of My Bullshit Youth
Golden Age Comic Book Stories
Selectism
Oh No They Didn't

The World Doesn't Owe You Anything

2008-10-20T23:54:00.003+11:00

My dream clients would be Daft Punk, Justice, D-Squared, Suicide, Death From Above 1979(RIP), Masterkraft, or any other cool duo partial to leather jackets.

This is for IDN's Neo New York thing coming up. It is gonna be super crazy!

2008-10-18T12:21:00.001+11:00

So why has it taken so long for Christophe Decarnin to become this successful?

"‘I think success in life is half your personality and half your talent,’’ Emmanuelle Alt said. ‘‘He has the talent, but the personality. . . .’’ She smiled. ‘‘You know, if you always stay in the shadows and don’t have the connections, it’s more difficult. Some people have a lot less talent, but they push themselves and go out and meet people.’’ Decarnin said he never goes to clubs. He once went to St.-Tropez but it was years ago, he said.

via Fashionologie

2008-10-10T04:09:00.002+11:00

For a while now I've been struggling trying to find a good way to record ideas. Notebooks make me claustrophic and things just get lost in the pages and pages of text that I fill up. Loose pages end up in giant stacks on my desk. I can't really find a good way to collect ideas without them getting lost of forgotten. I wish my memory was sharper, or that I had walls big enough to stick everything on.

I used to set my wallpaper as a screensaver that would cycle through images I've collected online to jog my memory but it kept crashing. Post its don't work either.

2008-10-10T03:45:00.003+11:00

So the chemist down the road won't give me sleeping pills.

With all these deadlines recently I've been sleeping later and later, yesterday crawling into bed at 7am after a night of listening to electro and turning my inks into vectors for a crazy project coming up.

My little roleplay as a full-time freelancer(oxymoron?) has come to an end and I have learnt from it many things. I would mostly be sitting on my ass staring at a screen and eating junk food for 18 hours a day, veins pulsating with caffeine while photoshop blending layers haunt me in my dreams. I would be going to bed when the birds chirp outside and wake up to the blinding noon sun. I don't know, I used to find all that shit romantic when I was young but now it is a bit of a punish.

My list of things to do is dwindling down which is a good thing, which only leaves major things like a major website overhaul and my tax return left. After that I am pretty much free to spend the summer at work serendipitously scratching away at drypoints and looking after stressed out students. This is probably the fastest year ever, I can barely keep track of what has happened, I missed the days when things used to linger on forever. Time seems to be speeding up as I get older.

2008-10-02T04:47:00.002+10:00

My two weeks off work are going a lot faster than I expected. The weekend will be Extra Cheeese 2 and then Parklife so the next thing I know it will be Tuesday, just in time to complete a major project, and then I will have to return to work to the chaos of setting up the end of year exhibition.

I was planning on doing some Master copies at the AGNSW across the road but I don't really see that happening.

In 2007 I did an entire series based on a counterfeit Micky Mouse and Skeleton Men from Boston. The images were half drawings half text, they were meant to be studies for bigger projects. I might turn them into drypoint etchings and print them on some ancient yellowed copier paper I found in the store-room. They'll be really small compared to my screenprints - and a lot cheaper to get framed.

2008-10-02T01:20:00.003+10:00

My art education was in a large part influenced by Julian Schnabel's movie Basquiat. The movie-version Basquiat lived in a box and then later his girlfriend's place, didn't seem to have any kind of stable job yet could afford to be on drugs all the time, and just seemed to 'wing it' the whole way through in cool and serendipitous ways, eventually meeting Andy Warhol and becoming a general New York darling.

My Professional Practice class at uni taught us that the key to breaking into the art world was to hang out at galleries a lot and become a familiar face at openings and make friends in that scene, hoping that eventually after a couple of warm red wines the owner says to you "Hey...you paint?? You want a show??" I've always been kind of disappointed by that side of things. I still don't really know how it all works.

