A Zeal of Zebras

Spread Your Wings.

2010-01-05T16:21:00.048Z

Intrinsically linked to street art, graffiti, social and political activism, stencil art is often a highly charged, stark art form, frequently hard hitting in its message and urgent in its presentation and execution.

Minneapolis artist Amy Rice has a very individual and magical style of her own. Her stencil based art stimulates the senses in a gentler, more subtle manner. Her paintings soothe rather than shout.

(Cupcake Lake.)

The messages present in her work are of comfort, familiarity, hope and positivity but sometimes echo with a wistfulness for bygone days, values and traditions.

(Olivia and Olivia's Mom in Pink.)

Amy grew up on a farm in the Midwest and this way of life has saturated her psyche. She captures images of nature and rural Americana but sometimes tints them with moods of melancholy nostalgia. Although no one clearly defined era is represented, childhood and observing the world through a child's eye are commonly repeated themes.

(Bundled With Bunny.)

In addition to cutting her own stencils, Amy uses a Gocco printmaker, a small home screen printing machine, originating from Japan in the 1970's which has sadly recently been discontinued due to the rise in digital printers.

(Amy's Print Gocco.)

(Failure of the RSVP.)

Because of the stencil and print element of her work. Amy's original paintings often duplicate a character or scene, but by changing elements such as the colourway or the background, it becomes a one off unique piece. Mixed media also plays a part. Often Amy will deliberately give a piece an aged or weathered appearance, for example by crackling the paint.

(Wings Are Pretty.)

Amy also loves to use found or vintage objects as a canvas or base for her work. This can include anything from a disused piece of furniture or a randomly found wooden panel. She has even used materials taken from old barns.

Found written or printed matter also find themselves beautifully incorporated. It could be an old envelope...

(Future On Wheels.)

Or a sheet of music.

(Listen.)

Antique love letters are also a favourite of Amy's and the emotional resonance of an abandoned or forgotten part of a once alive love, add a strong personal element to the finished piece.

(Eggs.)

Animals abound in Amy's work and in their poise or expression sometimes seem to be offering silent wisdom to the human viewer. Birds look us in the eye just before they spread their wings, maybe reminding us of the gift of freedom.

(Tiny Crown.)

(Take Off.)

Amy's own dog Ella is a gentle companion and source of inspiration.

(Ella and Secret Cupcake Mission.)

I love the surrealism that Amy's mind's eye sees and her art captures. It is not threatening but dreamlike.

(Wings with attitude.)

I also adore the cups and cakes that make a regular appearance. As if to say, it's 4 o' clock, let's all stop for tea and relax. Maybe the whole world should do this more.

(Feeding the Habit.)

Flowers, especially Zinnias and Hollyhocks, flourish, conjuring up country garden havens and retreats away from the pressures of the manufactured modern world.

(Flower Garden.)

The old fashioned farming of our crops and vegetables and the reward of the harvest is also celebrated.

(Be Proud Of What You Nurture And Grow.)

So is human compassion towards animals.

(You May Be Suprised At What You Grow To Love.)

Amy believes in and advocates art as a therapeutic and healing tool for sufferers of chronic and severe mental health problems. She is actively involved in this as a director of Spectrum Artworks which, in the words of Amy and the organisation's blog, is "a non-profit visual art organization in the heart of Minneapolis that provides studio space and community for artists living with a mental illness. In addition to producing amazing art Spectrum ArtWorks Artists work to educate the public about mental illness and in doing so break down the stigma associated with the disease."

"It is not an art therapy program or an art class. It is a physical studio space where artists can meet and make art, build community and work together as advocates to combat the stigma surrounding the disease of mental illness."

(Find Your Wings.)

Amy also knows the therapeutic value of a killer pair of shoes. Her love of funky Fluevogs is part of her style. She was even invited by the company to express her love of their footwear.

(Pink Fluevogs.)

(Red Fluevogs.)

Amy's profile continues to grow and wider international exposure was given to her by the inclusion of her work in the book Stencil Nation by Russell Howze.

She is perhaps one of the more unorthodox inclusions in this eclectic but graffiti top-heavy compilation of stencil art from around the globe, but her uniqueness makes her shine.

Extensive uploads of Amy's work can be viewed on her Flickr page. Her art can be found for sale online at Bluebottle Art, Art Star Gallery and through her available art blog.

Style Wars - Hit or Diss?

2010-01-02T12:25:00.022Z

Has Banksy gone too far this time? That seems to be the opinion in the world of street art if the UK media are to believed in their reports on one of Banksy's latest japes.

After a relatively quiet spell away from the public eye, following the huge summer success of his suprise Bristol show, which attracted 300,000 visitors from all over the world during its run, Banksy has been out and about with a new bunch of stencils and seems to have caused some upset. But this time it's not just the authorities he's managed to wind up.

Usually Banksy's work mocks or utilises public artefacts or space and tends to make social references or comments that the general public can relate to. One of the four of the latest London street art pieces attributed to Banksy, appears to have disrespected a fellow old school graffiti writer, Robbo and got a few backs up along the way, by painting over a long standing iconic piece of graffiti from the 1985 and incorporating it into a fresh Banksy piece, covering up much of the original in the process. The mural reflects the theme of obliterating graffiti whilst actually doing it. It also reminds us of the transient lifespan of street art, that being something which Banksy has a lot of first hand experience of, having had many of his pieces removed by town councils and a fair few also attacked by other writers, perhaps not too impressed by him becoming the golden boy of the British urban art world.

(Robbo's piece after the Banksy treatment.)

From what I can tell, the generally accepted code of conduct in the graffiti world regarding going over another writers' piece, seems to be that it's acceptable only if it's been ok'd by the writers involved or if the new piece is obviously superior to the piece that it's replacing. Old pieces, especially those that have existed since the 80's tend to be particularly revered. Robbo's work had been blighted by a few tags over the years but apparently remained relatively unscathed.

(Robbo's piece sometime prior to the Banksy makeover.)

Word soon got back to Robbo who came out of writing retirement to strike back and reclaim his piece.

(The end of the story?)

I wish Robbo had maybe taken a few more cans of colour with him and really pepped things up, but I like the way he has reverted the scene back into a kind of homage, that is now being paid by the Banksy character, to himself.

I love a man with unicorns.

2009-12-30T23:05:00.017Z

(Apollo Sunshine.)

Well, the year is drawing to a close and tonight I've been having a good old surf and uncovered a few artistic sites and names I wasn't really familiar with. Looks like 2010 might give me some more gems to blog about. In the meantime I'd just like to say a Happy New Year to anyone who checks out this blog and hope it will be a peaceful and prosperous one for you all.

And just to mark the occasion here is the long awaited, arty, ever so slightly psychedelic, zebra that I have been searching for and tonight discovered on the site of Western Massachusetts artist Nate Duval.

(Fancy Zebra.)

Nate has some great prints, that are inexpensively priced, for sale on his site. They would cheer up any room.

(Shapes and Colours.)

Or chase away the winter blues.

(Aquatic Cowboy.)

He also has an etsy store at www.etsy.com/shop/nateduval.

(A Peacock.)

Much of his work appears, at face value, to have a comforting, almost childlike quality. But he seems to enjoy tackling intricate and complex detail too.

(Silver City - Night.)

Nate also produces great gig posters.

(Black Moth Super Rainbow.)

Happy New Year!

(Golden Kitty.)

Eely Something.

2009-12-26T16:18:00.038Z

One UK artist who I think has really got into his stride producing quality prints over the last few years is Eelus. Originally from Wigan, Eelus is now based in London and after cutting his teeth (along with his stencils) as a street artist, he moved into full time graphic art and has steadily built up a respectable reputation for his artwork, becoming a stablemate of some of the better known urban art galleries, such as Pictures On Walls and the now defunct Stella Dore.

(Shat At - one of Eelus' most well known prints, seen here stenciled on a wall in Bristol.)

Several of Eelus' earlier prints use ever iconic Star Wars imagery. They remain popular with collectors of his work.

(Wot U Looking At.)

Tiffany For Breakfast, depicting Holly Golightlys' cat going psychotic is another favourite amongst his fans.

(Tiffany For Breakfast.)

The piece I Said I'm Happy (What More Do You Want) indicates a scratching away at the facade of happiness, perhaps in a floundering relationship.

(I Said I'm Happy, (What More Do You Want?))

Eelus pushed the theme even further by creating a whole set of one-off I Said I'm Happy prints, playing around with icons of popular culture.

Over the last couple of years Eelus seems to have taken a darker, more gothic tinged path. Mysterious dreamlike ladies invite the viewers' imagination to step into the unknown.

(Raven Haired - original on wood. Prints of this piece are perhaps Eelus' most admired and sought after work.)

Eelus has a blog and Facebook page that he updates regularly and is often willing to divulge insights into work in progress, inviting opinions and feedback.

(The Good, The Bad and The Moon.)

Often an Eelus piece will start life on a wall or as a one off original. One of my favourites, The Good, The Bad and The Moon made its debut as a wall stencil at the Cans Festival, a Banksy curated 3 day celebration of stencil art, held in a London tunnel in May 2008.

Needless to say, the image of two beautiful girls depicting an angel and a devil was a big hit. I was interested to see Eelus share the source material for his inspiration for this work in his blog. His girlfriends' fashion magazines provide him with a rich seam to tap into.

Eelus often will produce a very limited run of hand finished prints too, alongside the regular edition. A handful of Raven Haired were adorned with a handwritten quotation from "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe, in the margin surrounding the image.

(Raven Haired hand finished edition)

One of Eelus' most recent prints, Nesting, saw him experiment with gold leaf for the first time. Suffice to say these editions are snapped up by collectors immediately they are issued.

(Nesting hand finished edition.)

A new print, High Hopes, is due to be released early in 2010. According to his Facebook posts Eelus has a solo London show in the pipeline and a New York show amongst other projects. I think a lot of people will be falling in love with his art this year.

(High Hopes.)

An interview with Niagara Detroit.

