Post archive
+ New work. (22/01/2013 - 19:05:03)
New work.
I have been unable to produce new work over the last 12 months due to family illness. My younger sister was diagnosed with bowel cancer and on the evening she started chemotherapy my father suffered a stroke. As a result of this I have been living as my father's carer in his home. Painting has been out of the question as I simply do not have the physical space nor the concentration needed to produce an image to the standard I desire. Using my Cintiq and a stylus I have spent the last months digitally painting a study for an oil which I hope to start work on once my father has gained some independence.
This painting is called Every Dream Home a Heartache - the title taken from an early Roxy Music song. I wanted to produce a work which explores beauty, possibly the last taboo in contemporary art. In it's finished form it will contain self referential elements; a development of one aspect of Baudrillard's Hyperreal theory that I last explored in my Unauthorised Realities show. Art historical references have become something of a trademark in my paintings, alongside a concern with pictorial surface and ambiguous space, and this painting references Damien Hirst and the Chapman Brothers amongst others. I have also utilised advanced colour theory with which I have been familiarising myself over the last 12 months or so.
Posted @ 19:05:03 on 22 January 2013 back to top
Exhibition review: '...a controversial and undoubtedly interesting show...'.
Posted @ 15:20:26 on 29 December 2011 back to top
Alarm Call - number 1 on exhibition in Manchester.
'Alarm Call - number 1' will be on show at Bankley Studio & Gallery in Manchester http://www.bankley.org.uk/
There is a preview on Friday 16th September 6-9pm.
Posted @ 17:25:13 on 11 September 2011 back to top
University of London video.
Here is a link to the short talk I recently gave at the University of London.
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/business/about-us/bullying/series-launch/john
Posted @ 14:17:21 on 22 June 2011 back to top
Vulnerable Selves, Disciplining Others: New approaches to bullying and conflict at work
On May 18th I will be giving a short talk at the University of London about my work The Other. This will be the opening event of a larger programme of symposia whose theme is bullying in the workplace. My painting will on display in the University for the opening seminar.
Click on the link below to book a place.
Posted @ 15:26:26 on 03 May 2011 back to top
Alarm Call no.1
New Work.
The first in a series of three and measuring 32 x 40 inches. This image references high/low culture, advertising, Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami, Ub Iwerks, portraiture and Dutch vanitas still lives. The whole thing is skewed through an absurdity filter and whilst the new palette is technicolour the humour is still black!
Posted @ 18:05:44 on 08 March 2011 back to top
My Dada is Bigger than your Dada. Part two.
The id.
I want the elements in this painting to refer to the kind of cartoon imagery that was produced in the studios of animation pioneers like Max Fleischer and Tex Avery. However my 'monster from the id' has been endowed with very adult penile horns - attributes perhaps more in keeping with a work by the Chapman Brothers than Walt Disney.
Posted @ 15:48:45 on 09 September 2010 back to top
My Dada is bigger than your Dada. Part one.
I've been working on some drawings for a new painting; My Dada is Bigger than your Dada. Everything is at the early stage and may yet end up in the virtual trash can.
The basic concept is this: our hero - the brilliant fool - is undergoing a near death experience somewhere in a back yard near you. Suffering from hypoxia, he is transported - or not - to the heavens where he is given a bird's eye view from which to search for God and meaning in the Universe. On his left and right side reside his id and super-ego respectively.
The colour study below gives some indication as to the outcome of his search.
Posted @ 02:32:03 on 01 September 2010 back to top
