Jagged centres of essential circles

Another image created by collaging over an old picture from years ago that was dropping to bits on top of my wardrobe.  A whole layer torn off and new layers stuck over the top.  I've called this image "Jagged centres of essential circles".  It features a few of my more familiar motives but what I hoped to achieve, at least in a subtle way, was a definite and organic shift in colour and shade from top to bottom.  The lower half of the image containing much more red and the upper half containing much more blue.  I also wanted the image to have a centre which draws in the eye but isn't a horizon point - more rather a point where the rest of image revolves around cycloptically.

I've been creating a variety of images for years and it's evident (to myself at least) that I've developed a fairly unique technique and style - this may be to do with a very stubborn refusal to not contextualising my work or trying to reference other artists.  What I've realised of late though is a style can become repetitious and I've gotten to a point where I want to create differences of speed and pattern within my image rather than create constant windows into chaos and confusion.  Chaos and confusion can be made all the more effective when given a counterpoint or an opposite with which to contrast.  I've been  developing some images which should hopefully imbue more of a contrast.                                                                                                Other news is that my semi self portrait - Self Diagrammatical Blood Speech - has been selected for the 2nd stage of judging to be entered into an arts contest - so fingers crossed that it impresses the judges.  I had to take it out of it's aluminium frame and make sure it was all stuck down properly covering it with a layer of very strong glue.  I didn't sleep in my own bed last night because one of my collages was taking up all the space.   Had a good nights sleep though - it's good to get out of the confines of my stuffy boxroom. Especially during such warm weather.

One identity globdule enters the Fear Fog and breaks into separate eyes

I was asked to create a drawing for an exhibition of 60 drawings at the Bankley Gallery (the opening for which is on Friday 1st June) - this is likely due to me being on their list of contacts due to doing an exhibition there last year.  The drawing I eventually handed into them is a very overworked picture which is half drawing, half collage... which means I collaged together loads of my drawings and then drew on top of them.

I ended up enjoying this and getting increasingly overconfident and ended up overdrawing and therefore just created a bit of a mess compared to the very concise image I what I started out with.  

   

I called it "One identity globdule enters the Fear Fog and breaks into separate eyes"  I doubt it's easy to tell why I called it this due to the image not possessing any differentiation of style but for the purpose of explaining the title I've zoomed into certain areas and will now write what each area is representative of.

The above is the "identity globdule".  A sort of malformed mass of human self definition.

The "identity globdule" bubbles into the fear "Fear Fog" - a nowhere pool of everything intangible doubtful and confusing.

These are all of the separate eyes - which is the self analysis breaking apart and looking for different modes of self definition.

Identity crutches are flimsy - made out of very old twigs which can't support a developing mind unless they are constantly repaired and maintained.  Sometimes you may hear or see the supports snapping underneath someone's big idea of their self.  They realise that wearing converse trainers doesn't put them in the same elite as whoever it is they like who wears converse.  

This extends beyond the superficial and into personality, gender and sexuality.  Like someone who is cheating on loads of people and calling themselves polysexual or someone who doesn't want to get into fights calling himself a pacifist as if they are resisting going to war or killing people rather than just keeping out of trouble.  By giving yourself labels you are simply fictionalising yourself into a two dimensional ego ideal and attempting to cover the holes in your inadequacy with cannibalised words made into temporary tattoos (washing off uselessly in a heavy storm).  

I don't think of myself as an artist for instance.  It's a snooty word to make someone think they are so much more creative and important that anyone else.  Also because I produce the occasional misstep (like the drawing this blogpost is the subject of) and then label it with a confusing sub poetic title followed up with a blog post about identity crutches.  Giving the impression that I'm really onto something - all the while making fun out of converse trainers, polysexuals and pacifists - until I loop my tangent into a circle which eventually returns in on myself and therefore leaves me blameless for any offence or disagreement possibly caused.  I simply don't have enough strength in these thoughts to turn them into convictions.  This is very comforting.

14.5.12 - 27.4.12

14.5.12 - went to see Vampirette which was a non event of a theatrical performance - good thing the tickets were completely free.  Before that had a Chinese Buffet and thought I'd be able to get to the theatre on time easily but was delayed due to the silly Manchester City parade which consisted of some uninterested looking footballers on top of a big double decker bus chatting to each other like they were in the smoking area of a pub whilst all their fans showed them love and support. If I were paid a million pound a year for doing a job I actually liked and was worshipped for then I'd think I'd show a lot more appreciation towards the people who fund my mansion by buying my merchandise and tickets.  I'm so glad I hate football - footballers seem very self involved with little integrity and tend to be very ambivalent towards anyone who likes them.

13.5.12 - "One identity globdule enters the fear fog and breaks into separate eyes" - title for a ruined drawing, ruined by over drawing, but see my over drawing at an exhibition of drawings at the Bankley Gallery (opening on the Friday 1st June)

12.5.12 - some head bleats with questions that get forced into the circle of ignoring everything.  Self portrait swirls with indecision of the how to represent oneself and whether I need to be represented anyway - some analysis of the outside world would be handy rather than being snagged on illusionary internal railings.