2009-10-05T04:09:00.079+01:00

In the age of communication, things can happen fast. When I started to do this blog I thought it only right and fair that I should get permission for the use of the artists images as far as possible. Up to present everyone has been really positive and helpful. I was particularly lucky and thrilled to get great feedback and support from Niagara and her husband Colonel Galaxy for the piece I wrote on her and was invited to interview the legendary lady over the phone. It all happened pretty quickly and to be honest, after years of not really writing anything I was a little overwhelmed by the speed of events and felt a bit scared of writing up and editing the interview and buried my head in the sand for a few weeks. It took me a couple of months to get my creative mojo back and tackle the job in hand, but finally here it is.

In the event I have kept the interview pretty much as it happened. Niagara was friendly and happy to chat and reading it back, there's loads of things I would like to have asked her more about. She is a seriously talented and original lady and as both a musician and an artist she has played a central role in two of the great counter culture events of the last few decades, namely the punk rock scene and the lowbrow art movement.

Anyway, here's the interview and just to give a bit of background information, it was conducted over the phone whilst I was suffering the end stages of a two day hangover. The time was afternoon in Detroit where Niagara lives. In fact, Niagara had kindly set the interview back a day to give me time to recover! But I still hadn't shaken off the headache...

Niagara: "Don't you have pills?"

A Zeal of Zebras: "I've taken the pills, the pills haven't really worked! How are you?"

Niagara: "Pretty good. It's really dreamy here today, so amazing. Where we live, my garden is like a jungle, I can't believe I did it, I guess it took a while. You live in Manchester right?"

A Zeal of Zebras: "No I live in Leeds, it's very close to Manchester..."

Niagara: "It's a gorgeous area there, Manchester is gorgeous... (When Niagara held an exhibition of her work at the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester) We went up north to, what, the Lake country?"

A Zeal of Zebras: "Lake district."

Niagara: "We took a train and met somebody and we went to the castles, fantastic! And the little strange villages. Yeah, it was all good."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Had you been there before, was that the first time?"

Niagara: "Well we'd been to Manchester before. (During her days with the bands Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival.) I'd travelled around the country, the whole country in what, seven days or something? I remember it was gorgeous back then, I'm sure it's been built up but the district was still happening and it was just beautiful, just like going into the past."

(Niagara with her band Dark Carnival.)

Anyway what do you want to know?"

After a quick discussion about blogs and Niagara's Facebook page, this lead us onto the strong ties between Lowbrow art and the web.

A Zeal of Zebras: "In England in my experience, a lot of people aren't very aware of artists such as yourself from (the Lowbrow and Pop Surrealism scene in) America and it's only because I've done an awful lot of surfing around that I seem to have come across it. I mean even Juxtapoz (the US based magazine specializing in covering this art scene), a lot of people haven't heard of it over here. It's still very underground really."

Niagara: "Yeah I heard a lot of people were just checking it out and getting onto it. Thank God for the internet. From different countries in Europe they've been contacting us, like in Germany they said "this is like this new wave artist," kind of a new thing for artists. I was surprised, they were starting to explain it in magazines and articles about me and whoever.. So it's going up steps forwards and a couple of steps back. At least everyone's checking it out. People are interested, you can't buy that."

A Zeal of Zebras: "I think people are realizing there are like-minded people in other places and as you say the internet has been a big help. In England the art scene as a whole is pretty dull and the so called alternative art is quite pretentious. For me it's just really nice to see things which are exciting and I don't have to think too hard about it - "I like that, that's great" and it's also taken away the snob value."

Niagara: "Well here also there is a lot of new art, a lot of artists that are younger, that have been coming out, thank God for Juxtapoz, but there still are different galleries that do the snob thing. There's always different degrees of art and galleries, so that's everywhere. People know what they like pretty fast. We're all catching up, everyone's catching up, there's always more."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Now it's just a bit more accessible..."

Niagara: "Yeah, it's a miracle. I mean, things that influenced me when I was little, the internet hasn't been around that long, but for decades I'd have to go to the library, I mean you have to really dig for stuff, for the scene that you like, for art that you like and you know, garage sales and magazines and old books and library basements... Yeah now you can just press a button!"

A Zeal of Zebras: "I think as well, if you went to art school or something you were very reliant on who was giving you the information - "Read this book, read that book..." so again, you were limited."

Niagara: "It's true. That's right. I think most of the things I found out about that I could really relate to, that I loved the look of, wasn't something that somebody told me of, I searched that out, you know, myself. You find a little clue and then you go figure like a detective."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Do you think the internet has taken the fun out of finding new art or on the whole do you think it is good? Do you think taken some of the difficulty or the challenge out of it?"

Niagara: "Absolutely, that's absolutely true. Before the internet was really hot, like in the mid nineties or something, up until then it was all magazines and newspaper articles and you just wanted to get written about, which you still do. But if you were lucky enough to get in magazines, now you can be found on the internet and get a following without even being in the press and the free press. And now the papers are going out of business (laughs) and magazines are going out of business, which I think is a shame because I think magazines are a really important art form. I love magazines."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Yeah. I have some music magazines from the 70s and 80s and there's just nothing like it now. There's nothing that I think I'd want to hang onto now. But again a lot of creative people gravitated around the music scene - like yourself. If there wasn't an art scene you could get into, then you could get into music and a lot of art that I have discovered has come from record sleeves. Like Anthony Ausgang, I discovered him through record sleeves. I'm sure you were a part of that as well... Creative people."

Niagara: "Sure, I'm good friends with Anthony...Well, Juxtapoz brought a lot of people to the surface. I don't know really what would have happened without that. I'm always thanking Robert Williams. It was because of him that any of us have a career. I mean it would have been a lot slower going, if going at all, for a lot of people out there. But even the economy now, a lot of artists I talk to are just really open about it, I mean all of them that I know are saying, you know, I haven't had shows as much and I haven't been selling. But it will turn around and people still are doing things and people always love art. But for a lot of people it is make it or break it time."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Yeah I can imagine. How about yourself? I know you've had some international shows. How are things happening for you at the moment?"

Niagara: "Pretty good. First I did shows through America and then when I started wanting to go internationally that seemed to be pretty easy, which I mostly do now and it hasn't been bad at all. I mean, I'm going back to Australia this January and we go about every two years and my shows luckily have sold out and hopefully that will continue! But I'm concentrating now on a New York gallery which I was searching out for a decade. I wanted a nice gallery and I think I've found one in Salon 94. That's a really nice gallery and the owner is wonderful . So we're going to New York like every couple of months now. And on the internet on our website, I think they're selling, I mean mostly not paintings, but prints, sell very well and giclees, so I'm very happy about that."

"I remember times when I was in a band years ago and money wasn't always coming in readily, so it's just a rush that's its keeping on and I'm very happy about it."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Yeah and I think things like giclees, sometimes people can't afford an original for whatever reason but the prints and giclees, usually people can come up with the money for that or even the merchandise that you're doing. It's a way of people having something by an artist and you're both happy about it."

Niagara: " That's how I feel because I wasn't always in a ton of money and you know a giclee looks exactly like a painting if you get a good printer which we have and you can enjoy it until one day when you're rich you can get a painting! (Laughs.) But it looks just fine you know, it's just a beautiful reproduction, I'm just so glad whoever discovered that. Someone French obviously! Yeah you want to have something out there that people can enjoy."

A Zeal of Zebras: "It's also a means of promoting yourself in a way. Someone might buy a giclee and someone else might see it and say - who's that by. In fact when I was younger, I went to university for a little while and the first thing you do is go to the poster sale and buy a poster - it brightens up your room and you feel a little bit cultural!"

Niagara: "That's right. You need some good artwork. To be honest I always get house magazines and check out the art people have and when they have a designer fix their house they usually have a designer pick a painting which will look something like wall paper. I mean these people don't really know what to pick through artwork but they have a designer put up some bland kind of... something that goes with the couch and you go, "Man, this room would really zip up with one of my paintings!" (Laughs.) Boy, then they would really have a personality! Yeah, but people, they have to find out for themselves, what turns them on."

A Zeal of Zebras: "I'd like to ask you about the colours that you use. I've been lucky enough to see some of your originals but even on the internet, the colours in your paintings are just incredible and I just wondered if there's anything behind that, that you can tell me about. How you come up with these amazing bright colours and..."

Niagara: "Combinations. Yeah, I think a colour always looks better depending on what you combine it with, I mean you take one colour that might look ugly or you don't like, but it's just in the combining of them, you know, what goes with what and I don't know... people either have a colour sense or they don't. Or very often it's just a matter of what they like best, different colour senses. I've finally put together the style that I've been looking for, for so long."

"I mean, I was doing kind of more a pop art thing and I was trying to do more, instead of using big blobs of colour, big colour forms, trying to use more layering of colours. So I've finally got to a point where I've got all this practice on different techniques, so I can do, you know the girls are still there, still intense, the colours move into each other and there's a lot of layering and, I've been practicing on that and it's got to a point that I'm very happy with."

"I can't wait to start painting for this whole season now, that will be cool. It's just that, it seems so easy looking at it, it seems obvious but it took a few years to get that together. I've tried collages and it's always fun, every year, you do something different, you know, a little bit... experiment."

A Zeal of Zebras: "I thought the collages were really beautiful, they were incredible. Again it seemed like a simple idea,but you just put them together so well, the picture and the little chinese motifs and things."

Niagara: "People like that. I heard you've got one of the Opium paintings."

A Zeal of Zebras: "I have, I've got Opium Lust."

Niagara: "That's great. I think it's a little different because they're like sheer collages instead of opaque pictures that you cut out. It's all another layering thing too, you can see different things through it. When you put on different sheer colours then you get new colours that kind of thing... I'm glad you like that."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Even the lighting as well, if change the lighting in my room I see different things."

Niagara: "Sure... and when you take acid you see even more things! (laughs) It works really good!"

A Zeal of Zebras: "Never gone down that road I must admit. Too scared!"

Niagara: "What, is there is still acid in England somewhere?"

A Zeal of Zebras: "Probably!"

Niagara: "It's just comforting to know even if we're not going to take it anymore, it's always there if we want to!

