ArtPages Zine No1

 When you get a new toy you think of fun things to do with it. So having a galley press and some sets of wooden letters sent me off towards my own newspaper. A tabloid. All headlines and pictures. So this one, more or less inspired by my town's creeping decay, and whether anything can be done about it. Most of the linocuts have been reused from elsewhere, so I don't have to think about charging too much. Though it is a time-consuming process nonetheless.

I'm thinking about changing the name to ArtAngel in honour of Grieshaber's Angel of History. I was halfway through printing before that occurred, so this'll do for now.

Sail on Silverbird (sic)

 I Know now that the 3rd verse of Bridge Over Troubled Water says, "Sail on Silver Girl" - but I spent a lifetime mishearing it. I only found out after I made this card for my wife's 70th birthday. So for me, Silverbird it is. Also because I was keeping it under wraps until the day, I forgot to post about it at the time (end of April). If you know the song and you know my wife, that's all the explanation you need.

Vitruvian Dance

 Last night was an "Art Showdown" I got talked into. Six artists challenged to produce something in two hours. This one was my effort.

Of course the two hours is a bit of a fiction, in that I'd got the drawing done, I'd cut the paper to size and I'd prepared the blocks in advance. And we all know the first two hours of any art is spent staring into space. So hardly a spectator sport.

Anyway I did manage to cut and print a rough copy in the time available. Then I got up this morning and tidied it up and printed the obligatory 10.

As you can see, the "concept", such as it is, is not deep. It takes Leonardo's drawing (often called "Vitruvian Man") and applied the idea to the "Naomi" pictures I'd done in recent months. And then channelling a bit of De Stijl to add another layer of ideal proportion to the thing. Finally it became Vitruvian Dance because Naomi is a dancer, and it looks like that's what she's doing here.

Leaving North Street

 I was somewhat disappointed with North Street Blues. I'd made the Clock Tower too small, but I liked the rest of the buildings. So I cut up and re-used a couple of the blocks and added a Clock Tower that seemed more right and ... looming.

I could have kept the original width and had format that was more-or-less square, but cropping  the thing and switching to portrait format made it fit better with Loaded Down on James Street and kind of forces me into portrait mode for the other 2 or 3 I'm working on. It's not compulsory, I know, but I feet I need to impose some constraints because everything is a bit "free ranging" right now.

Anyway, enough artist problems. Leaving North Street was an alternative title I was toying with at the time, so seemed appropriate to use it now.

Yardley Arts Summer Open 2026

 

I couldn't resist the open call for this when I saw it. A small art centre in Northants. Kind of like the Alex a few years on. It's in a former Victorian school house of the one-room type. Anyhoo. I've got 3 works accepted - Paradise Lost, Loaded down on James Street, and Fallen from Olympus VI. So I'm pleased. I delivered the work yesterday and will go to the PV on Thursday. As the poster says, the exhibition runs from 25 June to 19 July.

PS 25th June. Went to the PV last night - we were a bit frazzled by the heat already, but well worth turning up to see the show. There's an online gallery, too, so you can get a kind of sense of it .

Another press in the studio

 Eric had this rather cute galley press lurking unused in the basement of the local adult education centre. So he decided to reclaim it and give it a new home at the Alex. My guess is 1930s, age-wise. Had a little play. Did the "tools" linocut on it and now broken out the old wooden letters...

 

Just Cuz... Anna Bloom

 I was riffling through some papers the other day and what should fall out but this! The original bad translation of Anna Blume that I found in a second-hand wallet I bought about fifty years ago. How magnificent it's still here. Testament to the enduring power of art. AI will never get it.