11.5.12 - slime and brick tentacles never reach the glowing singularity and therefore they'll never press the void switch....
***********
QUESTION:  If a void switch is pressed and EVERYTHING is compacted from an infinitely large space into an infinitely small space - wouldn't the size of EVERYTHING be exactly the same as before?  Infinite.

10.5.12 - Fragments disperse over tangible vectors (foamboard comes in useful and leaves a lovely grid for me.  Will be getting more of this - somehow better than framing - could be worth backing everything I send to people through Etsy onto foamboard as it has a lovely stickiness)

9.5.12 - the gargantuan one eyed confusion - massive organic mess eating it's own internal organs and digesting them into new versions of themselves to support a bloodfull roll of second skin.  It merges with a second triangular head.

8.5.12 - melding into a mountainous region of stretched skin covering holes in the ground full of pools of red something.

7.5.12 - some drawing on the back of an envelope - was attempting to convey an inexpressible form of dread and a mission against creation and reincarnation but visual diagrams made it seem much crazier than it sounds - and it sounds quite crazy.

6.5.12 - went to Camelot Theme Park and though I didn't go on any roller coasters I managed to brave the pirate ship and realised how sickly and horrible it really did make me feel back when I was ten.  To sway back and forth over and over and over - when I was younger it scared me to look down into it's horrible grinding cogs and to slip out of my seat every time it went up.

5.5.12  sold these two voids to Ryan Boyd who wrote this story featured on this wonderfully named website.  Got into a conversation with Mr Boyd through Etsy after he received them and they are now on his wall next to Malevich's Black Square 

These collages are still available for £5 on my Etsy shop - feel free to give them a look and also the A4 prints I have on there.   Everything at a reasonable price and could potentially increase in value one day.  Not being big headed or anything.

4.5.12 - a view screen of a spacecraft which scans the hidden pathways of a bizarre sun.  Watched by the gelatinous black octopus god of the Polygon Empire.

3.5.12 - a tree withering through colours and in a field of dead roses in perspex blocks.

2.5.12 - an uncareful separation and combination of generic scribble.

1.5.12 - before darkness grows deeper and stranger and steps into the blackness of it's own gigantic font.

30.4.12 - very busy day in work - a long queue of people all with their tickets - stuck the tickets in my book to form a living ticket tree which will grow towards more tickets being printed and more enquiries.

29.4.12  - bought a Chinese money cat which now sits on the shelf of my cupboard clawing in potential wealth.  It has very sad eyes which make me feel slightly guilty, like it doesn't enjoy clawing money out of thin air (perhaps because it's an impossible task).

28.4.12 - the monthly planner of April reaches it's conclusion - to be pasted and drawn over in my diary to the point where it becomes unrecognisable texture.

27.5.12 - red biro forms patterns through dark tunnels... possessing nothing more and wanting even less they are simply engraved and then scanned then kept as part of a eternal slide show.

26.4.12 - 19.4.12

26.4.12 - they suck in on the dense clouds of green gas and then crawl to the bottom of their tunnels and spit out their harvest - a chemical reaction in their lungs turns the gas into liquid crystal.

25.4.12 - the crystals serve many purposes - insulation, phosphorescence, incubation for eggs which hatch every season into a new troop of identical xenomorphs with an identical and shared consciousness.  An unspoken unity in purpose.  Until the New Form is hatched with it's large cumbersome brain and small, useless lungs.

24.4.12 - Short advert break:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/97792569/original-art-voidscape-collage-size-a5
Original A5 black and white collages made to order for £5.

23.4.12 - A basis for the start of a story - though it might not be at the start but just something in the background of some kind of larger world building.  I imagine it to end up being some amalgamation of Star Wars, Ants and The Fountainhead (though I'd rather it didn't end up like any of these but it would be good if it ended up being something).

22.4.12 - further first draft drivelling - the word finds it difficult to connect into the next word - connect word connect.

21.4.12 - Grinch looking foot soldiers of the Hive consciousness - wasn't planning on them looking quite so happy.  Never expressionless but always sharing the same expression?
If you had the same expression as everyone else would that be an expression anymore?  Or would it be like wearing the exact same clothes as your best friend?

20.4.12 - some image of one identity living through separate parts.  

19.4.12 - carried out some vague research into insect communication, telepathy and how people work together towards the best possible outcome for everyone... came to no definite conclusions but saw some very nice diagrams.

18.4.12 - 13.4.12

18.4.12 - Impenetrable red light doesn't suffuse into the surrounding darkness.  Perhaps it is a red object.  Or a light object.  Spheres contain clouds of interlaced light white.

17.4.12 - Already mentioned in a prior blog entry (but no hard in mentioning it again eh?) I opened an Etsy shop today (http://www.etsy.com/shop/GarthSimmons?ref=si_shop) with any luck I'm hoping it'll make me a minor amount of money and dwindle away some of my art materials of which I have far too much.  Considered opening a Folksy shop instead as heard they are a bit better than Etsy but didn't like the fact that Folksy is called Folksy and that people may think I'm one of those Folky people.

