Everybody needs a Hero!

'Heroes and Villains' a card by Jack Teagle

I recently came across the fabulous work of Jack Teagle and couldn't resist sharing it with you. My boys were thrilled with the 'heroes and villains' card pictured above and gave it to their daddy for his birthday, best card EVER! Jack Teagle also has a tumblr account which features his sketchbooks and work in progress, my boys and I are particularly excited by his customising of old wrestling toys which he has given the ... Jack Teagle treatment! Fabulous! Gonna be taking a lot of inspiration from him to begin part two of my Susie Sue series! 

She just might be my alter -ego!

I Instagram-ed Susie Sue!

Over the last few days whilst I have been feeling unwell, I unwittingly developed a little side project. I instagram-ed the Susie Sue series that I produced last year! I CANNOT stay away from Instagram and currently show no signs of tiring!!! It was lots of fun and I love the results! I think the images would lend themselves brilliantly to kitsch coasters, mugs, pens, t-shirts, pillows, there's no limit! Admittedly, I have been spending too much time admiring Kelly Rae Roberts's home decor products and licensing deals but hey a girl can dream ...

Premier Pli & Birmingham Zine Festival

It has been a busy time in our household this week plus all of last week, which has seen us juggling time with the boys during the day and working till crazy hours at night and into the next day as hubby and I, in our different roles bring together elements for premier pli whilst deadlines quickly close in.

I have previously mentioned premier pli but not the fact that hubby is the project co-ordinator for it. He had the vision for premier pli many moons ago when we were in a band together, around the time that we sat down and dreamt up an idea for an independent record label that would bring together art, music and publishing in some way, now First Fold Records.

Hubby loves a project, infact he's lost without one. Did I mention before that when Zach, our first born was a couple of days old hubby started making fifty intricate artist bookworks that housed a cd of his music? So inbetween burbing baby and fetching me breast pads he was up to his elbows glueing, folding and making editions. I remember a couple of onlookers being a little narky about it and I had to explain that this was hubby's way of processing events, information, processing life. I mention this as context for the level of busyness that is always present in his and by default my life! Of course, it also happens to be one of the many things that I love about him and his energy and creativity inspire me endlessly .... but you know sometimes I just want to be lazy and watch trash! Stop making me feel guilty with all the 'doing' I shout inwardly and on occassion outwardly!!!!

Recently, after the boys have been put to bed and when I have been trying my hardest not to do anything at all (which realistically means housework in any case), I have somehow been assigned the job of proof reading artist/musician bio's, been asked to check levels on tracks and listen once more to mission statements, read statements aloud, double check for words in the thesaurus .... hubby remains at all times in what I am currently calling, 'a state of pli'. It's a good thing I've got some pages in this journal and that it's phenemominally exciting to be a part of because otherwise I really would be issueing him with a very large childcare bill plus charges for admin and pa services!!!

Anyway, that aside I want to share tasters of some of the work that will appear in premier pli. I am starting with my own five drawings that form the Susie Sue series that are finally complete plus work by hubby aka Mr. Stuart Tonge. Other gifted contributers include Alex Bermingham who is responsible for premier pli's graphic design and layout. He is exceptionally talented and has a great eye for detail. The first issue of premier pli is guest edited by John Hanson and Matt Saunders from the electronic band Magnetaphone, who also provided the theme that all of the artist's contributions were inspired by.

'I do not want art for a few anymore than education for a few, or freedom for a few'

William Morris

Matt Bower also known as 'Wizards Tell Lies' is an artist and musician contributing who applies the same dark yet beautiful touches to his visual art work as he does to his music and sound. Ben Sadler, one half of Juneau Projects who you may remember me mentioning here (he generously donated his childhood star wars collection to my boys!!) is also contributing exciting new work to the journal, including the self portrait pictured here. Gareth Courage is the resident visual artist for first fold records and another prolific and outstanding artist. He has an exhibition of his collage work showing at the We Are Birmingham venue that coincides with the Birmingham Zine Festival which will also showcase Premier Pli's first publication on Friday 8th July. So, if you're around come and see us down there! Just in case we're not enough pull for you folks, my latest girl crush is the fabulous Bunny Bissoux whose blog I discovered the other day and who since has been transporting me into a wonderful world of wrestling and south korean pop. Coincidentally she provided the artwork for the Birmingham Zine Festival Flyer and is an outrageous talent and I'm hoping to meet her there to gush at her!

Art work by Katy Acquaye-Tonge

Art work by Stuart Tonge

Art work by Matt Bower

Art work by Matt Saunders

Art work by Ben Sadler

Art work by Gareth Courage

Days seem to come and ... go

For the last two weeks I seem to have been chasing my tail. I haven't quite managed to find a rhythm of late. I'm not very good at recognizing when I am simply feeling unwell and so after a week or so of feeling rather sluggish I have come to the conclusion that I haven't really been one hundred percent. Trying to motivate myself to complete my drawings for Premier Pli under these conditions therefore has not been the easiest of tasks, hence my absence here but finally I think the end is near. Pictured here are some photographs of recent drawings/collage work.

I have also spent quite some time listening back to field recordings that hubby and I took on that trip back to Ghana forever ago, searching for material for my audio contribution to Premier Pli. I will be using an incredible recording of Aunty Adelaide singing in the car whilst we journeyed to visit some relatives the other side of town. The sounds of passing traffic, hawkers and the beautiful yet sombre tones of 'Ma' (as we call her back home) singing sets an amazing scene for those both familiar and unfamiliar with her vernacular. I'm very excited about setting to work on that and also really looking forward to getting to work on some sound pieces very soon with my sometimes collaborator/hubby.

Susie Sue - When I was young ...

I am really excited about the developing story of 'Susie Sue'! Last night Susie Sue revealed - 'When I was young, we moved a lot which often led to me feeling displaced'. Like the satisfaction one experiences working through a jigsaw, it is a wonderfully rewarding piecing this picture together!

Picture me, picture me, picture me!

This is the start of my third drawing for my 'Susie Sue Series' which I am now under some pressure to complete as I need to complete five drawings altogether that will feature in Premier Pli very, very soon. I tend to photograph my work outside in our back garden (a place that is slowly being destroyed by the boys as we enjoy these summery days!) and then I upload the images to the blog. I haven't really been able to get much work done over the last two weeks due to the easter holidays and prioritising being with the family. So I saw a window today just after hubby and Zach left the house to go off on a 'man adventure' followed by a trip to the cinema to see 'Rio' (a long enough outing for me to get on) when just as I started photographing the work Elliott declared 'No, picture me, picture me, picture me!!!!!'. So, how could I resist, particularly when he started with his famous shaky bum bum dance!!! You only have to sing 'shake your bon bon' or our preferrred version 'shaky your bum bum' and he will happily oblige!

Premier Pli

Susie Sue & Kiki's Bird 2011

I am really excited to say that I am going to have an outlet for the Susie Sue series. I am one of several Artists that have been invited to contribute five pages of work to Premier Pli, First Fold Records first Zine. I am blown away by the talent of the other contributers and I am thriving on the very idea of us all coming together to present our very own utopia! I will post more information when it all begins to come together.

I love Mills & Boon, I Hate Pigeons 2011

I love Rosa Parks and Boxing, Frantz Fanon and Stuart Hall 2011

Grayson's girl with bird top 2011

I love Mills & Boon, I Hate Pigeons 2011

I love Rosa Parks and Boxing, Frantz Fanon and Stuart Hall 2011