I'm not here. This isn't happening.

If you find yourself here, I am elsewhere.

I am here,

here,

or here.

Free(?) Tunes

Looking for some new tunes to listen to while I work I decided to try a "free music" tag search experiment on bandcamp (by "new" i mean new to me!). I thought I'd share what I found. Some are no longer free to download, though I hope that shouldn't stop people from forking out a few quid for what you like. I should point out, I in no way condone illegally downloading music. Things like bandcamp are great for people to get their music out there, but at the end of the day, music is something many of us get huge amounts of joy and inspiration from and it requires a great deal of work, effort and time. If you like any of these bands and can afford to support them, please do. Anyway, if you're interested in discovering bands you may not have heard (or genres - throw pop, boxwave, swag-core?), here's a few note-worthy ones I came across;


Overhead, The Albatross - Instrumental, alt rock, little touches of electronica. Think Thank Thunk is a pretty good track, sort of starts off Rachel's meets Rednecks ends up around Amusement Parks on Fire/Explosions in the Sky. (Ed.Had these guys stuck down at the bottom, then listened to the track again. It's a goodie.);

Battle Ave. - Maybe just cause he sounds like he's crying and needs a hug. I'm a sucker for the emotion and a bit of feedback. Souled American's sense of genuine melancholy with Clap Your Hands/Shaky Hands style jangly indie rock. But with crashier cymbals. Pay what you want. I went for $4. 

Paws Genesis - Quite like this, ambient electronica, few beats, few melodies. Has that homemade, layered sampler pedal feel. Reminds me of Quality Fellow Sunburnt Jets. Freaky crying baby on Sleeping Song though, what's that about. Bought.

Grand Lake - This is pretty good. Folky, indie stuff, with that 60s vibe like a lot of whats going around these days. But I approve.

Air Cushion Finnish/Lichen Yes. This is my kind of stuff. Improvised, ambient, guitar-based electronica. Unfortunately the "free" tag was for "free improvisation", but I think I'll be handing over a bit of money for some of this.

Anez -  Eh....Soundtrack for a 1950's Hungarian sci-fi film about clowns from space? I actually downloaded this one. That's how I roll.

The Ugly Club - Uptempo straight indie rock. Decent tunes, not really my thing, but easy on the brain. Maybe if you're into the Strokes/Kings of Leon.



Other tunes;

Rupert Lally - The free download was Growing Up On Mars, but I linked the album Process, I think its a bit more interesting. Overall I don't like it, but some pretty cool sounds in there, few nice drones and ambiences. If he kept it striped back a bit, left out the cheesy distorted synth sounds, maybe. Intro to Process and Ampexia are nice though. After that it's pretty europop.

Scottish Fiction - Some very nice tracks. Compilation of various Scottish artists.

My Body Sings Electric - I used to have a secret love of My Chemical Romance and the surrounding pop punk scene, in a "If I were 16 again I'd totally be an emo" sort of way. I think I was cheated on that one, generation-wise. We were just coming out of a mix of grunge and goth, heading into boy bands and brit pop. It wasn't a great time aesthetically for youth culture. Not that there ever is... I digress. No shortage of this kind of music, but if you're into it, this is pretty decent, solid indie punk. Some very Incubus style guitar melodies and arrangements;

Ben k Adams Feels a bit forced. Sort of Boards of Canada, Xploding Plastic, but not quite as interesting. He has loads of other stuff on there though, so could be worth a look. You'll Die Regretting Everything is a good track with some pretty cool sample choices.


I'm getting through a lot of bands here, so I think I'll leave it at that and do another post later. Let me know if anyone is interested in this post. I don't use this blog any more, but I might as well put it to some use.

I no longer update this blog with art things. Check Facebook for that.

Tiny Island

here are some pages from a tiny book i made today.

An exercise in Book Illustration

I spent yesterday evening making up some mock book covers. The designs are mostly pilfered from generic cover designs (the first is a pretty straight copy of this cover featuring an illustration by the wonderfully talented Denise Nestor), so I don't take credit for that aspect of it. It's more as an exercise to see how my illustrations and paintings might work as cover art, and also as a means of learning the art of book design.Working towards some form of portfolio aimed towards publishers. I quite like the look of "Territory", the second cover down. Might do something with that...