"We used to party almost constantly. When you paint though, painting gets you high. It's amazing to get that high on painting and NOT have a hangover! You know everything I do, there's a hangover attached except for painting! So it's a nice kind of change."

A Zeal of Zebras:"What are you painting at the moment? Do you paint every day or do you get your thoughts together first? How does it work?"

Niagara: "Yeah I get myself together! (Laughs.) Well actually it seems to work out every year where in the Spring I usually take off for a while, I mean there's always something to do that I have to do for a show, to prepare or maybe a group show. But I try to do other things in the Spring, other projects and then I think a lot about how it's going to change and where I'm going to go with it and what I'm going to do - and it doesn't matter, it all comes together when you start painting. Once I start, I can't stop. I'll paint like every night for seven hours until Spring again! So it's like a series, it goes through Fall until Spring and it's Winter here, it's like snowy so you're shut in, you become a shut in and you don't have anything to throw you off, which is a really good thing, I just love the winter and you're just snowbound and painting and everything's ok."

"I should mention in Manchester where I think you might know I have a gallery there, it's the Richard Goodall Gallery, such wonderful people, I've been with them for a little while."

A Zeal of Zebras: "It's one of the few galleries in England that is really promoting the Juxtapoz scene."

Niagara: "Yeah I didn't know it was one of the few. I mean it's the only one I've been showing at. Yeah so he really is a rarity isn't he?"

A Zeal of Zebras: "I try and go over to the shows that they put on there when I can, they are doing a really good job. Often the alternative galleries in England are showing more graffiti artwork and graffiti artists. I think some of them now are coming round to the fact that there's this whole seam of artists from America that have just done amazing work."

Niagara: "It's almost like the graffiti stuff had a high and then a low. Artists that used to work on the street, a lot of the good ones and the better ones are showing in galleries, you know doing stuff inside for galleries and not as much on the street which is convenient for them. (Laughs.) Yeah that seems to be changing round, there's so many phases and fads in the art world and it takes so long to catch on and they take a while to get respect and get any money for them, so it's like a whole process."

(Collaboration between Niagara and Yumiko Kayukawa.)

A Zeal of Zebras: "I wanted to ask you about your collaboration with Yumiko Kayukawa." (Yumiko is a Japanese artist now based in Seattle.)

Niagara: "She's a doll!"

A Zeal of Zebras: "How did you get to know her and get involved with her?"

Niagara: "Oh yeah I remember now! There was this beautiful art gallery in Detroit and I was involved with them when they opened up and they wanted to show me and I was like their artist. And they started reaching out to everybody and to Juxtapoz artists and would have these fantastic shows and everyone used to come here and Yumiko was one of the artists that showed one month when we first met her... She was really sweet and we talked a lot and we had pictures taken and then, it was Halloween so they took her to a haunted house, causes we have haunted houses and Detroit is a big Halloween town - and it scared the hell out of her and I think she sat somewhere and started crying... I think they just pushed her over the edge, she's sensitive and it was too much pressure but yeah, she paints and she paints a lot."

"The things we did together turned out amazingly well. It was funny how we thought we'd both paint, like I'd do two paintings, you know like half of them unfinished, so I did the background and a figure and she'd put in animals and whatever and she said to me like the concept, I thought she would do something like that but she just figuratively cut the canvas in half and painted one side of it so that was kind of cute but they all came out really neat looking and came out better than I thought. You never know it was so much fun doing that, you really get to know another artist and it makes you think in a whole different way and I really like that. Any artist would."

(Collaboration between Niagara and Yumiko Kayukawa.)

A Zeal of Zebras: "Do you think you'd do it again at any point with anybody else?"

Niagara: "Sure. I mean, at first it's like, why bother? It's like I'm always dragged screaming into different ideas, different curators will say "Do this, I have this great idea, like everyone's going to paint spacemen" or whatever! (Laughs.) Sometimes you gotta say, "Ah no!" And sometimes at the last minute you come up with something."

"One guy wanted, he had all these artists paint Darth Vadar helmets. He got the original made from Disney or whoever the hell made them and it was like $100 to buy these helmets for each artist and I was saying "Forget it" and then at the last minute I painted, you know, I got this great idea! And it was one of the guy's favourites and it comes out really amazing. People will say ah, "Lunch boxes" and you go "Come on!" but then you do something fantastic and rise to the occasion."

(Customised Darth Vader helmet by Niagara.)

A Zeal of Zebras: "It's like the customising thing isn't it? You did some Vans trainers didn't you? Some sneakers?"

Niagara: "Yeah I'm still working with Vans, those guys were fantastic. They were great and we had a show in Paris and also in England and we were going around and the shoes were following us. They were reprinted beautifully, everything they do is a bang up job. They have another section of the company that wants to do something with me. You know, I'll do anything with those guys."

(Vans by Niagara.)

A Zeal of Zebras: "That would probably raise your profile a lot too as a lot of people love their sneakers don't they? They get quite obsessive about them and follow the trend."

Niagara: "People do. I mean, I don't. I'm like "Yeah this is something I'm gladly willing to do but it's not like I'm going to be wearing them (laughs) unless you make, like high heel sneakers!" Yeah they look like pieces of artwork. There's also a company, Hysteric Glamour, have you heard of them?"

A Zeal of Zebras: "Yeah I saw it on your site. I think I tried to link to it and a lot of it was Japanese and I got a bit confused!"

Niagara: "Yeah I guess they don't sell in America really but Nobu the owner comes here a lot and he does photo shoots in Detroit cos he's a Detroit obsessive. You know he was a fan of mine years ago. It's like he's on another planet but he likes me. I'm going - "That's how things should be!"

"This guy, he's like keyed in to the Detroit scene. He knew all my music and brought us to Japan but this man put together an empire of all these beautifully made clothes and they give us a lot of clothes and I give them away to people and everyone just loves them. It's the best material, very nicely done and I guess, they have like 40 stores in Japan and in Tokyo they're next door to Prada. Really good designer, kind of punk design."

"So I've been doing collages for them and they take my designs and throw them on the clothes. They had originally done it with collages I made in the 70's and I didn't even know. They were telling me about what they were doing and using from our book and it was like my whole life on these clothes because there's pictures from, you know, from when I grew up or in a band. They're on these clothes (laughs) from photos, cause, you know, we use lots of photos and it was like a diary, my diary, pictures on these clothes. I was like "What the hell is going on!" So that was great but those guys were fantastic too to work with. I've been really lucky with these two companies. I am lucky!"

A Zeal of Zebras: "So how about things show-wise? I know you said you've got Australia, is it Outre Gallery that you go to?"

Niagara: "That's right! I had to think for a while, every two years I have to think of the name."

A Zeal of Zebras: "I've checked them out online and they seem really on the ball, they're doing a really good job."

(Niagara at one of her shows at Outre Gallery in Australia.)

Niagara: "Oh they are, those guys are really organized. They've put us up and we go to Sydney and Melbourne and I had played there, when did we play there in the 90's I guess. The band went, I went with Ronnie (Asheton) and our band and that was like for a month. We played almost every night. That was the best tour ever and we wanted to go back. And then I had an art show there a few years ago and Ronnie was going "I never get to go back to Australia" and it was funny because then they booked the Stooges there and we were there at the same time and that happened a lot where I met up with Ronnie in Europe and in Australia, just you know coincidentally. We'd do an art show where the Stooges were playing and hang out, that was wonderful."

(Niagara watching the reformed Stooges in Australia.)

A Zeal of Zebras: "I did actually see the Stooges when they reformed, they played at the Leeds festival a few years ago. I obviously didn't see them originally but it was fantastic to see them, they were doing the Fun House album and it was just amazing. The same weekend there were some of the MC5 guys playing at this festival so I was totally made up. I can't believe I'm seeing these two bands in the same weekend of my life."

Niagara: "That must be weird I mean how often does that happen? I know how nuts about them I was when I was growing up and if I had been too young to see them and had got a chance that would be freaky, I never thought about it from that angle."

(Niagara with Ron Asheton of the Stooges and Fred 'Sonic' Smith of the MC5.)

A Zeal of Zebras: "And they were both amazing which was something. It wasn't like, oh dear, they're not very good."

Niagara: "No because almost all bands when they come back, a lot, something's missing, the feeling that you expect. A curator I know wouldn't see them in LA and he kept hearing how fantastic they were and he was begging me for a ticket. We got him in the show and he was so happy to go because it was killer. It sounded like it sounded, they didn't try to fancy it up or sophisticate it out. They just did the beautiful plan, like originally and it was just great."

"Yeah it was a miracle that happened, Ronnie became a millionaire. I mean when we played together, we were playing a lot and we were making money, we had apartments. I always remember when we stayed with his mother and you know that was the lower point. There was a couple of years at least when we lived all together with Scotty and those were really wild times so I usually talk about that. But you know we were making money and going places and taking care of ourselves. I mean we were sometimes. But yeah we did pretty good for a long time, we stayed together, God, maybe 15 years or something."

A Zeal of Zebras: "So was Ronnie in both the bands? Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival?

Niagara: "Yeah he was in both. Dark Carnival started out when the Colonel put (together) like an all star band of Detroit musicians, you know the kookiest ones, some of his favourite wierder people and Ronnie was actually filming it. I was trying to get him involved because, you know, he should be doing something and we had broken up the band. So he was filming and he was in movies at that point, some horror movie. He started filming us and became more involved and he became the guitarist for the band."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Do you still dabble with music? Are you still involved in it?"

Niagara "Well sometimes, you know it's hard to do both. For me it's hard to paint all the time yet go to band practice, but I do have bands. Well, when I went to Japan, a Japanese band there would memorize and practise the songs I gave them, then we'd have one practice when I got there. Then we'd perform. That happened in Australia too. I had a band that probably would be my band now. I played with them two years ago, it was a great show, it was pretty fun, it worked out, sometimes it does! And a guy is putting out a record of that live show. It's out of Philadelphia and they're putting out a CD - Shock records. So I guess I'm going to play with them again and it's always great because when you paint you're alone which is fine. It's nice having the guys, they're all great. It's fun to practice with them, you go out and it all comes back, pretty cool."