The class probably should have been teaching us about how to write invoices, design and commission agreements, licensing, copyright, and how to understand the GST - but alas - the business side of things didn't seem to be as important as breaking into the scene.

I wonder if future artist biopic films will be made up scenes of the artist just sitting at their desk furiously checking their emails and going on facebook and watching youtube. Where is the romance? The serendipity?

Maybe I should become a painter instead.

COME TO THIS OPENING

2008-09-30T01:48:00.002+10:00

I've been spending the past couple of weeks working on something for this show, I have been doing something completely different from what I usually do and it feels realy good. I may even stop screenprinting for a while. The show is only on for three days so make sure you either attend the opening or at least see it over the weekend. Nice in space in Redfern across from where Kal El's comet hit.

I shaved my head, joined a gym, and decided to take two weeks of work. I'm going through some kind of personal renaissance.

KANE AND LYNCH

2008-09-23T05:45:00.002+10:00

How did I not hear about this game until now?

Metaverses vs Mirrorverses

2008-09-19T01:26:00.003+10:00

I went to the Australian Centre of Photography in Paddington tonight to see a panel discussion about the future of Web 2.0 and the relationships between social networking sites and identities based on mixed realities. It was epic. There were only about a handful of people there to watch(we were all wearing black which was nice) but there was still a satanstorm of ideas going around, mostly between the panel judges - the audience were just happy to listen in.

I love listening to people who know their shit talk about things they are passionate about. Extra points for being articulate and not overly opinionated. I managed to fill up my entire notebook with a shitload of notes - I had maybe eight epiphanies over the course of the discussion about metaverses, mirrorverses, the direction my work is taking, and the future.

The panel discussion was running in tandem with the current exhibition on there called Avatar: The New You, featuring a whole bunch of international artists. I was really keen to see the work of fellow COFA kid Justin Shoulder but by the time the talk had finished the gallery was closed.

Another great way to procrastinate joining the gym.

I've been wearing a flowing oversized hoodie I bought for twenty dollars and walking around town looking like a Sith Lord. Feels great - now that everyone is wearing leather jackets and I can't dress like Danny Zuko anymore - so cosplay is the obvious next step. I ordered a whole bunch of suits from Topman - soon I will start dressing like my grandad who wore suits all the time - he was an epic Sith Lord.

2008-09-17T13:40:00.001+10:00

These are some of the screenprints I've been working on. I'm hoping to get them all printed by the end of the year so that 2008 isn't a complete waste.

The Plot

2008-09-17T13:28:00.003+10:00

The Knuckle Bay Butchers are the gang that the Domino Bros are from. There are other members - I just haven't invented them yet. They fight Dr Caseface for dominance of the Dock. Machetes and crowbars and switchblades are involved. People are getting shivved all the time and the cops don't do shit because they are on Thor's payroll. Thor likes the chaos because he wants to drive everyone out of the area so he can rebuild Valhalla in Miami. This is all set in a parallel universe 1993.

On Hellboy 2...

2008-09-17T01:45:00.004+10:00

I watched Hellboy 2 the other night. I was going in with pretty high expectations. It got pretty high marks on Rotten Tomatoes and a newspaper review called it 'dark'. The movie was shitouse.

Amazing effects and costume design, some interesting parts like how Prince Nuada lives in the sewer and the ancient tooth fairy monsters and how the trolls still live under bridges, but a major fail in terms of storytelling and character development. Really really bad acting. Really really horrible to watch. I would go so far as to say it was as cheesy and bad as the Batman and Robin movie.

Everyone's timing seemed to be way off in this, which can possibly be blamed on maybe not having more than one take? Luke Goss from Bros is alright but pretty much plays Nomak Damaskinos again which can almost be considered a cross-over between Marvel and Dark Horse. I don't know how this movie got such good reviews - it is like everyone is kissing Guillermo Del Toro's ass since Pan's Labyrinth and since they couldn't give it more than five stars, some stars overflowed onto Hellboy 2.

