Off To The States!

Yes, only a few days to go before we jet off to America for the first time as a family... and I can't wait. I seem to have put everything on hold... "until I get back from America" for about two months now!! I'm going to try and just let the flow of life (and Jakki's instructions) take me along for a couple of weeks. We'll be flying in to Las Vegas for a couple of days before driving on to LA and then looping back to Vegas. The trip is mainly to catch up with Jakki's family, we'll all be meeting up in LA, at her Mom's. Jakki's Dad's coming from Montana and Brother from New Jersey. Should be a good time. Jakki's Dad has only seen Texas when he was 6 months old.. and he had a lot to deal with at the time . He has never met Tennessee, other than on skype, and Tennessee is about to turn 5! A BIG trip then. If you want an insight in to Jakki's Dad, you should go read her entertaining blog post, The Towelmaster about him! Hopefully, she'll find time in 2013 to get back to her blog.

from our first trip to Salvation Mountain 2005

 We'll also be taking some time to explore the desert, returning to the Salton Sea and seeing how Salvation Mountain is holding up now that Leonard is no longer on site. It's going to be good to have our two boys with us this time. We've also booked a couple of nights at the Joshua Tree Inn, in the Mojave Desert, the legendary final haunt of Gram Parsons... so we thought we should probably take his room, No. 8. Looking forward to that. I love it around there, obviously we'll take a drive through Joshua Tree National Park. It's just a shame it's going to be the desert in January, rather than June... i could do with a little heat (and dryness) in my life! I'll have a good dig around while we're over there and see if i can find any interesting nuggets to share here when i get back. Happy New Year to you all!!

My interpretation of the mountain.

On another note, we watched the Searching for the sugarman dvd the other night and I highly recommend it. I'd not heard of Rodriguez before this year. I was sitting in a great little pub up in London (The Barley Mow in Shoreditch) and it had an an amazing dukebox. I heard these songs, but I couldn't place the voice. Another woman in the pub looked over at me and said i looked like a cool guy (ha!) and did I know who the singer was? A mystery, i asked the girl behind the bar, but she had no idea... or interest! so i scanned the dukebox but nothing seemed to match, so i scribbled some of the lyrics (and not having an iphone i waited until i got home later) and googled them... Rodriguez!
a quick hop to spotify and there he was. Now i suggest you go and have a listen. Totally unheard of in the States, or here... and yet a legend in South Africa! Really, you should watch the film, it's a lovely story.

Watch These Guys

Thought I'd share this with you guys, I'm reading a lot of tiny home/sustainable living blogs these days... something just strikes a chord (probably due to living in a big 'dripping' house!). Anyway i came across this lovely building project by a band i really like, Bowerbirds. They're building their own home and recording studio in North Carolina, also home to some of my good blogging friends! (Watch the video and if you have the money please help them out, it's a great and worthwhile project, they're doing a good thing).
You can read more about them and their project on their kickstarter page, it's worth a read. I hope they reach their target. Maybe some of you bloggers could add a link and help spread the word ; )
I'll no doubt come back to the subject of building your own homes, but if you haven't been there before head to Lloyd's blog, or Kent's... i need my little fix of these to get me through the weeks. I'm starting to dream....





They're not the only ones at it. There's also this little house built by two other creative talents, Kim and Jonny. They also have a band, Family Band and they self built this cabin in the Catskill Mountains. It's a beautiful house. They also have this, The Wild Unknown, where you can find more of their cabin and also lots of other cool stuff to buy etc. Please go check out some of their videos of other folk playing out at their cabin, and their secret forest parties. These guys like to share what they've got. I'd love to go to one of these gigs up on their lot. Very cool, very human.... am i just turning into an old hippy? Here's one of the videos of a secret forest party, featuring Phosphorescent... another great musician well worth checking out! Right, this post has taken way too long, with too many brilliant distractions along the road. Find yourself a good half an hour and go and explore, it will make your life just that little bit better.



SECRET FOREST PARTY - 2011 from the wild unknown on Vimeo.

John's Indian Adventure

My friend and studio mate John has just set off on his adventures in India. He's started a blog to cover his trip and it will be a great read. He's a fantastic photographer too, so expect some mind-blowing imagery as his photographic projects progress.