"So yeah the music thing is here and there and I don't know if I'd go on a heavy month long tour with them, if someone cares.. I probably still wouldn't do it! But you know there's always a possibility."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Do you feel that you're a different person onstage to the artist or you still a similar person when you're doing both. Does it open up two different doors?"

Niagara: "No it's about the same. I mean it's not like I'm an Alice Cooper type where I get a different personality onstage.It's not like I'm in a movie playing a part, just being yourself in a way, maybe amplified. I mean I've got to admit it's got to be amplified a little bit. I put on extra eyeliner! (Laughs) But yeah, its the same damn thing."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Who were your influences originally? I know you predated a lot of the punk stuff really didn't you? So when you first joined the band, who did you look to as an influence or inspiration?"

Niagara: "I think it would just have to be the Stooges, sure. Because that was just overwhelming in Detroit and there were a lot of people making fun of them then and also at that time when you'd go in a record store after they had just broken up... I mean they were together a very short time in the beginning so people would just laugh. I mean I couldn't get their albums because I'd worn mine out but they were just like incredible to me."

"When I was living in Ann Arbour that's when I met Ronnie and he'd just came off another band. He was playing in L.A. and he thought he'd get some free beer and play with us! (Laughs) And then it turned into, we fell in love and he became my boyfriend. He wanted to be in the band and he liked the guys and we shaped it up and changed it around and we played together so long... I mean, jeez I don't know, three times as long as when he was with the Stooges."

"We wrote a lot of good songs which people are finding out about and they're always buying the CD off the website and it's nice to know. People, they're already familiar with his stuff with the Stooges, they're finding out his other stuff which is really great. So that's always good. I want people to remember him for the band, it's not that hard to remember when you have all that stuff recorded, it's good stuff. It's great. He was my favourite guitarist."

A Zeal of Zebras: "When I saw them play it was mind blowing. It was that Stooges guitar, that sound. Just this guy stood there - how does he get that noise out of that thing? Punk rock, starting with English scene, but then discovering the American scene, was the first alternative music I ever listened to when I was a teenager. So it's always been very important to me as well, obviously from a different angle. I think it took a long time for the Stooges legacy to happen but it has happened."

Niagara: "Right. The critics were not kind to them often and the band did break apart because of many problems. But then again, every band from the punk era and later was influenced by the Stooges. Almost every one to a guitar player was. I don't know any guitar player that influenced so many others, because his stuff was melodic and beautiful but it was very hardcore and very simply done and when people heard it they said, "Well I can probably learn guitar. (Laughs) I can do this, you know. I can't play like Hendrix but... I mean everyone we met in punk bands all around the world, they always said, "Ronnie if it wasn't for you..." kind of thing. So that was cool."

A Zeal of Zebras: "I read about the memorial concert, that you put together for him. It must have been very sad..." (Ron was found dead, having suffered a heart attack at his home, on January 6th 2009. Niagara and Colonel Galaxy organised a free tribute concert to him, at the Music Hall Detroit, with funds raised being donated to Ron's favourite charity The Michigan Humane Society.)

Niagara: "It was, but I was in .. You're just never ready for something like that. You can never anticipate a pit that you're going to fall in to. But everyone was calling and being very nice and when I finally was taking calls they would be saying, "Well when is the memorial, how can we pay respects?" and I'd go "I'm waiting for the family." You know, I had to tell Ronnie's sister that he was dead and that was horrible."

"I was closer to Ronnie than anyone for years and years and I was thinking all of a sudden, "I'm waiting for the family, what am I waiting for? Of course we have to arrange it." I came out of the black gloom for a second and once we arranged it we'd go to bed, it took your mind off not freaking out. Colonel did a lot and they doped me up and drove me down in the limousine and it was like, I wasn't feeling any pain, it was priceless. So then - it's the most beautiful 1920s place in Detroit, just gorgeous. Everyone was wonderful, it was a huge snowstorm that night but a lot of people braved the snow and storm. John Holmstrom came in from Punk magazine and stayed with us. But yeah that's that one off.. I guess you could see some acts on Youtube too. I got a guy to do, we got all these bands covering certain songs and the music turned out great, but I got someone to play bagpipes because years and years ago Ronnie said that when he died he wanted bagpipes at his funeral. I don't think anyone really knew that, but we actually found a guy that did it and wore the whole outfit and the skirts. You can see that on Youtube. He was amazing. Beautiful."

"Now what do you want to know about the artwork?"

A Zeal of Zebras: "Do you have kind of a story in mind because to me your paintings are a bit like a moment from a story, do you have a story around them or does something just pop into your head?"

Niagara: "That's a really good way to put it. That's the best way I've heard yet. I think a lot of it comes from a whole history and encyclopedia of stuff that I grew up reading and the movies. You know, the golden age of Hollywood which I still think, that will never be equaled. No one can get back to those times at all. And even the costumes and the actresses and everything, it was different then. The money to make one dress that Greta Garbo wore back then is more than a movie costs now. They had so many fantastic people from Europe flooding in to America and doing all these great costumes and sewing and nobody... There's somebody that does it (now). They exist in Paris, perhaps."

"But just the grace of everyone in those films. I mean it's like I distill the passion and the evil and the glamour out of these films, is what I try to do and have them say something so they can talk. But you know I just want it to look gorgeous and kind of reflect that time. Even when you reflect something back then it has something of the violence of the present in it, I mean I am from Detroit and it's hard to get away from the violence, so that's where it all comes from."

A Zeal of Zebras: "I did wonder about the costumes, because your pictures do have a kind of 1930's and 40's feel to them and yet there is quite a modern feminist (angle.) The women are very in charge basically. So I did wonder how those two went together."

Niagara: "The women that they used to have were actually, the movies might be based around women and for many decades a lot of that was lost. It was men with men and men with men friends blowing away other men and the women seemed to be so much more intense like in the Disney cartoons where the evil one was always this incredible woman. I always thought she was the best, so that's the way I look at those."

"It's a fearlessness that I put on the paintings that people, when they have them in their house and they have to face their day, can get something out of it. You have to confront your fears to get rid of them and to lessen them. So it's kind of that idea. And, you know, a little crime.There's a lot of crime and they're pretty nonchalant about it. Sometimes there's humour about it and I'm definitely getting more detail in there. It's kind of a style I used to paint before I went more pop, but the pop thing got me more famous and it was so simple. I like that too, so I'm trying to combine all these things and put them in a painting and not have a hangover!" (Laughs.)

A Zeal of Zebras: "Do you think men and women react differently to your paintings or get something different out of them, or approach them differently?"

Niagara: "Not as much as you'd think. I had a curator here in the beginning saying "Working women would really like this stuff," but the men it's actually... it's like 50-50. I haven't found any difference. The men know it's not insulting anybody. The men like it just as much. I mean everyone gets it, in every city the same way, which is always a surprise. But everyone is basically the same everywhere you know with slight variations. All the shows are very similar, the people are great and that's a good show, they laugh and they like it. But yeah, it's cool."

A Zeal of Zebras: "So there haven't been any cultural problems, such as in Japan, either?"

Niagara: "No, I think the one thing that we were told is that the Japanese, at least now, they think photography is a higher art form. That was wierd, that seemed odd. So they're into that a little bit. But seeing as they're putting my paintings on clothes, I'm not going to complain and everyone was so nice. But yeah it was like a different planet in Tokyo, everything was clean and wonderful and everyone was super nice. I haven't really been anywhere that I didn't like. It's nice travelling for an art show, people are great , real supportive. It's a good job."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Can I just ask you a little bit about Detroit? Have you always lived there or have you ever moved away from there?"

Niagara: "Not as much as you'd think. The base has always been here. I lived with Ronnie in Ann Arbour for quite a while and Ann Arbour is a very sweet town and all that and it was fun being there. But I really wanted to leave Ann Arbour, it was just too small. So I came to Detroit. But then we have a house here that is very nice and it's not expensive to live here really and everything's kind of old style. The city is like art deco and all the buildings almost are still up because its too expensive to tear them down. You can get you know a beautiful mansion for $300, 000. But I don't know the city is kind of, it's getting more dangerous it's true. I don't know what's going to happen to it."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Is there still a thriving art scene in Detroit?"

Niagara: "There wasn't a huge art scene particularly until when I went to my astrologer in the early 90's and he said you know you're going to be a purveyor of an art scene and it's going to be in Detroit in the mid 90's and I was like "yeah right, like that's gonna happen." But that's exactly what happened."

"Once the Cpop Gallery opened, people came here from around the country and the people who were running it, they had a lot of dough and put all the best things in it. It was a gorgeous, huge gallery and I'd put on big parties. I did like it was a rockshow where there was always music and drinking and it was a lot of fun. It wasn't austere and quiet and like a church, which I remember from artshows, which turned me off. Everyone thought they had to be quiet and scared! So people went nuts and they were buying art and it was thriving. Now it's gone a little south."

"Cpop just closed recently. Detroit was too tough and people were a little nervous about coming into town. There's still galleries here and there, but of course everything everywhere has changed a bit and Detroit's been hit so bad. I don't know what will happen. There's places you can get prints of mine, or you can get paintings, but I haven't had a show here for a while. I'm always out of town, in New york I guess."

A Zeal of Zebras: "It's a shame."

Niagara" "Yeah, there's always change. I don't know how it will change next. At least people like artwork. They just don't know what to do about it. There'll still be something, there's always people that can afford it and if they can't they can afford something much less excessive if they want."

A Zeal of Zebras: "People always need some creativity and no matter how bad things are they always need a bit of decoration."

Niagara: "Life isn't worth living, no matter what it is, you need a little bit of luxury, no matter how cheap it is. (Laughs.) You need some sort of beauty. You can always get beauty, you don't have to spend a lot for it."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Can I ask you about any new work or new directions? Anything you're working on or planning on working on at the moment?"

Niagara: "Yeah I think, I talked a little about it... I'm trying to get a new kind of level of detail and plus simplicity. I like a real simple painting, but I like doing all these different layers of colour and all these different sheer things. I mean, people can be hynotised by certain colours together and overlapping and it just looks like magic and sometimes the painting looks like it has much more depth and the girls are getting so gorgeous!" (Laughs.)