If Hellboy 1 was like bad pilot episode of a failed TV-Series then Hellboy 2 is like a two-hour long montage of fan-favourite scenes from that series hosted by Bob Saget.

I dont' want to be all like 'the comic-book was better' but they made the movie-version Hellboy the dumbest most unlikable character ever, and he is meant to be the main character, he is a total dick! They also made Abe Sapien a moron. Not to mention the BPRD were the most unprofessional secret government agency ever - where bad guys could just 'rock up' to the secret compound and staff could just steal jets and destroy shit - wtf? I've been to freakin public libraries with more security than that.

There is so much potential to the Hellboy material - which is what makes this movie franchise so disappointing - Guillermo Del Toro pulled a total Joel "I Want A Car, Chicks Dig The Car" Schumacher.

I can't believe I managed to rant so much about this. I haven't been this disappointed since Ang Lee's Hulk fuck-up.

...Better To Stew In Discontent Than To Admit We're Wrong

2008-09-17T00:44:00.004+10:00

Coffee + No Dinner + The Gossip + Pretty Girls Make Graves = Skull Bonanza

These are some graphics I've been working on for my Extra Cheeese Phase Two submission. There are a whole lot of roses and cobras as well. I think the skull I bought in New York to use as reference is anatomically incorrect - or at least it doesn't look very bad-ass - but it was only twenty dollars so I can't complain. Also - I just noticed that the last skull I drew is a total sub-conscious Brian Ewing rip-off [R.E.S.P.E.C.T].

I was so in the zone tonight I forgot to apply for the Street Art Festival, but I still managed to spend a whole lot of money at Topman. My priorities are all out of whack.

The Kingpins

2008-09-11T23:40:00.003+10:00

I went by Incu tonight to visit a friend who works there and found that Sydney art collective and COFA graduates The Kingpins had broken into the world of fashion with a new label called Birthday Suit, a range of costume/performance inspired clothes (for girls). There is a giant window display in the Incu storefront at The Galeries Victoria (same hip building where Post Mortem was).

From what I gather - they had also outfitted The Gossip on their recent tour, and now those pieces are for sale in limited editions at Incu. Things like custom tights, jackets, huge t-shirts, and HEADDRESSES. Random note, the drummer for The Gossip is Jordan Blilie's twin sister, Jordan Blilie was one of the two lead singers of The Blood Brothers aka BEST BAND EVAR.

Back to The Kingpins, I grabbed the catalogue and there is a nice breakdown of the themes in their performace work at the end - which is a wonderful marriage of art and fashion - which is really refreshing because most times when people try and combine art and fashion it involves just printed t-shirts sold at a market stall but these guys are actually making garments etc. Not to mention I find the concepts behind The Kingpins' work eg The Undead, Mythology, Crazy Art really interesting.

Another thing that I really dug was their collaboration with Indian cinema-poster-painters to create surreal paintings of Azaria Chamberlain as a half-dingo-half-human the Queen of the Outback - AMAZING. Kind of reminiscent of the paintings that Miguel Calderón got Mexican cinema-poster-painters to make of him and his buddies shirtless wearing animal masks, Wes Anderson owns a few and they are hanging in Eli Cash's living in a scene in the Royal Tenenbaums.

The whole thing has re-ignited my ambition to make custom leather jackets based on the ones my characters wear(a major endeavour). And also to start sewing the Lucha Mask series I have had planned since like Honours (2006).

I have an overwhelming list of projects to accomplish. I wish I had more time to just sit down and finish them all. A lot of them are overdue by years. It would be great to finish everything so I would have nothing to do and go on hiatus for a while and stop thinking, maybe then I could finally get some sleep or do my tax return.

