Mr Robson Takes The Floor.

Assistant Graham has mounted a small but perfectly curated exhibition of his work here in the gallery space.

Along with his neat and thoughtful stories told with and without words, he's stepped gently from his comfort zone and painted two large-scale pieces on the walls, in Dulux's delicious interior matte mini-pots, which involved a trip in the toy car to the Dulux Centre armed with colour chips and an iPhone. (Which is where, incidentally, Graham introduced me to the joy of the Adobe Kuler app).

His work is ready-to-go, an unusually confident and resolved folio of characters, stories, colour and life, and he's already plugged himself into a few different creative projects here, the results of which we can share once they're live.

We had a few friends and colleagues round at the weekend to enjoy his work, and it'll be here for a few more days if you'd like to see it too. Just email, phone or message us through this blog!

grahamrobson.com

Male Me Heart.

This is the piece I created for Mail Me Art 3: Short and Sweet, which is coming to our gallery this year after its London showing.

The brief, in case you're unfamiliar with the show which is fast becoming a regular in the illustration calendar, is to put a piece of art work on a C5 envelope and post it. No props, no wrapping, no hiding inside a box - if it gets battered, so be it!

Like the joyrider I am, I once again mine the words of Sage Francis. I have a content void which I frequently need to fill with other people's words, as that is where the visual stuff starts. Without that I can be a pen without ink, if you will. Desperate to create, but not sure of what to say. The open-heart here has references to male and female genitalia but they are quite subtle - it's a reference to how you can't really DO ANYTHING creative unless you have the proper thrust (you know, a hard-on for it) and it also refers to how Leigh and I have totally different skills but can only ever achieve things if we work together. The song I've written out here is called Specialist, and we're specialists, if you like, at our own skills, but we cannot function without each other's.

So there you have it. Personal work eh. No wonder it takes me eight times as long as client work. Male Me Heart can be seen at the MMA Short and Sweet show from Friday August 9th.

Mail Me Art 2013 - Short and Sweet!

Every year for the past few years Darren di Lieto, who runs the massively popular Little Chimp Society illustration blog, has put together a labour of love he calls Mail Me Art.

The idea is brilliantly simple: ask 200 of your favourite illustrators to create artwork on a C5 envelope and post it back to you. Any theme, any subject, any media - the only stipulation being that the art is what it is, without folding or other attachments, and whatever state it arrives in when Darren receives it, that's how it will go into the show!

First coming to our attention a couple of years ago when he was doing a book signing at the big Borders in Leicester, we popped in to see him and ended up chatting online a bit later. We kept in touch, and in the meantime, our gallery space was built here at 71.

It was therefore natural that when it came to thinking about a new space in the Midlands for the Mail Me show, whose traditional home is in London, Darren being a local lad thought of our gallery. And thus, we are proud to announce that Mail Me Art 'Short and Sweet' will be opening here on August 9th at 6.30pm.

This year the show includes work by ex-Inkymole assistant Brook Valentine, eyes-and-ears collaborator Bob Neely and Inkymole's writing department Ed Garland, alongside more established illustration stalwarts like witchcraft-in-metal Melanie Tomlinson, Jon Burgerman, Linzie Hunter and The Boy Fitzhammond. And me (there's a modest slice of mine on the flyer, a black ink eye-strainer).

Oh - and 192 more of course!

RSVPs this time will go to Darren: darren@mailmeart.com (But as usual, any questions can be directed to me or Leigh!)

https://www.facebook.com/mailmeartproject

http://www.mailmeart.com/

Graham Robson.

We are pleased to introduce our new assistant Graham, who comes to us fresh if a little tired from an excellent degree show at Birmingham Institute of Art & Design's Visual Communication BA.

Graham is responsible for the terribly appealing Mole you might already have seen if you're been near my Facebook or Twitter page!

 

From the tedious to the horribly pressured, the everyday to the mucky-hands-at-the-coalface, Graham is already weaving himself info the fabric of our creative existence with his calm blend of flat-clean graphic illustrations and love of narrative. Coming to us with a high degree of technical prowess as well, he already has a folio which is eager to run off into the world of freelancing, which we hope to be able to ease him into during his time in our slightly chaotic, unorthodox studio.

His nicely organised website is here:
http://www.grahamrobson.com/

He likes 'making stuff' too, and we're already selling his beautiful hand-bound books in our shop:
http://factoryroad.bigcartel.com/product/graham-robson-hand-built-sketchbook

And he currently has a little show of work in our gallery space and is working on some first-time large-scale wall paintings. If you're in the area and would like to pop in and see it, just message us.

Rather than get Graham to talk about himself in the traditional way, we just asked him some probing questions. Here are his answers!


Would you like to be an axeman like your character? He looks like he has the most idyllic, if a little lonely, lifestyle.

In some respects yes - the freedom: to explore and adventure through a landscape where nobody has been before, to build a home with his own hands wherever he pleases. But yes, like you say - It would be rather a lonely way to go through life.


Tell me about things you have made with your hands (ie, without a computer).

The way my work looks today in many ways was born when I was introduced to linocut, I loved everything about it - the way I had to design everything backwards, even to lifting the lino and  hoping I had a clear print. But I especially loved using limited colours. Although I don’t do as much linocut these days as I would like, it is still at the heart of what I do even when I’m working completely digitally.

I also enjoy book binding, although I have had no training, I love designing little sketchbooks of my own design. I like to give them a theme, e.g. ‘Nautilus’ for my ocean themed books and ‘Lunar’ for my moon themed ones.


And what have you found on eBay recently that took your fancy?

