Fresh Fish Really Hits The Spot!

Had to post this one. A beautiful production still from the sequel to Creature From The Black Lagoon, courtesy of Ain't It Cool via Gus H. Touching to know cross-species romance ain't dead.

Creature from the Black Lagoon. Catch of the day.

Heros & Villians.

The Liberal Party, now out & proud as Conservatives (in all but party name of course) had its big campaign launch today. You might wonder why this would happen a fortnight after the announcement of the election. Building the breathless anticipation of an excited nation? Nah. Apparently the reason both the major parties leave it late as possible is because it's only when the launch occurs that the parties are obliged to start paying their own way. Up to that point it's all paid for by the public purse. So you go as late as you can, naturally. The Labor Party, still in the closet about its own conservatism (in all but deed of course), launches next week.
Shortly after being welcomed by a 90 second ovation current Lib leader Tony Abbott described an elderly gent down the front as "A HERO!" Perhaps it was an attempt stir memories of George W's "Man of Steel" sentiment, because yes, the ol' hero was of course the Deputy Sherriff and philosophical wind beneath Tony's wings, John Winston Howard. Having brushed off his recent rejection by the International Cricket Council & the accompanying reruns of film of him repeatedly & unsuccessfully attempting to bowl a cricket ball, the former PM entered the campaign with obvious relish. And why wouldn't he? Abbott's vision is simple -  the Howard Years rerun in lycra instead of tracksuit. Man of Steel, father of Iron Man. 3 years go by & the electorate are now bathed in nostalgia for the time of a leader whose slippery deceits were so notorious that his own cabinet & colleagues nicknamed him "The Lying Rodent." Good to have the bar set so heroically high.
Given all that, I figured I should join in the commemoration by dusting off a couple of my pics. The first is called "Catch His Fire (Fahrenheit 457)" & dates from the thrilling time when the Howard team were both courting the Catch The Fire ministries evangelical vote and overseeing the rorted 457 working visa, which charged foreign workers large sums to come to Australia & get screwed over on wages or do work they hadn't agreed to (abattoir work, for example). Any complaints would see them sent home. Around the same time the PM was also attacking schoolteachers & various academics for being "idealogical". All that ironfisted far-rightness with its eyes on shutting down debate reminded me of Beatty the Firechief in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 - a cunning, well-informed zealot, burning up books & people "for the good of humanity". At one point he says, "fire's real beauty is that it destroys responsibility & consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it." Perfect for the era of the Hot Button Issue, with all of its deliberate stoking of angry heat & none of the light of informed debate.
The second image was made after the 07 election, when boredom rather than any ethical considerations saw JH finally ejected from office. A scene from the end of the old Flash Gordon movie came to mind. The one where the apparently unkillable & dastardly emperor Ming the Merciless is at last despatched by impalement. Howard's own political hero, Robert Menzies, was nicknamed "Ming".  It seemed like a fitting tribute.

Catch His Fire

Hail Ming!

These Rocks Don't Lose Their Shape. Unfortunately.

For those who came in late, the high-voltage excitation of a federal election is currently coursing through the lumpen mass of the country's body politic. Prognosis is of course poor, two heads one brain, a deformed basket case version of any genuine ideals, I can't go on I'll go on, etc..  To celebrate this fabulous event I thought I should post two little gems from a couple of those cartoonists I was getting all worshipful of. The Leunig is only from a few years back, but the Pryor piece, which feels like it's straight outta last week - is from 1977. How sad is that? Oh, and apologies if the picture quality isn't great - they were photographed straight off our fridge. Yep, it's that kind of fridge.

A bunch of recent works.. and some explaining.

Thought I should put up clearer pics of some of the pieces from the exhibition - and probably explain some stuff. It didn't occur to me when I booked it, but the exhibition I had in May was actually my first ever show. Over the years I'd done commercial work & included art in group projects, but never put up a collection all my own. Maybe that comes from the Illustrator background - usually you produce work specifically to serve a narrative, often provided by someone else, and normally that's the person who pays you. The work is seen by others when it gets used for the author or publishers purpose & you move on. From an Illustrators point of view exhibitions can seem like the preserve of the Fine Artist. Or maybe that was just from THIS Illustrators pov & I just never compared notes enough to notice it was bollocks. And then in the last ten years I slowed the making-pics right down & didn't think about it much.. Given all that, I'm really happy it didn't crash n burn horribly.

