More Stolen Art: Angelique Houtkamp

2010-03-09T18:30:01Z

It's with alarming frequency we hear of independent artists' work being ripped off by big businesses. Companies that seem complacent in the knowledge that individual artists won't have the financial resources to take them to court. The above is the latest example. Dutch artist Angelique Houtkamp has had her copyright blatantly breached by Swiss company Manor, with their illegal use of her artwork on t-shirts they are selling in certain stores. The above image is from her facebook page. Original discussion here. Thanks to the power of the blogosphere these companies should not be resting easy. There's a way of dealing with this: publicly naming and shaming. A recent case concerning Paperchase and UK illustrator 'The Hidden World of Eloise' proves this perfectly (read the whole sorry saga here on her blog, scroll down a few posts to get the full picture). Basically, in a nutshell, the illustrator's work was used without her permission, she contacted Paperchase herself but was fobbed off in a typical fashion. She blogged and tweeted about it and Twitter came to her aid: journalists retweeted and the story was picked up by UK national news papers and stations. Paperchase were named and shamed and eventually made a complete U-turn and actually apologised. Independent artists may not have tonnes of money at their disposal but that doesn't mean their voices can't be heard and Goliaths toppled by Davids. Blog, tweet, and retweet. Let these companies know that they are being watched and we can and will do something about it.

Thomas Hinton: In a Half Forgotton Dream

2010-03-04T11:17:54Z

Last Tuesday was the set up of a new art show at Spine Skateshop, my other half Chris's shop. It's work by local Worcester Fine Art student, skateboarder and friend of the shop Thomas Hinton. Tom's paintings are a study in repetition of form, the form being that of a windmill or wind turbine, taken from observational drawings made in Wales, Holland and Germany. The show will run until 10th April, Tuesday to Saturdays 10.30am to 5pm. They'll be another chance to see Tom's work locally at his final degree show starting 19th May at The Garage the University of Worcester's new Fine Arts Studio. Click 'Continue Reading' below to see photos of the artwork. ]]>

Clare Rojas at the Ikon Gallery

2010-03-01T21:12:12Z

Here's a nice little video showing the installation of the Clare Rojas show at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham that we attended last month. There's also footage of her performance as her alter ego Peggy Honeywell. The show runs until the 21st March. To see the video CLICK HERE. Niceness.

Massive Attack Artwork banned on London's Tube Trains

2010-02-24T23:03:09Z

This is quite interesting/preposterous: posters advertising Massive Attack's new album featuring the album artwork (by the band's Robert del Naja) have been banned by Transport for London so will not be allowed on Tube trains (London's Underground) as they look too much like graffiti. More from the BBC HERE

Love Letter

2010-02-19T17:33:04Z

I only recently found out about this fantastic public art project in Philadelphia. Love Letter is a project by Philadelphia born artist Steve ESPO Powers with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. They enlisted the help of 40 local and international artists to paint 50 murals between 63rd and 45th street on Market Street, Philadelphia. The project also includes:

"...a documentary film with scripted elements, a sign school and shop that will provide training for area youth and free signage for businesses on the market street corridor, and 2 books documenting the project. One of the books will be a small paperback that will be distributed to area businesses free of charge, for them to sell to visitors. The other book will be a larger hardcover book that will document not only the artwork, but the neighborhood and the inspirations of the Love Letter Project."

On Valentine's day last weekend there was a special, slow train ride you could take in order to view all of the murals. Such a good idea as the culmination of an amazing project! For all the photos of the wonderful, love-themed murals and general bloggings from the project visit the website at www.aloveletterforyou.com

Worcester's Vintage & Craft Fair

2010-02-11T11:48:15Z

This Saturday 13th February is also the date of the next Vintage & Craft Fair in Worcester that I co-organise. So far this week I've managed to get the worst cold-flu-bug I've had in years but have been attempting to plod on regardless and make badges, screenprint tote bags and bake vegan and wheat-free cakes. Not sure what kind of state I'll be in by Saturday, but we'll soon see. Still, it will be a good day, always a great atmosphere and lots of genuine vintage clothing sellers and handmade, DIY crafty goods to be had. It's on at St Helen's Church, Fish Street, Worcester from 10am until 5pm. I'll probably be the one with a red nose drinking lemsip, shivering behind the WAVE (Worcester Arts & Vintage Events) Stall. For more info on some of the stallholders, there's the event blog at www.worcestervintage.blogspot.com

Alternative Press

2010-02-08T22:46:54Z

Birmingham based illustrator Karoline Rerrie (who I finally met for the first time in person at the Clare Rojas show!) sent me details of this Alternative Press event taking place this Saturday 13th February, which she'll be attending. Karoline recently sent me a copy of the latest zine she's put together as part of the Girls Who Draw collective. It's a postcard book called Menagerie featuring many weird and wonderful creatures. Visit the Menagerie blog at www.menageriebook.blogspot.com and click 'continue reading' below to see a photo montage of the book: ]]>

Clare Rojas Show Part 2

2010-02-05T11:59:54Z

As promised, part two of photos from the Clare Rojas show We They, We They that opened at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham on Tuesday 2nd Feb. In the third, circular room was a display of old and antique, painted banjos. Click continue reading below for the rest of the pics.]]> Peggy Honeywell with songs from her last three albums. I was already a fan of her folky-country music so this was such a bonus. I didn't take photos with a flash but managed to get a couple of grainy pics of her playing. As I said before, the show runs until 21st March and all the info can be found on the Ikon website HERE.