Drip

New Website and Watercolour Giveaway

It took far longer than it should have, but I have a new website up. I'm not entirely sure it's fully functioning yet, consider it Beta testing, so feel free to let me know of any hiccups. I might change the look or content of the gallery pages, but I'm happy enough with it for now. May not look the best on mobiles, I'm working on that.

 

I'm also giving away a watercolour (and maybe one or two other things). It was supposed to be for having reached 10000 page views, but that was quite a while ago. So now it's just... because. So, if you fancy yourself some arty goodies, leave a comment here or on this Facebook post. I'm in the mood for some new music, so link to the music of whatever band you presently believe to be the awesomest (bandcamp page, soundcloud, youtube video, etc). Whomsoever suggests the most awesomest that I've never heard before, the painting will go to that person. Sharing is fun.

Here's the painting. I call it "two brother's watching themselves being reborn". Make of that what you will.

Hey, I remember you!

Hello internet world. You may or may not have noticed an unscheduled interwebular furlough. No reasoning really, I just stopped thinking about updating this blog. And Facebook. And Twitter. And whatever other sites I'm on. I'm fixing up my website at the mo (while listening to extra long NewNoise goodness), then I'll give this blog a wee once-over and soon re-establish some form of connection with the outside world. Oh, and there was mention of a give-away. I'm all over it.

Out to sea

Here's a painting from over the festive season. Acrylic on wood. Apologies for the low quality photos.

I've recently gone over 10,000 blog views. Woohoo! Thank you to everyone who's been following over the last few years. I really do appreciate the fact that people take time to have a look on here and follow my work. Once I get myself organised I'm going to get round to a little competition/give-away action, and then also give the blog a bit of a clean up, since it's been a little quiet on here lately. Happy New Year to you All!

b

Joyous Merriosities to one and all!

I've just noticed I'm approaching 10,000 blog views. I generally pass no regards on such statistics, still, although that's over about 3 or 4 years, that seems like a lot to me. I feel I should do something to mark the occassion. Especially since I've been slow on the updates this last month or two. So after the whole Christmas excitement/stress dies down, expect some awesome giveaway competition thank you type action.

Until then, be joyful and merry and terribly grateful for that incredible brain of yours.

b

Christmas Markets and Girl Walk

Its been a while.

I'll be taking part in two Markets this weekend, one in Powerscourt on Saturday 10th and one in Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire, on Sunday 11th. These will probably be my last outings before Christmas, so call in if you're interested in buying anything. Or if you just want a chat!

I've been watching Girl Walk a lot. I've a secret love of dance (not so secret for anyone who'e ever seen me bound wildly towards the dancefloor at a wedding...) This project has been continually making me smile;


Girl Walk // All Day: Chapter 2 from Girl Walk // All Day on Vimeo.

Flinders Work in Progress

Here's a few little work in progress pics from the Flinders album art. I'm quite enjoying the work, though I've been chopping and changing my mind about how to go about colouring the main image. But I painted a random section of it the other day, in which I decided was the right way to go. So after some unnecessarily messy cutting and sticking and gessoing I'm on course.

Doesn't look like much now but it'll look good by Monday. This bench will also be in there somewhere.

Woke up this morning with Chris Jordan's Midway birds in my head. So I did this.

Think I bought some fairtrade sugar in a plastic bag the day before. You just can't win...

Hello November

This is a good time of the year. I always find nature especially interesting and beautiful in Winter. When you have to take a bit more time to notice whats living.

Had a market day over the weekend with Jauty Stuff in Powerscourt. It was good fun, if a little quiet. Was one of the most well organised markets I've done, in a great setting (which made the poor turnout especially disappointing). Have to say, I was well pleased with our joint display;

Listening to a lot of Son Lux and Zola Jesus lately. Son Lux, if you're into the likes of Why?, Dirty Projectors, the sort of terribly complex, technically accomplished music that borders on excessively pedantic, but with the craftsmanship and quality of production to get away with it. He's also a very friendly twitterer. Zola Jesus is more for your epic sweeping vocals and moody synths and beats. Conatus would easily be one of my favourite albums this year.

Market This Saturday - Powerscourt Centre Dublin

I'll be selling work at the Last Weekend Market in Powerscourt Gallery this Saturday from 12 to 5pm. I'll Also be joined by Jauntystuff.