This was from a previous trip John made to Sri Lanka

Satan Christmas Card!

Should have put this up sooner.... this is the design for my Christmas card this year, Satan/Santa (nice anagram)... and what I've been selling, along with my regular cards. Should have put it in my shop, but a bit late now. It's a reworking of one i made many years ago now. I like that it's printed and then the 'N' is hand cut and re-pasted, leaving that nice little empty window. Should anyone want them they are 5x7 inches in size and are £2.50 each or I'm doing a deal of 10 for £20. I'll be on it a bit sharper next year! This year in general has been a bit of a wash out and one I'm happy to forget. We're heading out to Vegas and LA in January to see Jakki's family and It'll be the first time Jakki's Dad has seen Tennessee, who'll soon be 5! I'm intending to move everything on in 2013. It's going to be pivotal. Well, hopefully!... it could also just fizzle out too!! You'll just have to keep checking in and see if I achieve any of it : )

Parallel Universe Cont.

I found the box with the Parallel Universe artwork in it! ( that's quite an achievement in our house.)... now the scanning begins. Going to see how i can best work with this stockpile of images. I need to find the best way to get a large range available for people to buy affordable prints from. It's something for the New Year, although i have put 9 available to buy for £15 each on my online, Big Cartel shop, GarrettWare. First I need to archive them. As far as I can remember there are about 220-240 of them, so it may take a while!
Anyway I'll come back to them and let you know what i decide to do. If you live in Hastings and St Leonards then you can still pop down to the Kave Gallery, Kings Rd, this weekend and pick one up on the spot, you can even get them framed ready to put up on your wall or wrap and give as a gift. I shall also be selling my wares at Christchurch School, St Leonards later this afternoon, pop along say 'Hi' and grab some goodies. I'll have cards, prints, framed prints, little envelopes filled with special prints, pebbles and even some of my Klutz Mix & Match, drawing books... buy one and get a FREE doodle (wow!) by yours truly. I think that about covers it. I'll leave you with a few more Parallels, hope I can bring a smile to your face.

Talking of Gifts...

I received a package from fellow blogger Tracey last week, what a lovely surprise! A great old book on English Country Crafts that she'd found whilst digging around someplace. I've no idea how Tracey manages to think of these things, Tracey said she thought of my family when she saw it. How nice is that! There's even a very thorough section on how to dig your own local clay, process it and then weather it properly, brilliant! very old-school. Now i just need to keep some chickens and make my own baskets! (believe me, i would... I've still got a few years left!... i should probably crack this pottery conundrum first!!). On that front, my throwing is coming along, starting to 'feel' my way into it, getting the rhythm and flow going... and a bit more height! I have my weak points, but i shall be focusing on them, cue watching lots more clips on youtube of clay spinning! Anyway, just wanted to share one fellow bloggers kindness to another. Thank you Tracey.

The Gift

I meant to post this a while back. It's a beautiful short film made Independently by my good friend Griff, who used to share studio space with us all. A mightily talented man who has gone from illustration, to animation and now into full-on film! Hopefully we'll still work together on one of my animation ideas at some point (and there is hope on that front). That's unless he starts on a full-length feature! Anyway, enough of me....  now watch the film, you'll like it.


The Gift from Griff on Vimeo.

Parallel Universe

My exhibition opening went well, with some good sales. It was a good private view... except that i over did things on the booze front, when will I ever learn??? That meant i missed the other sale I was meant to do on Sat!... and so lost sales, bummer. Anyhow I thought I'd put a couple of these older Parallel Universes up on here. They were very popular at the gallery on Friday and I'd only thought of including them a couple of days earlier. I think I need to go back and revisit these and get them working for me again. I might even look back in to the idea of making a book of them. I shall be putting prints of these up on the shop soon and change them around more often to cover more of the range. They will be £15 an A4 print, they look great framed and it was really nice to see the smiles on peoples faces. When i created them originally for the Independent on Sunday (Review magazine), I never got to see that. I never got to see folk read the magazine and see their reactions. I miss doing these every week, it was a great job and nice to have to keep coming up with ideas. "Thanks" to Jonathan Christie and Sara Ramsbottom, who commissioned me and helped edit as we went along . Anyway, I'll make another post when they are in the shop, i may even clear the shop out and only have these for a while. Enjoy!