2008-09-11T13:23:00.002+10:00

The Post Mortem opening was a great success! Unfortunately the week afterward my brain got scrambled by a virus caught from the Channel Warehouse party(which was great, even the cop raid was great). It has taken a while to recover from it. The fever gave me very strange moods and ideas - I made some sweeping resolutions about my life, my artmaking, etc. only to realise they were a bit fatalistic and probably bad ideas. Now I am partially back on the horse kind of.Every now and then I want to stop doing art and go away somewhere but I know I would just end up bored and miserable and it wouldn't end up being much of a relief at all. Also I would have no money.

I'm scouting galleries at the moment in order to have a solo show soon. I was going to have another group show at a bigger location with more artists but after organising the whole Post Mortem thing I've realised that it'll be a lot less stress to just have a solo show next instead.

Right now I'm working on something for the Extra Cheeese Group Show coming up in October. I'm painting a found object and it is taking a while because first off - it is in three dimensions - and secondly it is the first time I have drawn on something directly in a while. I've been using a computer all year and it has been quite productive but also kind of depressing. The show is going to be awesome! All the regulars will be there - I love our little art community - often I wish I could dedicate more time to making art but my lavish standard of living means I will have to juggle art with a day job for a while yet.

I am planning a huge website update. I thought that I may as well considering I am changing webhosts over to an American server very soon. Web-design has only ever been something I've dabbled in every couple of months when I feel like giving my website a complete overhaul - I am mostly shit at it so we will see what happens. It'd be great to take a couple of days of work so I can get it knocked out but I have to leave it till the wee hours - which is a killer on productivity because when you get home after a long day at work you pretty much can't be fucked with anything - especially HTML and coding and all that shit - so wish me luck!

I have photos of the past couple of weeks of frenzied screenprinting and the exhibition opening. I will probbaly post them.

I still haven't done much more oil painting.

2008-08-23T20:39:00.000+10:00

Chainsaw Maid

2008-08-23T12:25:00.002+10:00

I'm not usually a fan of random gory zombie shit, I couldn't even get through Evil Dead, but this claymation is so fucking good! Ten points!

2008-08-22T00:39:00.000+10:00

Things I Miss

2008-08-14T22:26:00.002+10:00

- Sleeping
- Weekends
- Video Games
- Relief Printing
- Cigarettes
- Drinking Wine With Friends
- My Bicycle
- Bubble Baths

2008-08-12T17:01:00.001+10:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

They Are Older, Faster, And Stronger Than You Are

2008-08-03T17:01:00.003+10:00

My life has been missing a lot of rock n roll lately.

2008-08-02T22:26:00.004+10:00

2008-07-17T16:46:00.001+10:00

2008-07-10T01:34:00.001+10:00

2008-07-10T00:55:00.001+10:00

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Sir...If It Is All The Same to You...

2008-07-02T22:34:00.002+10:00

Man I am really loving my Wednesdays off. I woke up at noon to start inking this drawing I've had in the pipeline for months. In the afternoon visited Adam Paquette's studio and he showed me how to paint, helping me to get closer to my dream of being able to paint in the style of Men's-Adventure-Magazine-Covers. My intention is to create a painting of Nostradamus and Phar Lap storming Aladdin's Palace on 5th Ave with Pete Wentz on a cherry-picker gaurding the gates - a far cry from my current work:

My Friend Chad

2008-06-29T20:10:00.001+10:00

Deadbolts and Black Holes

2008-06-29T20:07:00.000+10:00

It's Not Like You're Watching Home Movies...

2008-06-24T01:10:00.003+10:00

It would be so hip if I were better at Thai. I get a million times better at reading and speaking Thai when I am over there but when I am back here my skills diminish and I communicate like a drunk three year old because I don't speak Thai to anyone in Sydney.

I'm juggling a few drawings this week - I will post what I can when they are done. I've been messing around with life drawing and oil painting for the past few months which is why I haven't posted anything because things look embarrassingly bad.

