Artswipe: Remasters exhibition at the Rag Factory off Brick Lane

 Artswipe is run by Mark Perronet, and is a website dedicated to both selling and producing artists screen prints,as well as an online arts newspaper.They've held several exhibitions at the Rag Factory before.

    I got involved with the latest Artswipe exhibition, based on the theme 'Remasters'.

Artists were asked to submit their versions of famous master's paintings,by working over the top of them and re-imagining them with their own style.The only stipulation was the painting had to be out of copyright.

    I chose to use a wood block print by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). I took one of his iconic images of Mount Fuji ' South Wind, Clear Sky ' and worked over it with my own illustrations.

I chose his print because I'm a fan of his work,and I saw the potential in using his image as it's got clean and simple shapes and blocks of colour - perfect for adding my own details over the top. I was inspired by the recent Icelandic volcano 'Eyjafjallajökull' eruptions, and the chaos it caused for flights around the world.So I re-imagined Mount Fuji in a modern day setting, surrounded by planes and cities, as well as giving the volcano itself a character ,which explains why I titled it

' Hokusai Revamped'. 

     It was a real challenge,I was a little nervous about defacing the work of such a legend, but I enjoyed the process immensely, and hopefully I managed to give it my own style,working respectfully with Hokusai's print in the background.I'm certainly not implying I've improved it in any way,but hopefully it's a new and different version of a classic image!

   I went down to the opening night of the exhibition on Thursday and really enjoyed seeing all the other artist's submissions! It was nice to see the prints all framed up,I rarely see my work in such a big format as A2.

You can buy yourself one of these lovely prints for just £50! They're very high quality digital prints with Epson lightfast inks onto Hahnehuhle 310gsm German Etching paper.They are signed and limited editions of 50.Get your hands on one now:  http://www.artswipe.com/id36.html

Onedotzero Cascade 2010 : Adventures in Motion festival at the BFI

     I was dead pleased to be part of this years Onedotzero_cascade group. I was picked from this years top creative graduates to get together and collaborate.Forty of us from a range of design backgrounds spent a week together at the Doodle Bar in Battersea.

 
    Onedotzero is an award winning London-based moving image and digital arts organisation which commissions, showcases and promotes innovation across all aspects of moving image, digital and interactive arts.They hold lots of exciting motion picture festivals all over the world.We were to feature in their Adventures in Motion Festival at the BFI Southbank from the 10th- 14th November.
    Now in it's third year, onedotzero_cascade is a platform for creative collaboration and innovation across diverse disciplines to foster personal and professional development. It was designed to challenge existing educational processes and formats, while advancing new ways of working, by utilising new technologies and taking an open approach.

     We were set the theme of 'Utopia' and spent the week brainstorming in our groups of 10.We were lucky enough to have several inspiring workshops and talks from various design groups,one from Onedotzero chairman Shayne Walter,where we got to see the world premiere of the new Massive Attack video!
     We also had a really inspiring talk from Kin Design,who showed us the power and importance of collaborating with other designers; having a pool of skills to dip into.They work with some really exciting clients and are really innovative in their approach. We also recieved feedback and tips from designers john nussey,squint opera, all of us and joel gethin lewis.

During our week of working on our own ideas we also had some actors come in and give us tips on how to present ourselves confidently,in preparation for our final presentation at the BFI Southbank,

    What followed was a challenging,eye opening and fantastic experience.I worked in completely new ways,and learnt the importance and strength of working with other people instead of alone! Apart from anything it's just fun to be around other creatives, but also it showed me that if you're working with a bunch of multi talented people,you can achieve near enough anything. You can play to people's different strengths,and trust others to handle aspects of the project that you could never do alone - very liberating and exciting!

    Our particular response to the brief was based around the idea of collaboration: creating a new place for people to meet and play with the idea of the future.The project developed lots,but we ended up with the idea of the 'Anti Doom Dome' - an interactive dome which is powered by the selfless act of cycling together. The inside of the dome would be an interactive light installation: every time someone in the world tweeted mentioning the word 'tomorrow' our system would represent as a dot of light.it would result in an everchanging, real time,  beautiful experience of the world's discussions of the future.

     On the night of our presentation at the BFI we approached it with a real experimental crazy scientist vibe!  We managed to wire up an actual bike to our computer system,and we asked a volunteer to cycle to power up our slide show,animation and light up model of the dome.

    The presentation night was really fun,as we got the chance to finally see the other cascade group's ideas,all of which were really diverse and innovative.We also had a panel debate with Onedotzero members and derek yates discussing our ideas and feelings about the experience of Cascade itself. The whole evening and experience leading up to it was an extremely inspiring and positive one.We ended it by all enjoying a beer together and sampling the other fantastic installations in the festival around the BFI (I particularly loved the audiovisual volcano mapping project by http://www.antivj.com/ )

I really recommend you check out the Adventures In Motion Festival next year, and get involved with Cascade if you're a recent graduate!

• You can now see a small clip of our bike powered presentation in this years festival highlights viral video! http://www.onedotzero.com/video/16799537/

• You can see more of our process on our blog: http://isthisthegrayarea.blogspot.com/ 

• Or check out the official cascade blog http://www.onedotzero.com/blog/category/cascade-10/

•  Watch our George animation which featured in the presentation at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKTiSF-sAyc&feature=autofb

All I Want for Christmas Card launch in Bristol.

I was lucky enough to have my design selected for this years All I Want For Christmas Card project.
It's now a yearly festive event started by Illustrator Ben Steers.The project sees a range of illustrators, artists and designers create greetings cards for the holiday season which are sold in packs of 20. All profits from sales are donated to Young Bristol, a charity supporting young people in the Bristol area.You can buy one of the 500 limited edition packs here: www.alliwantforchristmascards.com

I was delighted to be selected, as the quality of designs this year were really high, including illustrators such as Aaron Miller, Rob Ryan, Simon Spilsbury, Chris Malbon and Robert ’3D’ Del Naja of Massive Attack fame.

The launch night itself was a real success,raising over £8000 for charity.The highlight was the charity auction,featuring a great collection of work from all the artists involved and even a 1st edition screen print from Banksy himself! It went for £4500 in the end! I sold a framed ink drawing of an owl,and a screen printed bag. There were so many items I would've loved to take home,such as a brilliant drawing by El Tobe and Rob Del Naja's prints.

It was a really fun night and I loved meeting all the other illustrators involved, some of whom I had already spoken to via twitter. It was great to put faces to names such as Ben Steers who had obviously worked really hard to organise the event! Also had the pleasure of meeting El Tobe and his girlfriend Kalina, who had driven even further than I had to be there!

We ended the night by taking part in a bit of collaborative live doodling, which involved me, Rob Barrett, Aaron Miller, and Alex Mathers drawing all manner of things including rabid badgers and naked rain dancers.

All in all it was a great event and I'm really pleased to be involved in such a worthwhile project.If you want to get yourself some lovely unique,illustrated christmas cards this year,pick up a pack online,it's a great cause!

 www.alliwantforchristmascards.com