16.4.12 -  I hate reincarnation.  I hate the man at the top of the ladder with Enlightenment clutched in his hands refusing to show anyone what it is and saying "you just have to feel it, I can't explain it, one day you'll just know what the answer is. Now give me all your clothes and bend over, and if you don't live your live by my rules you'll die and come back as Ian Beale". 

If reincarnation exists it is soul slavery and in the land of transmigration all the souls at the top are laughing at the sad faces spiralling from one body to the next - clueless to the idea that they have ever lived before.

15.4.12 - one doorway leads to another doorway even if it's the doorway you came in by - which would involve spinning round especially if you went into somewhere particularly dodgy and full of aggressive staring. 
Pillars of nothing new but still filled with the same threat of a prison like repetition.

14.4.12 - Idea for a novel - a disabled member of an insect hive intelligence (missing it's antennae therefore having no way to become one with the hive intelligence (one identity operating through millions of bodies) so it had to build it's own identity whilst completely isolated in a crowd of everyone) - it runs away from home to Polygonia where it searches for itself - it is very suggestible and joins a religious cult (worshipping the mighty Booming) but becomes as unhappy and persecuted as before so becomes a musketeer instead... (or something else - obviously haven't worked out the full plot for this book idea).   

13.4.12 - in a drift of connective disconnection... vague ideas of the future and of the here and now flipping through a million slides far too quickly making a complete blur without understanding of a single shape and complete vacuum of meaning as days blur into each other like smudged pencil - sharp edges around the significant events glow and scream "remember me" - then we forget - only to remember years later when we recollect the events of yesteryear with a complete feeling of alienation from the person we used to be.

Etsy shop opening and £5 A5 images available to order.

Finally gotten round to starting up my own Etsy shop - even put together a rather banal shop banner and title:

I'm sure I'll think of a much better name for it later but nothing really sprung to mind immediately - suggestions are more than welcome though I'll likely come up with something better myself at some point, or perhaps just keep with the above because I quite like the simplicity.

The first items I have for sale are black and white prints in the style of the two displayed here - these are all going to be made to order and each will be put together in a different, unique and unpredictable way each time.

The selling price is about £5 including post and packaging.
I am going to branch out into slightly more expensive versions which will include colour.  I've sold two of these black and white versions already - it's possibly the most affordable original art (unless you make your own) on the internet so if you can share this post via Facebook, Twitter or whatever means available to you then I can start sending these images out to people and make just a little bit of money - it'll help my self esteem at the very least.

Anyway enough self promotion (though is it ever enough?)
Click here and have a look - if you can spare a small sum of money then make an order to help save my very slightly endangered confidence

5.4.12 - 12.4.12

12.4.12 - crash landed, taken over, synthesised.
It became part of our blood and gave us limited success and limited compassion.
Guiding voices and labels - avoid the people who know all the answers.
Remain subjective we are all a host - it is digging it’s nails inside your face and inside my hands.
Watch out.  The pain was there before you were born and after you died.
Question could be: where did it land first? 

11.4.12 - a suspended blond wig over the many hollows of a brief dying sun.  The above image can in little way be associated with this text.

10.4.12 - went through a short phase of loving gravestones - they stick out organised but crooked like horrible teeth - I used to really like Edgar Allen Poe's gravestone because it's one of the more perfectly shaped traditional gravestones.  If I die wealthy enough to waste money on a really good gravestone I would quite like it to be made of glow in the dark plastic - not sure of the colour but currently I think the best colour for it would be red.

9.4.12 - Procession of line repetition reputation resolution separated colours fragmentary the fractured fragments forced into cubicles two dimension - flat fractal.

8.4.12 - Waiting for a twitchy computer response feeling like a flickering eyelash watching and waiting of the bionic organic the connection between all these interfaces spelling out obvious words.  Two points of isolated time a simple motion of spinning.

7.4.12 - tooth decay is invisible on the offset - I have great white teeth recently due to a clean up at the dentist - my gum disease was a con created by my terrible ex dentist.  Though I can feel bits of junk food accumulate between my teeth sometimes which can't really be doing me any good - the only cure for which is to stick tiny interdental brushes between them which could probably scratch them.  Is anything designed perfectly or are things designed to break down and slowly damage what they are meant to protect?  Dyson Hoovers are the only exception that spring to mind.

6.4.12 - more pulling apart of collages of canvases - some fragments can be seen throughout the next few entries... everything comes in use eventually - except for self absorbed bullies and dictators.

5.4.12 - read my friend Roger's first chapter of his book on a train journey - was worried before hand that I might not like it or that it would needs tonnes of improvement and that I'd either have to be brutally honest or pretend to love it - this has been the case when reading most stories written by friends so I was really pleased to say that it was really really enjoyable to read with some very vivid and funny description and characterisation.  And it has robots in it.  And a goat.