Living in the city has made me realise how big a pond this place actually is -I feel like I need to get to know it all over again - like an old friend. In fact, everything in my life is going through a mini renaissance.

I am on ebay looking for obscure 90s video games and gridiron shoulder pads. I got some plans for the next few months.

2008-06-06T01:11:00.002+10:00

2008-06-05T23:57:00.001+10:00

I Know What You Did

2008-05-30T01:19:00.004+10:00

Ever since having a meltdown about how bored and unproductive I've been, I have had a sudden influx of jobs. It seems like there is a God in the blogsphere. I've been consistently busy for a while now and have enough projects running in the background to keep me busy for a while.

Last night, in between jobs, I decided to spend my precious 'me-time' doing something I never get enough time to do anymore:

Sleeping.

For the first time since I started full time work I slept for 12 hours - it was the best thing ever - I even got all nostalgic about the days when I would sleep around 10 hours a night quite regularly. At the moment I am doing at best 4 or 5 hours a night and a couple of winks back and forth on the trains.

I've also just discovered the Graphic Novel section of my local library. I am devouring trade paperbacks everyday, taking advantage of the 15 book borrowing limit. I've been reading a lot of Batman and Superman.

2008-05-24T19:08:00.001+10:00

This kind of shit makes me believe in Harvey Dent.
I BELIEVE IN HARVEY DENT!

2008-05-16T21:08:00.001+10:00

2008-05-13T22:38:00.001+10:00

2008-05-13T00:17:00.000+10:00

2008-05-13T00:15:00.001+10:00

A re-hash of an older image with an Australiana twist for some tees from an Australiana label.

And They Will Tell You It's Not Natural

2008-04-19T23:25:00.003+10:00

I forgot what I was going to post about before. Probably something about openings etc.

I got all my DVDs back from my sister's place and watched Superman Returns again tonight, surprisingly I actually enjoyed it the second time around. The way all the colours were co-ordinated with Superman's costume throughout the film looked amazing, and the art deco-ness of the Daily Planet. I feel bad for giving it shit when it came out. And KUMAR is in it!

It is school holidays at TAFE which makes the place awfully quiet. I was anticipating making some screenprints but instead I've been getting jaded over printmaking in general. It is a bit of a ball and chain, to be tied to an institution all the time in order to make your work. When I was at art school it felt cool to go against all the new media stuff that was happening and be completely absorbed in this conservative vortex of nitric acids and paper stocks and tusche washes, but its all a bit bullshit.

Life-drawing resumes this week! Excitement!

At Least Watch It Till The End

2008-04-16T22:38:00.001+10:00

2008-04-08T21:04:00.001+10:00

So much news, fill you in later, but for now:

In The Belly Of A Whale

2008-04-01T01:07:00.005+11:00

I kind of want a Macbook Pro. I've realised that I don't actually get to use my new imac much at all. It is a beautiful beast and the huge screen is really nice but I have to be home to use it and I'm barely ever at home. According to this graph, half my working week is spent away from home.

If I could use the time on the train and at work to make art and do research then I could potentially increase my productivity from around 16% to 67%.

That is if I spend ALL the time making work, and not sneaking in facebook/sleep/ohnotheydidnt etc.

It is something worth considering. I'm getting frustrated with not having enough time or energy to do what I want.

Not to nag or anything, but:

Also worth checking out this week is the Curvy 5 launch at Mori Gallery (beautiful space), girl graphic designers and illustrators etc:
Mori Gallery 168 Day Street Sydney
Launch: Thursday April 3 (8-11pm)
Public: Friday April 4-Sun April 6 (10am-5pm)

A very busy week of openings, I will probably spend most of it terribly drunk. Maybe I should have included that in the pie chart too.

Can I Has Hulk-Buster Iron Man Suit Now?

