Parental Guidance Needed on This One!

Only last week I'd been thinking how suprised I was that I'd never found any rude and lude 'I loves' - so when I found this while walking along Swanage beach I was, it must be said, extremely chuffed! The grafitti - sprayed on soft sandstone of the cliff, and amongst other tags and pretty poor pictures - was also directly above this broken canoe. I'm not sure it's an official euphamism for anything, but I'm sure a 'broken canoe' could mean something...

Rule number 1 in my book is to find a landscape or an element of the surroundings in which I find the heart, and so often sernedipity plays its part. Sometimes there's a 'Bob loves Sue' and nearby there'll be two bins stood next to each other, which looked at in a certain way look as though they're nestling together, or two bikes leant against each other, or two happy looking windows in a wall, and here we have an 'I love cock' directly above a phallic object. Clearly, if God exists, she loves me.

Cut Out Hearts

Here's a different take on grafitti, and one that is possibly just pure vandalism, but very nicely done. We had just arrived by train in Florence and just outside the station was a three sided fabric advertising display for a movie, and in each side was cut a perfect heart.

As the rain fell, I took these images, and I'm pleased with the results - I hope that on screen they have the same effect as they do in print. The cut-away heart feels like an overlay rather than a hole, and the picture plays with the sense of space. I spent some time while taking them moving slowly around the display, watching the way the inside of the structure moved within the heart, and as I moved the heart on the far side allowed a glimpse through to the tourists and commuters behind the screen.

I must have looked very odd. Happily my children aren't old enough to be embarrassed by me yet, and after all these years, Vick has got used to it.

The Heartagram

I've been asked a few times what this version of the heart symbol means. IEach time I was asked I said I'd look it up, and at last I have - by the power of Google, I have several answers!

The symbol appears to be a mix of the Star of David and the heart, so has an almost ancient look, but it seems that it's a modern invention, possibly designed specifically to promote a 'love metal' rock band called HIM. It was designed as a mix of the heart and the pentagram, and is called a 'heartagram'. It represents Love & Hate in one symbol, or Love & Death. It's popularly worn as a tattoo by fans of the band.

OR:

it's a symbol called 'The Golden Heart' and is meant to represent.... well, it's probably easier to provide a link as i don't have the energy to translate the meaning into plain English right now: http://www.xs4all.nl/~goud/symbols.htm

I think in the locations I found it, it's far more likely to be by fans of a band than by believers in human oneness with the entirety of creation.

I expected to find the music of HIM all a bit pubescant and nurdy - the very idea of 'love metal' takes me straight back to Fry & Laurie and the Bishop and the Warlord - see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL4dxWpO6CE or if you'd like to hear a bit of love metal, clickety here: http://www.heartagram.com. It's not as desperately bad as you might think.

The picture was taken near Venice at Punta Sabbioni. Great beach, bizarrely phalic concrete shapes forming the sea wall. That comment may become clearer in a later post.

The Show is Over

Dorset Art Week is over, and it's nice to see the house back to its usual chaotic state... it's really hard work keeping the place presentable for two weeks and three weekends! Met so many interesting people, though, and had a hugely positive reaction to the work. It's spurred me on again to seek a publisher and also to try and find a gallery to take the work on somewhere a bit more urban. By which I mean London, to be honest - so many people said theyt could imagine it in a London gallery and that they were suprised to see this kind of photography in Swanage - which I took as a compliment!

This image is from Tuscany, en route from Collodi back to the campsite we were staying on. It was under a bridge, and Vicki was driving. I remember shouting 'stop the car!' and getting her to reverse back so that I could lean across to get the shot of the heart - the dappled evening light was beautiful shining through the trees on the roadside, and you can see the shadow of the car at the bottom right. We had to get moving again as a car was approaching behind, so I took a number of pictures from the moving car (all within sight of the heart of course) and got this landscape shot on the roundabout a few yards from the bridge. Love it.

I said I put some pictures on of how the show looked, so here they are. I stuck the 100 most recent shots on the wall of the hall. This is the way I see them exhibited, when I think about it. Often I only get chance to show a couple of large framed prints, and that doesn't really give a sense of the mass of the work. Seeing 100 all in one place helps people to see the collection the way it is in my head.

Calm Calm Calm

There are few things more calming than the soft green of bamboo, the rustle of the leaves way above and the scent of warm damp earth beneath. Unless you're tied to the floor above some fast growing shoots in the cliffhanger of a wartime comic strip. Battle Action Comic, I think that was in. Late 1970s, and very un-PC, but I remember the determined grimace on the commando's face quite vividly...

This is one of the images I've had on display this week as a large print, and it's proved very popular. It was taken in Tuscany, which has suprised a few people, on the edges of the Parco di Pinocchio in Collodi - a fantastic, unspoiled 1950s theme park based on the original Pinocchio story. I was familiar with the Disney version, and found the dark, dark nature of the original. The park is filled with artworks, mostly sculpture based on characters from the book, and original 1950s rides. Well worth a visit! It's also shielded from the outside world by a this wonderful bamboo, some of which has graffiti carved into it, stretched and distorted by the swift growth of the bamboo stalks.

New Favourite!

PhwaRR! I love this one - taken recently in London, close to the British Museum. As if the lovebugs weren't enough, the painted out wine sign is just beautiful. There was lots to photograph near this heart, but I got what I wanted here - I was trying to capture something that put me in mind of Howard Hodgkin, or Rothko, or Hodgkin does Rothko over Wine. Now that would be a thing.

Speaking of a thing, we're now a few days into Dorset Art Week. Had about a hundred people through so far, mostly to the preview and party, of course, but a good response to the work. I should have written down some of the wine induced comments, as they were more positive (and suprised at the display) than I imagined!

I'll post some pictures of the show in-situ in the next couple of days.

Dorset Art Weeks Imminent...

Eek! It's nearly here - starts on Saturday, 10am. It doesn't seem to matter how orgtanised you try to be months in advance, you still have sooooooooooo much to do in the last few days... still, as another print pops out of the printer, I can feel safe in the knowledge that I'm one print closer to being ready.

Just got to hang it.

I've got 100 small prints on the wall (literally), about a dozen large prints to see, plus a selection of Purbeck Alphabet pictures, and a whole load of prints in a browser, if the browser turns up. And cards, and fridge magnets, and stuff.

What I'm printing right now is some b/w stuff for the show at California Barn, which I'm beginning to wish I wasn't involved in as it's a lot of extra work, but it will be worth it come saturday, when it's done! They're shots from the quarry near St Aldhem's Head, bit different to my arty farty hearty obsession... good fun, though, both.

More on DAW at www.dorsetartweeks.co.uk - look me up!

PS: the pic above is from the underpass in the Asda roundabout in Bournemouth - smells of urine, full of litter, lost foreign students and alcoholics who look like they'd stab you if they could stand up. Bournemouth, Asda or the underpass? What do you think?!