"You know sometimes people like ugly paintings, that's their choice and sometimes ugly things that they can't understand. People think they're very sophisticated but sometimes you know you can't even figure why something... It's just a matter of, I guess, marketing and someone at the gallery will market something. But still, you have to paint who you are and what you like or people know it's not real. So yeah, I have a real good time painting. It's my life that's all, is painting. I think that will be the key this whole next year. Maybe for a while. I've kind of found a happy medium and the simplicity and the complexity and the movies and the sayings and the what they will be like, so that's bout it, we'll see what happens and we'll send you some paintings the you'll see what the hell I'm doing! Cause then I don't know."

A Zeal of Zebras: "Do you use models for your paintings ever? I saw that you did some that were depicting film stars but do you ever have real models?"

Niagara: "Not really no. It's not necessary, if you need a body to paint you can always look in the mirror. That's what art teachers taught me, if you wanna see something and you don't have a model, look in a mirror. But yeah, I kind of get an idea from a pose or a part of a pose that I'll want different. I can just change it up, but you always hit on something either like a colour combination. It's always changing, what influences, what inspires. It might be "I'm gonna use these colours," or "I like the idea of this face or this way this person might look," or if something appears in your brain and you go out and paint that. Then I'll find what she says later or you have a saying that someone has to say and then you pick an expression in your head that you want her to look like. It doesn't always come from one direction. Like, when you write a song it usually was, you know, Ronnie would write the music or somebody in the band would write the music and then you write the words what it sounds like, which fits it. But painting for me it comes from all different ways..."

"You've done pretty good with that headache how are you feeling?"

And so the interview drew to a close.

I would like to say a big "Thank You!" to Niagara and Colonel Galaxy for their time, support, encouragement and generosity.

Niagara's website is at www.niagaradetroit.com and features an online gallery of her artwork and news on exhibitions, both past and upcoming. There is also a shop with a great selection of artwork: prints, giclees and originals, Niagara merchandise and CD's by Dark Carnival and Destroy All Monsters. A retrospective book of her artwork, Beyond The Pale is also available, signed copies can be obtained from her site. Being a modern gal, you can also friend Niagara on Facebook.

Finally, just to give folks a flavour of Niagara's music, here are a few links to Youtube footage of her performing live, some recorded work and also the above mentioned bagpipe tribute that was touchingly performed for Ron Asheton at his memorial concert. Just click the arrows at the side of the screen to jump between clips.

Child's Play.

2009-10-01T05:16:00.013+01:00

Vinyl toys open up a whole new avenue of collecting possibilities for anyone with an interest in Urban and Lowbrow art. They are regularly customised by many artists from these fields. It's not a road I've really dared to travel down, there's just too many of them and not enough disposable income to go round. (Let alone surface space in my house.)

One designer toy that was issued recently has caught my eye however and I may have to raid the piggy bank. It's a My Little Pony customised by the brilliant Japanese artist Junko Mizuno (who is so fab I will have to save her for another blog sometime.)

Junko originally personalised an 18" high pony for The My Little Pony Project, a charitable fundraising event celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hasbro's eternally popular My Little Pony toy.

Original customised My Little Pony - Junko Mizuno.

The limited edition toy is a faithful reproduction of Junko's original, which she decorated in her trademark "Kawaii Noir" style, literally a mix of cuteness and darkness.

Well I never had a My Little Pony when I was young. I think this is the one for me.

Brush Up!

2009-09-29T05:23:00.010+01:00

Art and auctions go hand in hand obviously. This week I heard about an art auction with a bit of a difference. Firstly it's a charity auction, raising funds for GiGi's Playhouse, a Down syndrome awareness centre with bases in Illinois and Iowa, North America. Secondly the auction is not actually for works of art, but a chance to bid on used brushes, donated by a galaxy of Low Brow stars including Mark Ryden, Josh Agle (Shag), Tara McPherson and Scott Musgrove, to name but a few.

The auction, entitled The Brush Project is being conducted entirely online on eBay and in the meantime the brushes can be viewed virtually at Rotofugistore on eBay and in person at Rotofugi Gallery in Chicago.

The show is being curated by the David van Alphen, owner of the DvA Gallery and himself an artist who creates surreal 70's-reliving kitsch collages under the guise of Netherland. The chosen charity is very close to his heart, being a parent of a young child affected by Down syndrome.

The auction is running now and is due to end on October 6th. Bids have started at a very reasonable $10 to $20, so this could be a great opportunity to bag one of the tools of the trade of a modern master and help a charitable cause while you are at it.

Brush donated by Marion Peck.

Brush donated by Mitch O'Connell.

Brush donated by Jeremiah Ketner.

Brush donated by Derek Yaniger.

Liddle Ladies.

2009-09-15T00:18:00.024+01:00

One of the best things about the Pop Surrealism movement, for me, is the representation of highly diverse, but equally hugely talented female artists and in turn, the wide scope of female characters they concoct.

Seattle based Lisa Petrucci is a well established name in the Lowbrow world and her style is unique but also, often strangely familiar. Lisa paints distinctive candy coated scenes of cute big eyed gals. Working with bright liquid acrylics on plaque shaped pieces of pine, which are then coated with a thick shiny gloss called Envirotex, the vitality in Lisa's paintings really shines through.

(Liddle Wonder Woman Saves The Day - Lisa Petrucci.)

The familiar feel of Lisa's work undoubtedly comes from the fact that she is heavily influenced by aspects of popular culture common to most of us. These stem from her childhood but also she was shaped by elements of the counter-cultures of the 50's and 60's. Her works are a kind of playback of the mental VHS tape of her youthful obsessions, that she brings back to life and replays, for all of us to enjoy today through her lively ladies' antics.

(Go Go in the Garage - Lisa Petrucci.)

Lisa is an avid collector of toys and dolls from the 1970's and the associated love of dressing up and play acting carries over into her characters and their roles.

(Liddle Pirate Girl - Lisa Petrucci.)

She has been known to incorporate the cult 70's doll Blythe into her work too.

(Blythe on the Range - Lisa Petrucci.)

Among Lisa's other fascinations are comic books, cartoons, Big Eyed art, Tiki art, Kitsch and thrift store finds of all varieties.

(Part of Lisa's extensive personal collection of vintage Big Eyed art.)

The other side of Lisa's coin, is her long standing love affair with the dark, sleazy underworld of the 50's pin up magazine, the first titillating nudie movies and the daring, usually anonymous, girls who stripped for them. She pays tribute to these pioneering, boundary pushing beauties in her work.

(Big Top Beauty - Lisa Petrucci.)

(Tiki Tramp - Lisa Petruuci.)

Although maybe it shouldn't do, the mix of sultry and innocence blends perfectly.

(Garden Suprise - Lisa Petrucci.)

Scary B-movies are another passion.

(Miss Monster - Lisa Petrucci.)

And there's usually a cat to be found getting in on the act.

(Hell Kitty - Lisa Petrucci.)

(Kute 'n' Komfy - Lisa Petrucci.)

Considering her love of toys, it's only natural that Lisa should get involved in customising them.

(Lil' Leona Leopard vinyl toy - Lisa Petrucci.)

Lisa has had a comprehensive collection of her works published by Dark Horse Books entitled Kickass Cuties. You can also order signed copies from her own site.

(Lisa's book - Kickass Cuties.)

She is due to have her work featured in an upcoming book called Edgy Cute, having also had work published recently in The Garden of Eye Candy and Big-Eye Art: Resurrected and Transformed.

Lisa's work is popular in Europe as well as North America and she is scheduled to take part in a Pop Surrealism group show called "Apocalypse Wow!" at MACRO in Rome in November.

In the meantime I can't get enough of her cuties. I love Lisa's ladies and the retro rainbow fantasy lands they live in.

(Liddle Lisa - Lisa Petrucci.)

In the Pink.

2009-09-10T22:52:00.018+01:00

Recently I went to the opening night of an exhibition at The Archipelago Works in Sheffield. It was called 7 Styles For 7 Brothers and was a group exhibition of work by seven UK based artists originating from the graffiti world.

Basically I overdid the cheese and wine, minus the cheese, (I'd had a hard week), so my impressions of the exhibition are a bit foggy but through the haze I did enjoy the work of Pinky.

Pinky's style is very distinctive, bursting with exuberance and positivity. And colour, he loves colour, there's more oranges, yellows, turquoises, purples, greens and of course, pinks leaping out at you than you can shake a stick at. It's just as well my future hangover had yet to start.

(Some of Pinky's work with a young art fan.)

I did have a bit of a chat with Pinky and he seemed like a thoroughly nice guy to boot.

(Pinky in action - from his Flickr page.)

(Pinky stickers.)

There's a 60's and 70's retro feel to much of Pinky's stuff and he seems to take a lot of inspirations artistically, not just from the usual classic urban graffiti styles,

(1996 tag - Pinky.)

but also from the "high times" of the tune in, turn on, Haight Ashbury hippy movement era.

(Wanderlust - Pinky.)

He's quite a dab hand with a pair of scissors too - producing nice papercuts illustrating warm, feelgood messages.

(Red Heart papercut - Pinky.)

Pinky is originally from Hull, in East Yorkshire, an area I know very well and which, it has to be said, does suffer from an overload of grey.

(Photo of the Humber Bridge near Hull - Pinky.)

I can totally understand why he's taking the opportunity to help make the world a more multicoloured place for all of us.

(Blue Owl - Pinky.)

Buy Art!

2009-09-09T05:51:00.032+01:00

(Buy Art! - original by Liz Staley.)

Another Etsy fun discovery for me was the world of ACEO's (Art Cards, Editions and Originals) otherwise known as Artist Trading Cards.

(The Cat in Space - original by Prudence. Done by the artists' daughter.)

These cards are basically mini works of art, they can be paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, collage, textile works or use any other medium the artist has to hand. In that respect there are no restrictions. The only rule is that the cards must always measure 2 ½ by 3 ½ inches in dimension, the same size as regular trading cards e.g. sports cards. From there the sky and the artist's imagination and ability is the limit. The orientation can be in Landscape or Portrait or any other angle that fits the bill.