Splash Art Festival - 12th November

I'm taking part in the 2nd Splash Art Festival on the 12th and 13th of November. There are 27 artists and performers, with live music, photography, painting, design, wine, plus it's in the Back Loft, which, for me, is one of the most interesting exhibition spaces in Dublin. Its also run by Magda Nowacka, who is awesome.

I'll have a bunch of new work that, considering my hermitic nature, really ought to see the outside of my studio at least once this year. Here's one I finished yesterday. Considering the title of Frank the Lonely Brain-Eating Mushroom-Zombie...... He doesn't really eat brains....

I learned through helpful twittering that these days Emily is sporting a high chignon with a fringe. Handy to know for googling those reference pics.

Wooden Bird, Drowning Room

Pay For Play

I just had a realization. Since I started working as a freelance illustrator (about 3 years ago) I'm pretty sure I have earned more money working on album/E.P covers than I did in 10 years of  gigging with bands. For the record, I haven't done a whole lot of cover art and my first two jobs were paid for with a bonzai tree and tickets to Lykke Li. With the last band I was in, as far as I can remember our last ever gig we played together was also our first one we got paid for. I'm talking purely about a specific form of musical entertainment, live bands playing pubs, venues, festivals.

I stopped playing largely because of problems with my arms, RSI that still affects me today. But at the time, my main reason for quiting the band (who I loved playing with) was because I simply couldn't afford it. A case of, I could put up with one or the other, but with both it had become unenjoyable and unaffordable. It was a similar situation when I played with Bouts last year. I would imagine most people don't realise how expensive it is to work as a musician. And I do mean to use the word "work". There is the general thought that music is something of a hobby, you're doing something you love so money doesn't really matter. I would agree in some part with that. Music is something far more important than financial gain and should be shared as much as possible. It's something that I simply love, as a listener and performer. But ultimately it is still work. Work that requires much time and effort yet for some reason is more often than not unrewarded.

It's important that musicians and bands accept the struggle and toil it takes to develop and perfect their craft and I do think music should be shared freely. But unfortunately that's not always possible when the process of sharing requires money. For me, the onus is ultimately on the listener, the promoter, the venues, to value what it is they are listening to and value the people who are offering it.

I'm getting somewhat carried away, so I'll get on to the main point of this post.

Support Pay for Play, is a Facebook page started by Laura Sheeran to discuss the issue of venues charging bands to play, instead of paying them. In their own words;

"This group has been set up as a platform to discuss all the issues that bands and solos feel are making it difficult to move forward with their work, particularly in a live context.
Live is one of the only ways we can make any money these days and a lot of musicians are finding they are working to a constant loss when doing gigs.

...a place to talk about these things and potentially come up with some new ideas/solutions as to how we can improve the situations for ourselves."

Some interesting conversations on there already, worth checking out if you've any interest in the subject.

I came across this via the ever reliable Nay McArdle of Harmless Noise who, while we're talking of supporting music, could possibly be my favourite thing about Irish independent music today.

Thank you for listening. Now here's Bouts, from their awesome new E.P.;

Pattern

These days I'm all about patterns. Particularly the kind found in or inspired by folk-based ornamental textiles. Such as this lovely work, which I believe is from Owen Jones's The Grammar of Ornament ;

via butdoesitfloat

I've never been great with that aspect of design, so it's always something I try to get my head around. But most of the time the focus of where I seek inspiration has some sort of purpose, linked in some way to what I'm working on. A lot of my drawings are based around my sometimes tree-limbed, sometimes bird-faced, sometimes plain old Emily character, and more so lately, I've been working on developing her story, which is all there floating around the nether regions of my head, but is simply a matter of translating into some sort of coherent shareable form (I'm not really known for my communication skills). But I am easily distracted by the details. Delayed. In one or two "stories" there is a house.

And lately I've been decorating the house (you know, in my head). In particular, I find I need to design the rug, a particular rug.

some pattern/design sketches

storyboard thumbs

watercolour in progress with aforementioned photoshopped rug

But the rug is also another story itself. As is the wallpaper and a long taspestry in the hall in the style of an old chinese watercolour. I'm terribly confused by the whole thing myself. Needless to say, it's a slow process.

Anyway, while we're talking about patterns, check out Denise Nestor's latest work. Work in progress, I believe, but it's still wonderful.

If you haven't come across her stuff before, check out her site. She's one of those people who makes drawing seem effortlessly beautiful.

My head is a seed for stupid ideas