Subject: Graphic Art

This picture was originally created in 2018. The T.V. ariels came from another collage I was doing at the time called Antennae Roosting. That project was a monumental endeavour that took a very long time to assemble and compose, – ( I’ll show you it sometime). The clouds are real. I was out walking and got caught in a sleet storm(?) and photographed the clouds as they passed by. I don’t know why I placed the coloured, silhouetted ariels in the picture, but it struck me as a strong and interesting concept. I have lately revisited the image and edited it to my satisfaction, because the original looked so muddled and there were too many items. Why Graphic Art? Well it was the only category I could think to attribute it to.

This photo was taken in the bedroom of a house I rented on Heigham Street. The bed was in a lighthouse in Kingston, Western Australia. It was being displayed in the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse on Marine Parade. Now a museum, it was decommissioned and brought offshore to stand on the beach road. l liked the nightgown spread on the patchwork quilt. I have of course, stretched the bed flat against the wall. I can’t remember where the angel came from. Written on the rails of the door (the cross panels)is the short poem; You can like me, But not love me, Because my, Dreams are empty. That was about a woman I knew whose granddaughter said how her dreams were empty. The woman and I were just friends, it never went any further……The words might not be too discernible because the picture is only a thumbnail representation. This is an old picture (2013) that I have slightly edited.

The sitter (literally) in this picture shall remain anonymous at his insistence. I was in his flat having a drink, quite rudely reached for my camera. He instinctively raised his hands (and can) to obscure his face. I thought it resulted in a very interesting and well lit portrait. I said I MIGHT use it – so I have. Walking back to my flat along Heigham St., I was intrigued by the road junction with Orchard St. There was that black tyre mark, as if someone had braked into the turn, which accentuated the curve of the road and pavement. I put the cutout portrait against this image,…and it worked! I cut off the right hand armrest to expose more of the background. I also tilted the portrait to complete the composition. I finally applied a filter to give the picture some drama. I have included this image in the Graphic category simply because of the painted 20mph road sign and the other road markings.

The landscape is of North Norfolk, on the road between Binham and Warham ( I think!). I liked the view, presenting  a vista for miles to the horizon, and the threatening clouds. For me, this was an exercise in creating the question marks to look as if they were made of glass. Each one was made individually, which took a very long time! The text was created first. I don’t know why I came up with the idea – there’s a question!

In my lifetime, I have gone from putting coins in a public telephone box (button A and button B, remember?…..no) to talking and seeing someone in the middle of nowhere on a piece of metal and plastic in my hand. This is my take on such progress. The text/poem reads: Filling Those Empty Spaces, Filing People, Friends And Faces. Coming To Terms, With No Returns. Desperately Keeping Ahead Of The Curve. All the letters of the poem have been filled with photos of family and friends, past and present.

I created this picture back in 2009 for ‘something to do ‘. One could call it displacement activity, as I didn’t take it seriously. And so it languished in the portfolio library until recently. I discovered it whilst scrolling through the computer archive and thought of reviving it. After a couple of minor edits and not altering the image, I was satisfied enough to to add it to the website. I was ‘doodling’ when I constructed this and thought of it as a ‘fun’ piece.

This is the result of me just noodling around with a couple of photos, and exploring a possible composition. There is the electricity pylon at Arminghall, just outside Norwich, and separately, what I suppose is an electrical junction box, on a railway line, above a bridge on Long John Hill. The overhead power lines for the trains are also visible. Creating the sun, sky and stars with Photoshop, the picture exploded before my eyes!

A little way up Cambridge St. in Norwich are two rows of ‘lock-up’ garages opposing each other. I noticed how each garage had a different door clasp latch. To make things more interesting (visually…) was that they had every type of padlock imaginable. I photographed the best examples. For the background, I sampled the colours from the chosen locks and ‘barcoded’ the results individually. I was amazed by the vast array of colours the were inherent to the locks.

I took this photo of James as I was leaving the pub. It was the first time I met him. I hope I can say, we went on to be good friends. The legend reads; ‘Some Old Bloke Sitting In A Pub Smoking A Cigar Whilst Reading The Obituaries In The Paper By The Window Holding On To His Glass Of Red Wine At A Table By The Door’. The pub was Micawbers Tavern on Pottergate in 2005. I came up with the idea of describing the scene, and wrote it in one take. Extraordinary picture, extraordinary guy.