(The Day Out - original by Wonkyshop.)

(Dragon Whisperer - edition by Charlotte Self aka Paperstreet.)

The concept of Artist Trading Cards is credited to Swiss artist M.VÄNÇI STIRNEMANN who in 1996 created 1200 handmade cards as a means of cataloging his activities with other artists. He exhibited his cards in 1997 and at the end of the exhibition encouraged visitors to make their own cards with which to trade with him. The idea was picked up on and rapidly spread.

(Firebird - original by Kaslkaos)

Whereas Artist Trading Card purists believe that these cards should only be swapped between the creators and never sold, this meant that people who didn't produce them were excluded from being able to collect them.

(Chrysanthemums and Knot - original by Lemon Shortbread.)

(Night Scenery - embroidered original by Lemon Shortbread.)

Somewhere down the line, non artists were able to buy into the fun, when the idea was adapted so that the cards could be sold and they were therefore renamed ACEO's - as it says on the tin, Art Cards, produced in series' of Editions or one-off Originals. Apart from the size rule, the only other rule of these cards is that the artist is asked to sign and date them on the back.

(How To Train Your Human - edition by Heidi Shaulis.)

(The Fortune Teller - original by Lucy Kitten.)

ACEO's are found for sale on eBay, but my personal favourite hunting ground for them is Etsy, where, for my money, there's a lot more variety, creativity and imagination going on. Also Etsy traders tend to have very high standards in terms of communication, shipping and fairness in dealing with any customer issues.

(Meet Me Somewhere In My Head - original by Moonstr.)

Collecting them is HIGHLY addictive. Once you build up a little stack and put them in a tin or into an album, you just want to keep adding.

(Faceless - original collage by Dadadreams.)

(Amethyst - original collage by Dadadreams.)

The real cherry on top of the cake about ACEO's has got to be their price. Their small size is usually accompanied by a small price tag that anyone can afford. They usually start at well under £5 to £10 and very occasionally higher prices of around £50 are asked. But in my experience there's just as much work available by really talented artists at the lower end of the price range as there is at the top and if you have any friends with a bit of an artistic flare, give them a few blank cards (you can buy them in art shops or just cut your own) and see what they come up with.

(Boombox - original by T-Rex.)

The Man Who Shot Garbo.

2009-09-08T04:03:00.016+01:00

Blogging about Niagara and Angelique Houtkamp, one thing that became apparent to me is their shared fascination with Hollywood golden era glamour and its very distinct kind of beauty. Women today, no matter how lovely they are, are never captured in quite the same light as by the photographers and film directors of the early decades of the 20th century. Amazingly the primitive, by today's standards, cameras, lighting and imaging techniques in use then, produced some of the most gorgeous photos of the women of that era and in turn, some of the most gorgeous photos of all time. Thinking about this I was reminded of a striking exhibition I once saw.

The exhibition, entitled "The Man Who Shot Garbo - the Hollywood photographs of Clarence Sinclair Bull," came to my local city art gallery in 1989. A book, by Terence Pepper, was also printed to accompany the show. Clarence Sinclair Bull was head of stills department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Hollywood film studios for 40 years, from their founding in 1924. He took portrait shots of all the studios stars, but for 20 years he was the photographer who, almost exclusively, handled the photography of Swedish born silent star Greta Garbo. Greta's beauty and career is legendary and many, many words have been written about her by people who can do her more justice than me.

But seeing Clarence Sinclair Bull's luminous prints, enlarged and placed on show in a darkened room, was like opening a treasure chest of silver. The light spilled out of the portraits. Some of them literally sparkled and dazzled.

(Greta Garbo as Mata Hari - Clarence Sinclair Bull.)

While some emitted a warm hypnotic glow.

(Greta Garbo - portrait by Clarence Sinclair Bull.)

Sinclair Bull captured many great film stars in many magnificent moods and poses.

(Boris Karloff as Fu Manchu - Clarence Sinclair Bull.)

But his ability to not only capture on film the stunning appearance of Garbo, but also to transform it into the very essence of an aesthetic, that even today is a benchmark of classic feminine beauty, was quite an achievement to witness.

Dutch Doll.

2009-09-07T14:02:00.030+01:00

One sunny lady whose work never fails to cheer me up is Angelique Houtkamp. Dutch born and currently Amsterdam based, Angelique's work has an immediate appeal and for me the mood in her pieces often reflect that laid back outlook and joie de vivre attitude commonly found amongst the Dutch.

Angelique's skillful and precise work belies the fact that she only started painting when she was 30. She then moved into tattooing, honing her distinctive old school, with a slightly bizarre twist, style. Although she still tattoos in Amsterdam, her artwork has become globally popular and demand for her as an artist has meant that that is now her priority.

Angelique frequently portrays doe eyed beauties, with a vintage Hollywood feel to their appearance.

(Magda - Angelique Houtkamp.)

(Love/Hate - Angelique Houtkamp.)

She sometimes likes to toy with a surreal morphing of her characters, perhaps a nod to the tall tales that sailors from the ancient age of seagoing would tell on their return to port, to captive audiences, of the strange creatures they had encountered on their perilous voyages.

(Fabienne - Angelique Houtkamp)

(Annie and Fran - Angelique Houtkamp.)

(Isabella - Angelique Houtkamp.)

Angelique's work also connects to the popular burlesque movements of the present era.

(Snakecharmer - Angelique Houtkamp.)

Exotic oriental ladies conjure up Eastern delights.

(Wong - Angelique Houtkamp.)

Sometimes her work sticks more to the lines of conventional sailor tattoo art, maybe in deference to her training done in traditional tattoo parlours in the great historical port that is Amsterdam.

(Homeward Bound - Angelique Houtkamp.)

Angelique has successfully marketed her work, using her images on fashion accessories and stationary. If you're very lucky you may even be able to commission a tattoo by her at Admiraal Tattoo in Amsterdam.

Angelique has a very close and fruitful relationship with Outre Gallery in Australia. They published the first collection of her paintings in a book called Tattoo Darling in 2007, which quickly sold out of its initial print run and continues to sell, a testament to the popularity of Anglique's work.

A follow up volume Tattoo Mystique is due to be launched by Outre in October of this year. Details are on their site. The book launch is accompanied by an art show and is likely to skyrocket Angelique's profile even higher.

Above all, there is a warmth about Angelique's work that always permeates her images. It reminds me of the Dutch word "gezellig" which is not properly translated as a meaning but more as a feeling. According to Wikipedia, “A perfect example of untranslatability is seen in the Dutch language through the word gezellig, which does not have an English equivalent. Literally, it means cozy, quaint, or nice, but can also connote time spent with loved ones, seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness.”

Something of that golden otherworldliness radiates from Angelique's pictures and although I have never met the lady herself I can't help but think she must be the epitome of this happy state of being.

All that glitters is sometimes gold.

2009-09-01T02:10:00.022+01:00

The biggest virtual gallery on the planet has got to be the site Etsy.com. I discovered it a couple of years back. It's a marketplace for arts, crafts, handmade and vintage items of loveliness, all for sale at a set price and usually a reasonable one.

Etsy's home page randomly displays selections of work usually themed or representing one seller, giving you a taster of what is available. But if you are actively searching for something specific, there is a menu of categories, or you can search for items according to colour or theme, you can visit sellers in your local area or even ask for random suggestions.

One time I visited the site and this piece popped out at me.

It was by Steve MacDonald also known as Ramblin Worker. Glinting with gold and featuring gem like colours, San Francisco based Steve's work is a magpie's dream. The main tool of his trade is his trusty sewing machine. With this he stitches back together carefully cut up and shaped gold canvases, creating a textured base. Onto this he applies outlines in thread and finally the fillers are added, sometimes in paint, but also sewn in too. The end result being a hybrid of a traditional canvas work and a textile piece making it a highly individual creation.

Living in San Francisco, Steve is influenced by the diversity of the city that surrounds him. A favourite theme is the huge cargo ships that sail day in, day out, under the Golden Gate Bridge to and from the Bay Area.

San Francisco prides itself on its promotion of cycling and this is a cause close to Steve's heart.

A keen cyclist Steve also makes customized cycling accessories to die for.

Both local heavy industry and nearby rural beauty are celebrated.

Repeated urban style motifs, reminiscent of graffiti throw ups and street art are another trademark of Steve's.

He also dabbles in styles that perhaps pay homage to the traditional exquisite needlework of China, which of course has long historical and cultural links with San Francisco.

I was very lucky to find Steve's beautiful work on Etsy. Since that time, his profile is on the rise outside of the Bay Area, notably participating in shows in New York and gaining coverage from Juxtapoz. He has two solo San Francisco shows happening imminently, at Rare Device and Gallery Three upstairs at the Shooting Gallery. I think the appeal of Steve's work is soon going to reach a much wider audience.

(Here's a link to Steve's Flickr page featuring some of his new work.)

La Belle Dame Sans Merci.

2009-08-31T18:09:00.044+01:00

If there is a First Lady of Pop Surrealism, then for me, it has to be Niagara.

Born in Detroit, Niagara was apparently a shy child who found an outlet for her inner self through art. She attended art college but dropped out, finding it uninspiring. In 1973 along with fellow art students she formed a seminal experimental noise band, Destroy All Monsters and in turn a whole new extrovert persona began to develop for Niagara.

The band formed at a time when in a parallel universe, not so far away in New York city, a music scene was emerging from a chrysalis, sired by the influences of the New York Dolls, the Stooges and the Velvet Underground. A scene which would soon dry its wings, and butterfly into the original punk movement. There, strong, independent women such as Patti Smith and Deborah Harry were also creating waves unprecedented by women in rock, not just through the medium of music but using their style, attitude and individuality also.

Niagara however didn't just create a unique personality for herself incorporating her looks and her music. She additionally steered the band's image by being responsible for Destroy All Monsters' sleeve art. In time her art would flourish and the characters she depicted would take on a life of their own. That life usually being a hard boiled, feisty, gun toting doll.