2008-03-20T09:14:00.005+11:00

'Robert Downey Jr is to appear in the forthcoming film The Incredible Hulk as Iron Man, Marvel comics has announced. A panel at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas has confirmed the news, which marks a break with superhero movie tradition. While characters often appear in each other's comics, this is the first time a lead actor from one film franchise has appeared in another. Iron Man hits cinemas here on May 2, with The Incredible Hulk, starring Ed Norton, following soon after on June 13. Marvel's new studio arm is producing both movies, allowing it to indulge in the previously unseen cross-pollination.'

Source

I always get so excited about superhero flicks before they come out. I remember around the time Spider-man 3 was coming out, I would be on the internet scouring for leaked images of Venom, and of course I watched it on the plane and was major disappointed by the whole thing.

Anyway, so apparently because Edward Norton is on board Hulk as a screenwriter as well, he is changing the script around so he has more screen time. People should know from the previous Hulk flick that Bruce Banner = FAIL. HULK = SMASH.

STRANGE AEONS

2008-03-19T23:13:00.006+11:00

I started a full time job recently, which is why I haven't been posting much(I haven't been home much). I am now a Technical Assistant for the Fine Arts/Printmaking department at Hornsby TAFE. I spend eight hours a day at work and almost four hours a day on public transport (Hornsby is a long way away from the gothic sublime of Maroubra Beach), which leaves me twelve remaining hours to eat, sleep, and read Oh No They Didn't. If I stay back after work to do my own work then that leaves me around six hours at home until I am back at Hornsby.

Of course it is not all bad, the job comes with some benefits....

I've made it a little project of mine to get the screenprinting equipment up to speed. I tried pushing the current resources as far as they could go tonight and faced a FAIL of epic proportions. Everything that could go wrong in screenprinting did, which would be fine if I didn't have a load of work due for some shows coming up. I'll admit that I was a bit rusty from not printing for over a year but the amount of problems I encountered left me completely defeated.

In case anyone reading this didn't already know, screenprinting at large format can be MEGA HARD. I realise now that I took for granted the swish equipment that I had at my disposal during my COFA days. DIY style screenprinting without top-of-the-line equipment is so excruciating it makes me want to quit screenprinting entirely.

Anyway before this post becomes too dark, two shows coming up:

Charles Dennington is showing in the group show at Somedays, his work is amazing - I missed out on seeing his solo show before so I'm glad I'll get another chance to see his stuff.

I'll be updating my website over the long weekend too so it will look like I've been keeping busy doing something other than falling asleep on trains and checking Facebook.

Mike Rea's Artist Statement

2008-03-01T11:48:00.005+11:00

"Standing on the shoulders of other people's dreams could perhaps be the most pathetic of all dreams. The intent of my work is to create something short of its outcome. My goal is to create the idea of an object that remains a dream. The objects I create are based on fictions, rather than realities. I have always been interested in the ephemeral worlds established in film, or even in popular culture. Fictions or established hearsay allow for a flawed interpretation, which leads to a flawed result. The sublime is unattainable, and not an option. I further amplify this experience by only using my memory to construct my images. Failure is imminent. I find humor allows me to enjoy this experience, and I in turn build humor into the worlds established by my work. I have chosen to depict these states with unfinished wood, and other materials which convey a sense of the temporal. I find the beauty in life lies in between moments. My work offers a sense of what could be and what could never be simultaneously."

“Lysistrata” 2005. wood, burlap, rope, pink-foam

Jack Kirby's Death Metal Fantasy

2008-02-19T23:59:00.006+11:00

I started a new job the other week and although it provides much job satisfaction (which is priceless), it involves a grueling four hours a day on Sydney public transport, which is absolutely horrible. I've been getting home late, completely exhausted, wanting to do nothing but sleep, but forcing myself to do at least something constructive before the day is over (but not managing to do anything).

In other news I have recently converted to Mac! I am using a 24" iMac now and yes, I am finding it very difficult to get used to. I am adept on a PC but I'm just so over them breaking all the time and having to mess around with hardware all the time. I don't like customising anything, I like things really minimal and simple. I don't even like printed t-shirts. My ideal home would be a hotel room with barely any furniture, in it I would maybe have a jar of choc chip cookies, and a print of Malevich's Black Square pinned on the wall.

