Two Right Charlies

We cut out images, headings & sub headings in the newspaper, and re-arranged these elements to produce different narratives. Both of these narratives below are employing the simple design technique of substitution.

On this one the simple substitution of Wayne Rooney for Charlie Sheen produced humour in one move.

George Osbourne made homeless by squatters... I wouldn't mind that, and by the look on the policeman's face neither would he.

Nightmare Before Christmas

When I passed Fortnum and Masons in Piccadilly I spotted some interesting pumpkins they had on display for Halloween.

This pumpkin reminds me of one of the characters from the film Where the Wild Things Are based on the book by Maurice Sendak.

Both of these pumpkins another made me laugh, the second pumpkin reminded me of Winston Churchill because the carrot makes it look like he's smoking a cigar.


Check out the Carving Gallery link below.


Happy Halloween!




Carving Gallery
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Carving Tutorial
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YouTube

One Thing Leads To Another And Another And Another...

Every image was made by tracing the basic shape of the oak leaf.

The first leaf drawing is created using parallel lines to make the shape of the leaf, the lines also resemble the veins in the leaf because of their upward direction. By adding a leaf green colour, it has given it more life and made the image more powerful.

The second drawing is one of my favourites because of the use of negative space to make the leaf shape. The cross-hatching background is very bold and gives a structure to the drawing.

The third leaf is comprised of a series of dots numbered 1-50. I like this image because its humerous being a join-the-dots puzzle.

The last image is probably the most successful. By using the method of repetition of the leaves on top of each other I have created a circular shape which could be seen as a snowflake or a flowerhead.

Toast Artwork

Following on from the previous post, when I got home I googled 'toast portraits' to see what other cool artwork has been done by simply burning toast. The images above are my favourite pieces, but if you check out the link below, you'll find a page of amusing work people have made using toast. Most of the toast portraits of celebrities are surprisingly successful but a couple of them would benefit from a nametag. The toaster made of toast also amused me because it displays its own visual logic. £1.20 or 60p for a cheap loaf of bread at the supermaket, now that is a much better price for the art equipment than most materials available from an art store.

10 Toast Artworks

A Toast To The Mother-In-Law!

On my way home from university, while I was reading the paper, I found an interesting article about Laura Hadland's gift for her mother-in-law's birthday. She turned a photo of her mother-in-law into the world's largest toast mosaic - comprising 9,852 slices. Laura and 40 friends used a battery of nine toasters to brown the slices from 600 loaves to varying degrees before arranging them to make the 32ft 8in by 42ft 3in image at an arts venue. Laura said "it's a birthday card like no other". "As a curator, I spend lots of time with Roman mosaics so it was great fun to make a modern one out of my favourite food". The mosaic garnered a new Guinness World Record title, beating a Dutch effort made in February. I'm a fan of making work by recycling things, so I found this really fun to read about and want to try this method of making an image myself.

Mail Online

Barney Bubbles

Recently I went to an exhibition at Chelsea space at Chelsea College of Art & Design, the exhibition's called 'Process: The working practices of Barney Bubbles' (14 Sept-23 Oct 2010). Bubbles (1942-1983) was one of the giants of graphic design. He is best known for his distinctive contribution to the graphic design associated with the British independent music scene during the 1970s and early 1980s.

English rock band Hawkwind was one of the richest associations Bubbles formed with in his career. Above is one of his most famous pieces of work-the cover he designed for Hawkwind's 1973 album Space Ritual. This work was heavily reliant on Art Nouveau.

When Barney Bubbles was the inhouse designer at Stiff Records in the punk era, he produced what are some of his most memorable covers. In particular, the Ian Dury album Do It Yourself in which Bubbles made excellent use of wallpaper samples which tied in nicely with the album title. My favourite piece of Bubbles's work is the logo for the Blockheads, because it's square head is simple and funny. Another famous graphic designer of that time, Peter Saville says "Barney Bubbles is the missing link between Pop and Culture".

Wikipedia
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Classic Rock
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Barney Bubbles
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Reasons to be Cheerful

Take My Breath Away

Harrier

Jaguar

Last week I went to see Fiona Banner's new work at Tate Britain - Harrier and Jaguar. Both these fighter planes have been reassembled in the Duveen galleries. The Jaguar plane lies flipped on its back, looking like it's crash landed right onto the gallery floor. Meanwhile the Harrier jet hangs with its nose hovering above the floor appearing more like a trussed bird than a deadly weapon. Fiona Banner, like countless others, must be a Tom Cruise fan and as for me all I can say about her artworks is that they 'Take My Breath Away'.




Tate Britain
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Mail Online
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YouTube

Iraq Car Bomb At Imperial War Museum

These images show the remains of a car bomb which was involved in the bombing of the Al-Mutanabbi street book market in the Iraqi capital on the 5th of March 2007. This modern weapon of war has also been shown in museums in New York, Los Angeles & Chicago, but it is now part of the permanent collection at the Imperial War Museum. The car was one of two shipped out of Iraq in May 2007 by Dutch curator Robert Kluijver for an anti-war event in the Netherlands. The Turner prize winning artist Jeremy Deller then took the mangled remains on a tour of America. Happily it has now found a permanent home at the Imperial War Museum. At the beginning of the twentieth century 10% of all casualties in conflicts were civilians, now the civilian casualty ratio is 90%. This statistic explains why the placing of the car remains at the Imperial War Museum is the perfect home for it. Being placed alongside the other weapons of war gives the correct context in which to view the mangled object, as I feel that to display it within an art  context or art gallery diminishes and trivialises the nature of the remains.

When I visited the IWM as I have done many times before it was the first thing that I saw when I entered  the museum. The sight of it threw me back with shock. It was so scary, nightmarish, but also sadly very compulsive viewing. I felt that it was like looking at a terrible car crash scene and I also thought of the 'Car crash series' by Andy Warhol. It was very interesting to see it in the real, and has brought me closer to an understanding of the true horror of modern warfare. At first glance I couldn't even see it as a car as it has completely lost its shape, but when you are up close you can see and recognise parts of the rusted metal structure and clearly still see the car seats. Thinking about it now, this car is no longer really a car. It was a deadly weapon, but now it is definitely a war grave.

Finally in conclusion I thought and still think, if this is what a car bomb can do to metal, then what must it do to flesh and bone?

Telegraph
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Imperial War Museum London