During the 80's Niagara joined the band Dark Carnival, with old friend Ron Asheton of the Stooges and continued to tour. However by the early 90's Niagara was showing her art work in the Detroit area and developing a name for herself, upon which she soon built an international reputation. By this time she had also met Colonel Galaxy, the man who would become her soul mate, husband and to this day, deals hands on with the day to day nitty gritty business of exhibiting and selling Niagara's art.

Niagara's body of work and themes have expanded rapidly, her trigger happy beauties shooting from the hip in more ways than one.

Sharp one liners that can cut a cocksure man down are the order of the day.

Niagara's more obvious influences, the often cited Warhol and Lichtenstein, are of course recognisable, but she is much more than a sum of her parts. Her colour palette is modern, vivid and vibrant. Her characters are not just frozen for a moment in time, like some snapshot in which they must stay for all eternity. There is so much momentum present that it's likely the whole escapade probably snaps back into action the minute your back is turned.

And above all, Niagara's liberal up to the minute agenda demands that her ladies are always on top, one way or another.

In the stunning Opium series, Niagara incorporates Asian themed collage into her work with great effect. Using gold and silver foil and Oriental motifs, spoils from shopping trips to Chinatown, to enhance dreamy eyed, dragon chasing girls, it was a bold and successful departure from the regular ballsy broads of old. But despite the more subtle mood in these pictures the ladies are far from being ingenue.

Niagara's women have seduced, scared, shot and sashayed their way around the globe. In recent years Niagara has had successful exhibitions in the UK, Australia, France and Japan. She also collaborated on canvas with Japanese born, now Seattle based, artist Yumiko Kayukawa. Yumiko also primarily paints distinctive signature females, but, accompanied always by an animal friend, they have a more forgiving outlook on the world. The two planets of these talented artists collided harmoniously to create a Yin and Yang like state.

Armed and dangerous as Niagara babes usually are, the artist never underestimates the power of the ultimate weapon - humour.

The viewer will most likely walk away from Niagara's work smiling at the cool, cutting, highly precise feminine damage inflicted on the most painful thing a man can ever have hurt - his pride.

(A big thank you to Niagara and Colonel Galaxy. I hope to post an interview with Niagara in the very near future.)

Lucky strike.

2009-08-28T23:34:00.009+01:00

When I was in Bristol overnight for the Banksy show I stayed at a place called the Rock 'n' Bowl Motel, which I hoped might be kitted out all American diner style, with plenty of stainless steel, retro furniture and even a jukebox, who knows. In the event it wasn't, but it was situated above a bowling alley which gives me an easy link to the work of Kirsten Easthope, a Colorado based artist who customizes bowling pins with gorgeous girls; pin up girls, cheesecake girls, burlesque girls, cowgirls, angelic girls and devil girls luxuriating in the flames of hell. Far too sexy to throw a big heavy bowling ball at.

Images of Beauty and Violence.

2009-08-28T09:32:00.018+01:00

One art exhibition that I saw on my first visit to Amsterdam in 1992 has always stayed with me. My friend and I did all the city sights, including the Van Gogh museum. I couldn't say that the Van Goghs stirred up any great art awakening within me. But there was a secondary exhibition in the museum and what I saw there blew me away.

It was called Beauty and Violence and was a collection of antique prints by Japanese printmaker Yoshitoshi who was "the last great master - and one of the great innovative and creative geniuses - of the Japanese woodblock print, Ukiyo-e." He lived from 1839 to 1892, producing art in a highly transitional period when Japan was making huge leaps both socially and culturally. The nation was transforming from being a highly traditional and feudal society, to one that became unified under one emperor, the warlords of old being stripped of their power. Japan was also rapidly beginning to embrace new artistic and technological ideas from the West, including previously unknown techniques of mass production. Yoshitoshi devoted himself to preserving the old ways and craftmanship of his art, he was the last of his kind.

I didn't know any of Yoshitoshi's history. For me it was the highly charged scenes that he depicted and the shocking nature of some images, that really affected me. He had produced whole series' of themed works, one of which was called "100 Aspects of the Moon." In each print, picturing a wide range of characters and situations, the moon was always to be seen.

A warrior creeps through the woods under a full moon, perhaps stalking his enemy.

A bold young princess confronts and banishes a ghost who is haunting the Emperor.

On treacherous seas a sailor attempts to pacify warrior ghosts and calm the storm.

A mysterious girl appears to a prince.

And in a lonely house on an otherwise uninhabited moor an old hag prepares to kill a heavily pregnant woman.

Another series of prints was entitled "New Forms of Thirty Six Ghosts."

The ghost of a young woman, accused of stealing a dish and thrown into a well as punishment.

A woman sitting under a waterfall, praying - offering her life for release of her master.

Yoshitoshi's work made a big impact on me. I never forgot that amazing collection and I never forgot how powerful an experience seeing his art was, perhaps the first time art had really reached out to me and shook me up.

Marry me, Banksy. (The nation's sweetheart.)

2009-08-26T22:14:00.052+01:00

Everyone loves Banksy, don't they? Well apart from the people that don't I guess and they do exist.

(Window Hanger - Banksy, located on Park Street, Bristol, one of three of his most well known hometown murals to have been attacked with blue paint recently.)

There certainly didn't seem to be many haters about when I visited Bristol earlier this week to catch the very end of the Banksy vs Bristol Museum exhibition which has run over the Summer attracting capacity crowds daily.

(Unemployed Ronald McDonald.)

Set up in secrecy and only announced publicly the day before it opened, love him or hate him, this was probably a once in a lifetime chance for many people to see so much work by Banksy in one place. And thousands have taken that opportunity. The day before I got there, the queues to get into the free show had been up to five hours in waiting time long.

(This was only the middle bit of the queue which then continued round a corner onto another street.)

In Banksy's words, "This is the first show I've ever done where taxpayers' money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off." In actual fact - he had only charged the museum a nominal fee of £1 to show his work, insisting only that any CCTV footage of him installing and dismantling the work be destroyed. I heard he is also covering the costs of extra museum staff and insisted there was minimal merchandise on sale in the museum (only a set of postcards and some posters were available.) Meanwhile the Oxfam charity shop directly across the road from Bristol Museum had received a donation of a load of Banksy merchandise from a local "mystery" benefactor with which they raised £15,000 for their charity.

(Who could it be?)

It was hard not to enjoy the atmosphere - people were even doing Mexican waves in the queue later in the day to pass the time (I got there at 7am and got off lightly with only two and a half hours of waiting as the museum sensibly opened its doors early instead of the advertised 10am.)

Whether Banksy has really done much for anyone else in the outsider art world other than himself, it's hard to tell. True, in the UK, some urban artists are benefiting from a raised profile due to the "Banksy effect" and a raised value of their canvases and prints to boot. Even some of the major British auction houses have dabbled in urban art sales although they possibly had their fingers burnt because after some huge initial profits, in the last sale to feature Banksy and cohorts, a lot of stuff failed to shift.

But I'm not sure a large percentage of visitors to this exhibition would be checking many other street art names out just yet. The grannies, the teenagers, the young kids, the thirty somethings and the inbetweens. They just wanted to see some Banksys. And see Banksys they did. A lot of the work on display was new, but there was a cage - possibly representing the Banksy studio in a tongue in cheek way - with some of his classic stencils on display. And some of his iconic work was in evidence too.

(The artists' pad?)

(Ghetto rat.)

(Lesbian Queen Victoria. Cool to see these stencils.)

(Elephant rocket launcher.)

There was a radio debate being broadcast on the validity of Banksy's art, local councillors defending decisions to paint over his murals and the like. One thing is certain, everyone has an opinion on him.

(Kansas canvas.)

All in all I had fun visiting the show. I think when Banksy gets it right he is spot on and I love his attention to detail. Some of the pieces were great, however some were pretty lazy.

(Poor panda.)

(Improved Spot Painting - Damien Hirst and Local Artist. This made me chuckle.)

(Di Faced Tenners - Banksy of England, featuring the phrase "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the ultimate price." I think these are one of Banksy's best pieces.)

(Cosmetic loving rabbit.)

(Detail from House of Commons.)

It's true that at times you are tempted to think - I could have come up with that. But you didn't. The guy has tapped into the nations' sense of humour saying the kind of things in his work, that most of us often think, but being British, don't want to say them out loud.

Dotted around the museum in its permanent collection you could play hunt the Banksy too.

(Fine bone chillum.)

(Fluffy kitten plate.)

He obviously had a lot of fun in the entrance hall with some of its sculptures.

The centrepiece was a burned-out graffiti covered ice cream van, perhaps the last laugh by someone that the Bristol authorities would, not so long ago, dearly have loved to have caught and prosecuted for vandalism. And probably thrown away the key while they were at it.

On the whole I enjoyed the show and judging by the amount of money left in the perpex donations box, so did most people.

(Adapted from The Mild, Mild West rioting Ted.)

Funnily enough, I got a promotional envelope through my door today, with a quotation by Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory printed on it. It said "A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men." And I can't think of a better way to sum the whole Banksy phenomena and this exhibition, up.

(Animated fish finger in goldfish bowl.)

I think however, as usual, Banksy should have the last word.

Naughty but nice.

2009-08-26T21:33:00.010+01:00

I won an auction for a painting today on eBay. It was only 16 quid (that's about $26 if I have any American visitors.) It is by a UK graffiti artist - XWWX and that is all I know about it. It's a bright, colourful little piece and features a My Little Pony gone bad, apparently having bit the hand that fed it right off.

A common theme enjoyed by graffiti artists seems to be the irony of good icons going bad. This piece reminded me of the brilliant Scare Bear series by London's Ben Eine. Widely known for his alphabet fonts and typeface graffiti that cheers up many a shop shutter in the East End of London, Eine also did a series of Scare Bears - Care Bears that just hadn't stayed in school or listened to good advice and consequently had gone well and truly off the rails.

(Ben Eine shutter art)

(Green Scare Bear - Ben Eine)

Spacebook.

2009-08-26T18:25:00.033+01:00

Facebook and Myspace, a fabulous waste of time, invaluable 21st century communication tools or the beginning of the end of social interactions as we know them? Well I haven't totally decided yet - but I do like to drop by them both pretty often, maybe a bit too much.