The show at Hogan Gallery has been pushed back to June but I am still in two shows coming up in April that I am making brand new work for. Love Ariel's group show at Somedays, and the Semi Permanent sideshow Kids Today presented by Stupid Krap, the lineup of which is a lot like a big livejournal reunion for me. It will be at MTV Headquarters in Kings Cross.

It is good to be busy. But it is also good to sleep.

Classy Killer Opening Credits

2008-02-15T00:56:00.005+11:00

Daydreams and Deadlines

2008-02-07T04:46:00.000+11:00

I never knew you could get blisters on your knuckles from drawing but apparently you can because I am looking at them now and they are strange indeed.

I've been inking an image since 2pm yesterday, which means I've been at this computer for 15 hours. The editorial is due Friday 9am New York time, which is Saturday 1am Sydney time. If I'm lucky I will finish early so I can go to the GRRRL Exhibition Opening on Friday night at Ambush Gallery but it doesn't look like it because things like my real job and my new job and my freelance job are taking up most of my time.

For such a long time there was just nothing but mall minutiae and eBay. Now everything is happening at once - which is a nice change from lamenting about a crap retail job.

Cry For The Moon!

2008-02-06T17:17:00.000+11:00

The 90s X-Men cartoon and Teknoman are to blame for my undying ambition to dress up in spandex and go around the neighbourhood kicking ass and taking names. Here is an amazing marriage of the two, the Japanese opening credits to X-Men.

Turn this up as loud as you can!

Sadly, as far as I know, the only form of the X-Men cartoon released on DVD is a terrible bootleg boxset, made up of a bunch of AVIs that used to lurk around IRC that were taped off the television, complete with the FoxKids! logo in the bottom right.

When geeks come into work asking if it was ever released on DVD, I tell them the bad news, and usually give them a geek discount, we are like a secret cult. Except for the Stargate geeks, they are a major pain in the ass, I don't like them.

Missing New York City

2008-02-05T01:08:00.000+11:00

I don't think I did New York properly. I had the most amazing time and felt like I got a real sense of the city but there was so much left unexplored. We were there for six weeks so it was long enough not to have to rush around and cram things in but at the same time nothing was really a priority so things just went at their own pace.

I remember my trip to Japan/Laos/Thailand being so stressful because of all the stuff I tried to cram in. Trying to squeeze every last experience out of the place but only ending up anxious and nervous all the time.

New York was more of a real holiday, but a holiday in a city, which is kind of strange. We didn't really care much for the tourist hotspots, and to tell you the truth I barely visited any small galleries (even though we were staying in Chelsea a couple of blocks from the central art nerve of NYC).

Eventually I visited the art part of Chelsea but got such strange vibes from it. It was cold and intimidating and completely alien landscape to me. I didn't stay long and didn't end up going back either. Now I'm reading all these art blogs about things that were on and places I should have gone. For instance I missed an opening at Jonathan Levine gallery because there was so much randomness on that night, and as it turns out James Jean was at the opening because the artist showing was for a friend of his! Not that he would have remembered me from last year's Semi Permanent but still...

I'll probably need to go back to New York with a list of things to do. I loved New York. I loved bagels with lox and BBQ for dinner, and I loved scouting flea markets all day and hanging out at Barnes and Noble all night.

New Blog

2008-02-04T21:25:00.000+11:00

I change blogs pretty often. I left LJ because it encouraged me to complain too much, and I left Tumblr because it is too new age and the future frightens me. Personally I think it has all gone downhill after kids stopped saying "Sir" and "Ma'am".

When signing up for a Blogger I realised I already had one the last time I tried changing blogs. Ha!

In case you missed it, here is a best of, in no particular order.