Clare Rojas show at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham UK

2010-02-04T10:38:11Z

On Tuesday 2nd February we went along to the Clare Rojas show We They, We They that opened at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. This is, to my knowledge the first time Ikon has held such a show, with the UK art establishment being slow to embrace the US artists and aesthetic documented by the Beautiful Losers touring exhibition and film (that Rojas is apart of), and their UK contemporaries. So on the one hand we were excited by the fact that it was happening and on the other slightly annoyed that it had been overlooked for so long! They may have cottoned onto New US Folk Art (as it is being referred to) finally, but they are still unaware that there are artists living and working much closer to home that could be described as part of a New UK Folk Art that share the same urban influences as their US counterparts, and could put on a show (and have done!) every bit as exciting and crowd-pulling as the Rojas show. Interestingly they also had my 2nd Concrete to Canvas book in the gallery shop, which was nice to see, and features several of Roja's contemporaries and fellow Beautiful Losers. Four of the UK contributors from the two CtoC books were also in attendance that evening, something the gallery wouldn't have been aware of. Still, it was great to see the work of Rojas in the flesh, and the scale of her work and how she'd utlilised the vaulted ceilings of this former school house was very impressive. Click 'Continue Reading' below for more photos. I'll post them in two parts as we took quite a few.]]> Shaker-style wooden hanging racks where much smaller works were displayed. This included paintings based on the sheet music of her alter-ego Peggy Honeywell's songs as well as collages made from sewn fabric scraps to form borders to her work. Those also made the connection to the American quilt making tradition as an influence in her work, much more obvious. There were also paintings from her latest children's story book, published in conjunction with Ikon for the show, called Pidgy. Room 3 and the Peggy Honeywell performance in the next post. The show runs until 21st March. The official press release and all other info can be found on the Ikon website HERE

New book details!

2010-02-01T16:31:53Z

For the last few months I've been working on a new book for Laurence King Publishing to be released September/October time. I'm excited to reveal that the title is Indie Craft and it features 29 international artists/DIY/Indie crafters who work with craft techniques, i.e. knitting, crocheting, embroidery, sewing, plush characters, needle felted sculptures etc. The book will contain examples of their work, in the same format as my previous books. The Foreword is written by Faythe Levine author and maker of the documentary film Handmade Nation Contributing artists include Diem Chau, Jenny Hart, Marloes Dukyer, Misako Mimoko/Eva Monleon, Shauna Richardson, Naomi Ryder, Kate Jenkins, Knitta Please, Knit the City and Howie Woo to name just a few. I don't think I'm meant to show pics of the spreads yet but here's a sneaky peak of the title page of the spread print outs. The cover is still being worked on, so as soon as that's been finalised I'll post it here. Images shown here are by Marloes Dukyer, Shauna Richardson and Misako Mimoso as linked above. Stay tuned for more info and the full list of contributors!

Clare E Rojas at The Ikon Gallery, Birmingham

2010-01-25T23:10:41Z

US Artist Clare Rojas is having her first UK 'museum show' in Birmingham UK, at the Ikon Gallery on 3rd February until 21st March. She is also performing her music as Peggy Honeywell on the opening night on 2nd February. I'm very excited about this news and plan to be there! More details about the show can be found HERE

Exit Through The Gift Shop

2010-01-22T23:22:07Z

This looks very interesting:

Art for Haiti

2010-01-19T22:45:34Z

If you're in or around Worcester then you might want to come to this on Friday: an art and music event with all proceeds going to the Haiti relief fund. I've donated a copy of my Art by Tattooists book and they'll be prints by Chris up for grabs and an original piece by Greg Dunn (see previous post!) amongst many other local artists. The event also includes live drawing and music performances. Come along and support it if you can! More HERE on the Worcester BBC news site.

UK 3D artist Greg Dunn

2010-01-17T22:48:12Z

Greg Dunn is a friend of ours and a fantastic artist utlising multi-media and his job as a 3D technician at Hereford College of Arts and therefore master of machinery to produce these wonderful 3D objects. His trademark Flying Houses are great, such as this fantastic bamboo version with layered perspex wings which we were lucky enough to get for Christmas from him! Greg is also a BMX racer and posts pics and info about his BMXing as well as all his new art creations on his blog at www.dunn-roaming.blogspot.com. Do check it out to discover your new favourite artist!

New Year - New Tattoo

2010-01-07T16:56:55Z

I've already got 2010 off to a good start with some permanent inking! Had a little wrist tattoo of a thimble, needle and thread, based on a cover of my favourite vintage sewing book by Odhams Press. This was from their 1940s Big Book of Needlecraft' but my tattoo thimble was designed like my Great-grandmother's silver thimble made in 1900 that I was recently given (see pics of all above). Due to the size the design is only intended to incorporate a whiff of my G-Grandmother's thimble. Really pleased with it! Hoping it will also serve as a reminder to be more creative and productive this year and it's also fitting as I'll have a new craft-based book out this September - more on that v soon! My other half did the tattoo for me. He's starting 2010 off with a big lino print sale and is also now tattooing his artwork at The Blue Lotus Tattoo Studio in Worcester during the week, due to popular demand!

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