When it comes to art however, it is Myspace I have to thank for unearthing me some real gems - perhaps due to its more open and promotional nature. Just a few random clicks linking through profiles and comments and you never know what you may find.

I guess my big Myspace art discovery was the lovely, dreamy, sometimes feminine, often gothic tinged, art of Krista Huot from Montreal in Canada. I don't even know how I found her but on reaching her profile and checking out her pictures I loved her work straight away.

(Nosferatu - Krista Huot)

The images on her page at that time were digital pieces. Some illustrated fairy stories I knew, but with a little twist.

(Red Riding Hood - Krista Huot)

Some I could guess the theme if not the story.

(Dracula Bitches - Krista Huot)

I emailed Krista to ask if she had any work in galleries and she emailed me back about some upcoming shows.

The first was a group show called Attack of the 19" Zlicks at New York's My Plastic Heart gallery - a fun show featuring lots of customised erm, 19" Zlicks. Krista's Zlick imaginatively introduced one of her favourite devices, pernicious little goblins, whose vulnerability she would sometimes expose. In this case by having them sneak wide eyed through a dark scary forest, which unbeknownst to them, is dominated by a huge silent Idol, in the shadow of which they creep.

(Goblin Idol in the Dark Spooky Woods - Krist Huot)

(Trapped - a collaboration between Krista Huot and Parskid. From a later show.)

In the next show Krista emailed to me, I could see her talent shone through as being something special. The show was called A Place Called Lovely and was at San Francisco's 1988 Gallery.

(Riding By Night - Krista Huot)

(Patience - Krista Huot)

(Taking Turns - Krista Huot)

Krista has gone from strength to strength, her paintings, frequently depicting ethereal, fanciful ladies, seem to appeal to the inner little girl in many. Her work is in a lot of demand and she continues to collaborate closely with Gallery 1988 and others, with solo shows planned for the future.

Krista continues to develop her style and is not afraid to experiment. Occasionally she uses bold colour.

(Hanami - Krista Huot.)

(Ether - Krista Huot)

But often the tones she uses are muted, just letting the inner beauty of the piece take precedence.

(Vanite - Krista Huot)

(Celeste on the Sea of Clouds - Krista Huot)

If you never grew up to be a ballerina or your parents didn't buy you that pony you wanted, if you've ever wanted to be a fairy princess or a bit of a wicked queen - one of Krista's storybook beauties will no doubt live that dream for you

Jibbering Wreck

2009-08-23T06:37:00.023+01:00

When initially checking out Lowbrow art online, I began with American galleries. Thanks to great links, regular updates about upcoming shows and archiving of past ones I soon got a good idea of what was going on in that world and started to know where to look.

Turning to the UK to check for a similar scene, I soon found information was thin on the ground. It became apparent to me that urban art is the more dominant outsider art here rather than the more fine art based Pop Surrealism and even Lowbrow which have a higher profile in the States. There also seems to be a different approach to promotion.

Maybe (often ongoing) connections with illegal graffiti make it hard for a lot of UK artists to go public with their work. Often I'd see something I liked, Google the artists name and draw a blank. Frequently they didn't have websites or even a Myspace. It was frustrating.

While it still seems to me that in the UK these galleries and artists don't promote themselves as effectively online as they could do, maybe you've got to know where to look. But where to look?

Recently I visited Birmingham and stayed in the inner city Digbeth area, once heavily industrial with plenty of imposing brick architecture but now going through urban renewal.

I was going to a place called the Custard Factory, a music venue but also a bit of an all round cultural event space from what I could tell.

(Huge railway arches at the Custard Factory.)

On the way to the venue I passed a graffiti covered door to some old building. Stopping to have a closer look I found I recognised some of the artists.

There was a tag by Sickboy from Bristol and paste up stuff by Kid Acne of Sheffield and Aida. I kept walking and found some more.

(Kid Acne warrior girl)

(Sickboy temple, Kid Acne warrior girl)

Slightly puzzled by what had brought these guys to some dingy Birmingham backstreet, I went back to investigate the next day.

(Aida)

(Sweet Toof)

(unknown)

Lots of nice eye candy. After a bit of wandering to take photos I also found my answer to all this activity. No it wasn't just some random street beloved of urban artists whenever they came to town. There was the tell tale sign hanging over a door - Jibbering Art. Another gallery my internet searchings had failed to discover. Sometimes you have to know where to look and sometimes you just have to leave it to luck.

Where do I get my next fix?

2009-08-23T01:15:00.013+01:00

So how do you feed your art habit? Whether it's by looking for a piece with intention to buy or just rewarding the brain and calming the jitters with a bit of window shopping - absorbing some new images to ease the cravings. When it comes to checking out outsider art it's here that the internet lives up to it's old information superhighway tag .

At first I felt a bit resentful, not living in America, of all the shows and works I would never get to see in the flesh. But without the internet I wouldn't even have heard of this stuff and eventually I realized that I have a huge amount of information about the artists and many, many shows available to me online 24 hours a day, just with a few taps of the keyboard.

There's a great movie called The Lowdown On Lowbrow which spends some time illustrating just how the movement has flourished and spread due to folks like me, just surfing around, link to link.

Here are some links to a few of my favourite galleries, some dealing with the bigger players of the scene, some presenting work from lesser known or younger artists.

In the United States
The Shooting Gallery (also incorporating Gallery Three) - San Francisco
White Walls - San Francisco
Roq La Rue - Seattle
Gallery 1988 - Los Angeles and San Francisco
Gallery Nucleus - Los Angeles
Halogen Gallery - Seattle
Dirty Pilot - internet gallery

In the United Kingdom
Nelly Duff - London
Richard Goodall - Manchester
Pictures On Wall s - London
Stolen Space Gallery - London

In Australia
Outre Gallery - Melbourne and Sydney

Proceed with caution and take care of your credit card - there's a good reason these guys are called dealers!

(Only kidding Justin - Shooting Gallery and White Walls owner.)

Why A Zeal of Zebras?

2009-08-22T22:40:00.014+01:00

Nothing to do with art but collective animal nouns are so amusing don't you think? And a Murder of Crows wasn't available.

This photo did get me wondering if I could find any art featuring psychedelic zebras and I remembered this painting by Los Angeles artist Joshua Petker - from his March 2009 show at the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco. Not zebras but psychedelic unicorns which Joshua seems to like to incoporate into his often superficially chaotically colourful, but always precise and insightful portraits of beautiful girls. This piece is unusual for Joshua in that it is a collage.

I then wondered if there was actually a collective noun for unicorns seeing as no one except Joshua has probably seen such a thing - but the wonders of the internet enlightened me that there is and it is called a Blessing of Unicorns.

How did I get here?

2009-08-22T19:32:00.018+01:00

So why am I blogging about art? I'm not an artist and I've certainly got no artistic talent.

I never studied art and when I have read any art theory it's always seemed boring and dry. Even visiting art galleries that contained works that I did enjoy, I always felt alienated and intimidated. What I know now is that art is all around us, not just in galleries and museums and that it exists in many mediums and certainly isn't just what the "art critics" tell us it is. But for many years it seemed to me like a highly exclusive members club with a scary bouncer on the door.

Then a few years back I bought a CD by a band called E.A.R. featuring Pete Kember a.k.a. Sonic Boom who used to be in Spacemen 3 and Spectrum, two far out, trippy and highly inflential British bands from the late 80's onwards. I bought it because I loved the sleeve. I thought it was like Sonic the Hedgehog on acid in some futuristic sci-fi fantasy action film.

The sleeve art was by an artist called Anthony Ausgang and somewhere in my mind I made a mental note of this.

Jumping forward to 2005, still relatively new to the internet and surfing around on my first computer, it popped into my head to search Anthony Ausgang and I did. I found his site and I also found some of his works for sale at a place called the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco. Some of his pieces I thought were quite reasonably priced and I took a shine to a particular piece called The Martyrdom of Saint Kitty. I don't know why, maybe because I like cats and I grew up surrounded by a lot of Catholic imagery and it was a crazy combination of the two. I had a bit of disposable income at that time and for the first time in my life it occurred to me that I could actually own a piece of art.

(The Martydom of Saint Kitty - Anthony Ausgang.)

I emailed the gallery and exchanged a few emails with the owner Justin Giarla who was friendly and enthusiastic. The piece I liked had been sold but he was getting some more pieces in by Anthony in a few weeks and he would send me the images. He assured me, they kicked ass. I think before I even saw the pieces my mind was made up. I was going to buy a piece of Anthony's work.

When the images came, one stood out for me. It was priced a bit higher than I had really hoped to spend - but I think I was already smitten and there was no going back. I bought the piece - Cirque de Soil.

(Cirque de Soil - Anthony Ausgang.)

I kind of felt guilty at the extravagance, but as Justin said, people happily spend such money on things like motorbikes. And I have never bought a motorbike. So I didn't feel too guilty for too long. I was very happy with my painting and to this day I never tire of it. I emailed Anthony to thank him and he said he considers it to be one of his best pieces and I think he is right. And although I never expected to be purchasing art again, I started to surf around the links to other artists originating from the Shooting Gallery site and before long a whole new world began to reveal itself to me. A world of art that spoke to me in a language that I didn't feel I had to be specially qualified to understand and images I could relate to and enjoy without having to rack my brains looking for some deeper meaning. I had discovered outsider art. I had been bitten by the bug.

There is a postscript to this story. Earlier this year I visited San Francisco and called by the Shooting Gallery. Justin wasn't there but we were warmly welcomed by the guy holding fort. We had a good look round and there, on the stairway, looking a bit neglected and forlorn, was the original Ausgang painting The Martyrom of Saint Kitty that I had originally set my sights on and which in turn had put me in touch with Justin and made me aware of the Lowbrow scene. Turns out it had been damaged by an electric cable that had melted some of the paint, luckily just the black background had been affected.

Sometimes things are just meant to be and when I got home I emailed the Shooting Gallery about the painting. Yes it was being repaired and yes it was for sale. I think you can guess the rest. It was a happy ending for Saint Kitty and me.