Frolicking Figures

This weeks fortnightly Kick About over on Red’s Kingdom is the ethereal painting – The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. I am in the process of a big DIY project at the moment, which is turning a shithole of a room in my shared house that is used for storage and discarded items into an artist’s studio where I can work on creative things such as the Kick-About. In the process, I happened to come across the box where I kept all my life drawings from uni; being the sentimental type I could never throw them away and I always wanted to create this project – so the kick about provides that drive yet again. 

I decided to focus on the busyness of Bosch’s painting with emphasis on the figures and go against my usual likeness towards landscapes. Realising I didn’t need to photograph every sheet of life drawing I dusted off my old hard drive that contains photographs of those life drawings and re-photographed a few that were otherwise of an abysmal quality. I then popped them into Photoshop and cut out each figure from the sheet of paper and collaged them together accordingly. A very sentimental feeling seeing all my uni life drawings in one place together and a fulfilling experience.”

Freezing Fog #2

This recent cold snap reminded me of these photographs I had yet to share taken in Ireland this past Christmas. The sun was setting and the fog was rolling in from the ether, causing my camera to struggle to focus on anything in particular, softening the gaze as if the clouds fell that day.

Waxworks #1

This weeks Kick About on Red’s Kingdom is the artwork of Ruth Asawa. I was reminded very much of the fluid melting magic of lava lamps and, in certain elements of Asawa’s creations, I envisioned eyes that reminded me very much of Hitchcock and Dali’s dream sequence in the film, Spellbound. My images were created from photographing melted wax accumulated on a wine bottle over a period of time, with a couple of videos of my own eyes overlaid on top to pay homage to that surreal dream sequence.

Cephalopod #1

There was a few failed attempts at different iterations for this weeks Cephalopod kick about over on Red’s Kingdom, one of which was a lot less colourful and leaning towards the macabre. I decided to salvage one of the 3D models from that attempt and use the gooey textures from another previous kick about and laid them onto the 3D models of Octopuses. Things started to take place when I composited the Octopuses on-top of each other – as if the octopuses are in some sort of lethal dance together”

The Artist’s Studio

This weeks Kick About over on Red’s Kingdom is the perplexing painting –  Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez. I loved the self reflection and self insertion with this painting. I decided to focus on the many frames throughout the studio and, in the same manner, interject some of my own self into my illustrations by adding other photography and drawings within the frames themselves, and into a studio only an artist could make sense of.

Tea Time Illustration

A recent illustration – I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in the maximalist details of this one. When I was in Uni I was introduced and learned of the geometric coloured shapes and loose line art of UPA Animation, I find myself leaning into the style of UPA lately and I am enjoying the nostalgia of it. Prints of this piece can are purchased here if wanted.