Long time...

It's been a long time since our/my last post, needless to say it is a result of being very busy. You can see various documentation of aspects of activity on our flickrs / website if you're interested in catching up.

We're working on a couple of very exciting projects at the moment. In short, some promotional material for the ICA, album artwork for Tokyo Police Club as well as preparing for another solo show at Harewood House in April. We'll be exhibiting some installation work in the main gallery and some illustrative / works on paper in the rear gallery.

Thanks to everyone who has attended Draft so far , the events have been a real success and have been very well attended, great to see so many people supporting Yorkshire based illustrators. Myself and William are both in the next showcase alongside Frances Bickerdike & Jessica Thomas. The next event is on Tuesday 23rd Feb usual place (theartmarket & kunstfreund Gallery) 6-8pm. Me and Will are both creating new works for the show.


Ontop of that.... and my main reason for posting, is that I have recently got a pack of Moleskin sketchbooks of my mum, and have had a few minutes to do some sketches. I plan to put up all pages (numbered) on this blog as and when I can and have some new sketches to post, generally ideas and pencil practice. Here's the first short burst (Pages 1 - 5):


i


Take care,

J

working

Towards our upcoming show in London at the Contemporary Art Society

Merry Christmas All

Happenings

We've recently departed our studio and have been working autonomously on a few projects, as well as keeping up with our commercial practice remotely. It's been a strange period of adjustment for us all, but we're finally gaining pace again. We left the studio because we felt we were beginning to take things a little too seriously and it wasn't helping our collective practice, friendship and most of all - it was impeding enjoyment of our practice. We make taking periods of adjustment and evaluation part of our practice from time to time. It helps greatly in keeping things fresh and exciting for ourselves as well people we collaborate / work with.



Nic & Will have organised a night this Tuesday (November 24th) at A Nation of Shopkeepers, showcasing their personal bands as well as our close friend Mechanical Owl (Mike), under the collective musical ensemble 'Hair Piece Champion'. They have both been taking some time to plan our show in January as well as further exploring their personal interests.

I have been working closely with theartmarket & Kunstfreund Gallery / Zoe Sawyer, Jess Young & Jen Conway in getting the new unit open. We've all been building, programming and promoting. I have organised a series of events which will span Dec 2009 - April 2010 called Draft. It's a series of one night showcases for Leeds based illustrators, I produced a set of screen printed posters (below) and intend to finish a publication showcasing all contributing illustrators this week. The events will exhibit 4 illustrators in one evening, after which the artwork will be moved to Opposite Café to remain on display until the following event the following month. 1st Draft 10th December 09 includes: Matt Hodson, Cameron Steward, Gareth Brew and our very own Nicolas Burrows.


Below: Shot of new spaces' new walls. Built by the talented Tom Railton, with a little bit of assistance from myself, Zoe, Jess & Jen.

Below: Shot of counter I helped build with Zo as well as bookshelf (right), which fits perfectly into window frame - nice.

Here's a line-up of events happening at theartmarket & Kunstfreund Gallery before Christmas & The new address:
theartmarket &
Kunstfreund Gallery
Unit 60/61/62/63
The Merrion Market
Leeds. LS2 8DB
www.kunstfreund.co.uk

Cartune Xprez - 25th November 09 - 6pm - 9pm
www.cartunexprez.com
Really looking forward to this - check out the video samples on their website - amazing stuff and a great line-up of artists being showcased. They'll be showcasing some animations and doing a live performance.


Draft - 10.12.09 - 6pm - 8pm



Fresh Leaf - 11/12.12.09 - 12pm - 5pm
A 2 day zine & artist multiple fair, with stalls from numerous local and regional zine & multiple makers. This will be the first in a series of artist multiple sales in the space.

Have a safe / ace week.
J

Don't Miss Today

Today we're off to the Spike Island Zine fair in Bristol, I have a couple of new zines to sell, one of recent drawings, the other of photos from the latter part of my life. We'll have all our Nous Vous stuff to sell including zines, books, badges, prints and T-shirts. Come down say hi if you're about, I hope our car doesn't get towed again. Cider and Falafel. Things seem to have overtaken me of late but I hope to return to a more creative, clear and fun time s after this, including a return to regular posts up here. See you soon, you're patience is greatly appreciated...

Falafel King

We're on our way down to Bristol not next weekend but weekend after 31st Oct. As well as attempting to enjoy what Bristol has to offer culturally, we'll be selling some of our zines etc at 'Spike Island book and Zine Fair'. There's a really great line-up of artists and publishers, last year it was loads of fun - very much recommended. This year they'll be doing talks, showcases etc - so there'll be lots of interesting things going on throughout the day. Additional info here.


I suspect we'll be paying an unhealthy amount of visits to Bristol's notorious 'Falafel King' - best street food vendor in the country. Well I reckon anyway.

Another thing of note I've come across recently was this piece of Design by artist 'Tom Miles', not even a designer and he's doing better than us supposed pro's. Nice considered use of type not to mention colour and paper stock makes for a really nice collectable item for my reference material. The events themselves are a series of one night exhibitions / showcases for up until this point - Leeds based artists. By curator / artist Harry Meadley & his Girlfriend / artist / fashionista Rachel Carter, really nice invite only evenings - a good time shared amongst peers, friends and enthusiasts.




I watched Up in 3D the Saturday evening. very much recommend seeing it. Pixar have got this one spot om - such a considered and impressive all rounder, there's good LOL humor as well as an effective, convincing and moving narrative. The characters are a really nice unusual, refreshing bunch who play off nicely amongst each other, the action and entertainment literally doesn't stop.

I've been working on a few things towards our upcoming January show in the 'Contemporary Arts Society' office in London - our artistic arm extended. Basically developing some typographic based posters by hand rendering and steering away from the computer but trying to adhere to that aesthetic - trying to develop ideas as much by the doing of it, the practical element as well as the basic and simple idea behind it. Letting the process inform my ideas. I'll get some pics up soon - it's a bit of a deviation of what you might usually expect to see from myself - or not...???

Also received our complimentary copy of 'Made and Sold' a book we have a few things featured in. All in all it's a really nice book, the concept behind it is really refreshing also post 3D Graphic Design books we seem to have been featured in alot recently. Nice to submit some of our other practice. It's home to images of self initiated projects by Graphic Designers / Studios, entrepreneurial enterprises in order to make a few pennies on the side - like ourselves. omething I always find interesting. Something I'll definitely be picking up regularly. Designed and written by Fl@33 Visual Communication studio - very impressive doing the design as well as writing the content all very cohesive. Good Job all round!

FRIGG SALE


This week I'm simply going to offer you some goods:

VERY Limited Edition Tees for sale:



Charcoal T-Shirt
Organic Cotten
2 Colour
HandPrinted
1 of each

Size: Small - Price: £15 + p&p

Size: Medium - Price: £15 + p&p

These T-shirts were part the outcome of a screenprinting exercise. I printed a colour which was too transparant, so had to hand paint a green paint over the top to compensate.




Ecru T-Shirt (Off-White)
Organic Cotten
1 Colour
Hand Printed
1 of each

Size: Small - Price: £15 + p&p

Size: Medium - Price: £15 + p&p

VERY Limited Edition Bags for sale:



Tote Bag - Long Handles
1 Colour
Hand Printed
Edition of 5 - only 2 available

Price: £8 + p&p

Tote Bag - Long Handles
1 Colour
Hand Printed
Edition of 4 - only 3 available

Price: £8 + p&p