The work in the show came partly from years of enjoying political cartoons - from Larry Pickering's endless knob gags of the 70's & 80's (although probably not his bonkers right-wing misogyny) through Geoff Pryor's beautiful draughtsmanship & general smarts in the Canberra Times, I've always admired these guys. Ron Tandberg, Bill Leak, Peter Nicholson (the brilliant Rubbery Figures man, for us fossils who remember it..), Michael Leunig, Cathy Wilcox, Mark Knight.. what a spectacular bunch. And that's just in this country. Anybody who's missed out on em should really go & have a look - they're worth it. And at a time of exclusive concentration by the media/public feedback loop on the sizzle rather than the steak, there don't seem to be many others apart from this lot quite as genuine or dogged in attempting to nail the PR stooges & wind-up toys that run everything now. Love em.

Another thing that had been on my mind for a while was stenciling - my favourites were always the ones that served the same purpose as political cartoons. I could go into detail, but you know how slow I write. Its late. Gotta keep it short! Oh, by the way, hope it doesn't sound like I'm saying my stuff is just like the guys above. I only mentioned all of that in an attempt to explain that their work inspires me - & that I really enjoy art with some reasonably well-formed idea behind it. Having said that, you can now scoff openly at how poorly my own pictures line up with that concept.

The Easter Tradition

Known Unknowns

Massive Cock

Sap

Fuckability

The 8 Arms of Highly Effective Cthulhu

Avoidance Behaviour

Must've nodded off..

Wiping away the sleepy dust & the drool, I notice it's about 3 months since my last update & at this point I should probably mention that I've never in my life been a diary keeper. The thought of expressing an idea badly really bothers me - writing an email requiring any kind of argument to be made can easily take me an entire evening. I'll often spend a half hour composing, editing & rewriting a text message. Including rewrites it just took 15 minutes to put together the last 3 sentences. Obsessive compulsive? Hush yo mouth.
 On top of this, I don't feel I've got enough of a level of expertise in, er.. anything at all really.. to start setting thoughts in stone. Still, if the twats at the IPA can have column space surely anyone can. Maybe that's the problem - I'm not sure that the principle of "if-they-talk-a-steaming-load-why-can't-I" is totally sound. Oh, and also there's the problem of today's ideas being the ones I'll  completely disagree with tomorrow. So, not a natural for diary writing, even in its interwebs form like this.
All of that is just by way of belatedly saying "Please excuse the snail's pace & assorted shite on the blog - I'm not sure what Normal Service is just yet."

To make it up to you, I now include a completely gratuitous picture of William Shatner fondling a rude & amusing object. I believe he's about to make it boldly go where no man has gone before.

And just because I couldn't figure out how to add these couple in the last post..

The redoubtable Ros & Rob Murray convincing Halley to buy in bulk.

Lindsay wonders when the boy will hod his blether.

OH GOD, JF CAN SEE FOREVER! Or it's just lockjaw, like he said.

Mr J. Burnside, lead astray by Marina & Nadia.

And we're back..

Esther, Mark & JB hatch a cunning plan. JF remains skeptical.

What a massive cock. Mark & Gus can't face it.

Two rock gods, just hangin.

That was meant to be a short blog break while I got organised so naturally its now about 2 months since the last entry.. and, happily, the exhibition has opened! Last Friday night. Phew. And it seemed to go pretty well - a good turnout of fine Melbourne locals plus Mum, Dad & sister Nic, the occasional smile at the stuff on the walls, one sale & plenty of booze. Sweet. Nic had been in town the week leading up & was a huge help - so good to have an experienced fine artist close at hand! She ran around town picking things up, gave the Officeworks photocopiers a workout, primed canvases, talked to gallery people, sent emails.. generally did all manner of beyond-the-call stuff & was indispensable. In short, she rules. That's really what made it come together in the end - very generous people helping me out. Does that sound like The Waltons? Bah! It's still true. (But don't get me wrong, yes, The Waltons suck.) Flatmate Angus had good advice, quality picture-reference hunting skills & top stationary provisions, Kristin Guley trusted me with her car, John Foulkes was a tiptop dealer of Japanese Black Black caffeine chewing gum, and family & friends were always encouraging or smacking me back into shape when I was ready to quit. What a top bunch. Thanks to you all. I'll put some details in later on individual works, techniques used and various fiasco's in their making, but for now here's just a few pics from the opening.