Pointy Clouds

New Drawings

James — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:40:27 +0000

Some of these are the beginnings of something else, others are… what they are.

Its a new year and this video is rather lovely

James — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:13:32 +0000

A number of things are slowly taking shape. Visual creations are developing in sketchbooks like mold on unwashed plates and the list of unfinished music I keep working on keeps getting bigger, but at the same time some things are actually starting to look kind of finished. So one day, they will appear on here. No really they will.

In the meantime, here is something I stumbled upon recently that made my day. A stunningly beautiful and highly entertaining collaborative video for the song Desperate For Love by Over The Rhine

Watch it here.

More Less-Old Work: 2008

James — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:48:26 +0000

Finally I have caught up to the same year I am in. This is a rare achievement, one day I plan to narrow it down to within one or two weeks either side of when I actually am. Here is a selection of things I made this year, with an emphasis on the things that I dislike the least.
This year I painted a portrait of Donald Trump, for the Donald Trump And The Planets group exhibition held in Leeds, UK by Roman Alaska World Enterprises. This event featured portraits of Mr Trump submitted by many people from band members and friends of Roman Alaska World Enterprises, like Private Trousers, The Ice Cream Headaches and Captain Bloodblood And The Sea Dogs, to Montreal Printmaker (and Aidswolf vocalist) Seripop. I also produced a couple of illustrations for a zine called Damn Fetishist, a DIY showcase of art music and words put together by my good friend and oftentimes accomplice Edward Clay. And some other things happened too but that would involve more typing.

More Old Work: 2005 - 2007

James — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:48:19 +0000

Work doesn’t quite seem like the right word. Maybe it is. Whatever. This gallery consists of sketches, paintings and images I produced during my first year in Canada. Most of these were done in the first six months I was there: stir crazy with isolation and trying to get through my first rural Ontario winter with a large dose of culture shock. Its at this point I start to dabble more with digital imagery and start to combine it with the cut and paste/mixed media approach I had become comfortable with. And then I even tried the unthinkable… painting.

I actually warmed up to painting after initially being rather put off by all the stigma and preciousness surrounding it. Its not that I don’t have respect for people who hone their brushwork skills and colour theory so carefully, I just like to use paint as a medium where it works, no big philosophy. And I don’t think its any more respectable or important than say writing things on the backs of bus tickets and planting them in peoples homes; sometimes it feels right, sometimes it doesn’t. What I like about paint is its versatility, you can rummage around in the gap between real and imagined so easily. Diatribe on painting aside, this was my first jump into it without too much of the structures that put me off, and from here on in it started to settle neatly with other methods and media at my disposal.

Some of these images I consider finished, others are just ideas and sketches. I’m not saying which are which but it has nothing to do with whether they’re a painting or a pencil sketch.

Old Work: 2003 - 2005

James — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:06:14 +0000

This is the first of three galleries of images which span the time between 2003 and now. I decided not to organize them in any way other than chronology as that seems to fit best. This first section consists mainly of drawing and collage and spans the time between starting college in Stafford, UK, through a year on HND illustration and on to the first a Fine Art degree in Falmouth, UK. Throughout this whole time I am trying to figure out where what I’m doing should be put between “illustration” and “fine art”. Luckily, a little while down the road I realize that those kinds of terms aren’t really very useful apart from describing university courses and can actually impede what you want to do…

Welcome to my online portfolio/box of snakes

James — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:32:56 +0000

Well then, it took me long enough but I have finally got an online home for this stuff going. This site is to display my artwork, music, miscellanea, and any other trivialities to anyone who wishes to browse them. My next couple of posts will consist of a few galleries of old work leading up to now. After that its all new and freshly squeezed mind-slurry as it happens. Or round about the time it happens depending on how lazy I am.

Enough wittering, please enjoy.