I have recently developed a rather strange interest in Soviet era Russian cameras. There’s just something about them that I love. They look quite different to any other cameras I have seen before; they have this awesome cyrillic script engraved in them and in true Russian style they are built like tanks. The only downside is they seem to have a strange musk to them, that, in the 50 years since my camera rolled off the production line, doesn’t seem to have lessened even slightly.


Why did you choose illustration and not graphic design?

Graphic design is something that has always interested me, and when I started my Visual Communication course at BCU I almost went for it. But I would have definitely missed designing fun characters and interesting landscapes that I’d want to explore, and I would especially miss working with narrative. In some ways I think my illustration has a graphic quality to it, so I think my love of design still creeps through without me choosing it as a career path.


Did you have a plan for after college, and...do you mind that we are gatecrashing that plan (or lack thereof?)

As the end of university crept nearer, it started to dawn on me that I might want to make plans for when I finished. I knew I wanted to be a freelance illustrator - and still do. But the finer details of this - working with clients, finances & all the other important parts that enable the drawing bit of being an illustrator were something of a mystery. So when I was asked to help out at Inkymole I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss out on.


What would you like to learn while you’re at Inkymole HQ?

Like I said, I want to learn what it takes to be a working illustrator - to actually make a living from doing what I enjoy. As much as I wish being an illustrator was just making fancy doodles all day, there are lots of other parts that are just as important. And the more that I can learn, from folks who have been through it all before, the better!

'Can I get you another drink sir'?

Yep, we decided to put a pop-up restaurant in our house. For two days. And somehow, it worked.

I got to dress up as a waitress (albeit one with peacock eyelashes) and get into servile mode as our friend Jed - whom you'll have read about before if you read this or the Gallery blog - whipped up the final parts of a four-day cooking extravaganza, bringing his Michelin-starred chefing experience to our little spot in the Midlands.

The full story is here - but here are some pictures. it really was one of the hardest events we've organised *notwithstanding 'When A Girl Writes Off The World' in the middle of a surly Manhattan at five week's notice with no prior experience - but that's another blog entirely, coming later) but we pulled it off. And the food was...

Food & Flint.

If you read our Factoryroad Gallery blog you'll already know all about this.

But if you don't, well, you may or may not know that we built a gallery into the ground floor of our home about 18 months ago. Our latest show was Henry Flint and DJ Food.

It went incredibly well, and everyone involved enjoyed this one a lot - in fact I think it went well beyond any expectations we had.

I'm not going to re-post the extensive blog here, instead if you like you can read it on the original blog:
http://factoryroadgallery.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/flint-and-food.html

We were also given a cheek-warming review by Kev himself. His is funnier than ours, and has better pictures. (Although he does use Wordpress, which always did our heads in so we returned to Blogger...)
http://www.djfood.org/djfood/flint-food-at-factory-road-2

We host these shows 3-4 times a year, and they provide an outlet for the things that excite us beyond the main job of illustration. We have a manifesto of sorts, which isn't quite yet finalised, but as we put it to someone recently:
'People whose work we love, the well known and not so well known. People we want to work with. We experiment a bit! None of it is for profit (ie: we don't do it to sell artwork and get fat on the proceeds) although we do make a souvenir tea towel for each show (nice household item!) and have sold one or two prints.'

Which just about sums it up!

We have more shows lined up - each is always very different from the last. If you want to stay updated, send an email to gallery@factoryroad.net - or just keep reading the blog.

The Secret Members' Show, or How I fell In Love With Ink Again.

I'm an illustrator, which means I'm a pen-wielding gun for hire; proficient at answering briefs, often to short deadlines; navigating the demands of as many as sixteen clients at once (that's my record to date) and firing work out of the studio like so many curlicued ping-pong balls.

I can do this for months on end, but it takes its toll. You see I love doing books covers, and adverts, and packaging, but there's an itch that constantly waits to be scratched until an opportunity arises. It can only wait so long before the equilibrium begins to distort, and the urge to create some personal, entirely self-generated work becomes all-consuming. Like any bodily need - thirst, sleep, hunger, sex - if this is continually denied, I start to feel physically out of sorts.

 

So. When Leigh and I - in our capacity as curators of Factoryroad - wrote the brief for our Secret Members' Show, I knew there was a chance to do something I rarely get the time to do: express...and play.

The brief was thus:

"As you’re already aware we would like you to grace our new gallery with your interpretation, celebration, homage, tale or observation of the male member.

Be aware this isn't some 'just for laffs', cheesy feminism show; it has nothing to do with girl power or porn or Ann Summers. Neither is it a sombre acknowledgement of the weapon of mass production/oppression shared by the fairer sex.

No! This is a celebration of each creative female's feelings about this extension of the males who have coloured their lives, or which inspired the exchange of stories. Only female creatives are taking part.

The subject is apolitical, universal, timeless; it is variously a symbol of hope, new life, love, but also of war, fear, threat and oppression. They can be funny, characterful, and as unique as the men who wear them."


I did three pieces for the show itself, but the collection was held together by the poster. Since the subject matter was to remain secret to everyone but the participants, I wanted it to hint at peeping, vaudeville, burlesque, Victorian pornography, but also craftsmanship and exuberance. It was all hand-drawn at A2 in black Talens Ecoline ink with a variety of nibs, and a 0.2 and 0.3 fineliner for the very small type, on Fabriano 230gsm 100% recycled paper. The RSVP hand and the 'censored' little boy were also drawn in pen and ink.

It took three days, and with the exception of the three show pieces themselves - one video essay, one sculpture and one large-scale drawing in coloured pencil - I can't remember enjoying a piece of work this much in years.

Here's the original A2 art, done in one take - no digital, just planning, patience, and the odd little blob of Tippex:

 

Here's the little boy having his tender eyeballs protected (the show was thoroughly 'unsuitable for children'):

 

And for the postal invitations, I added a simple serif font (Niew CroMagnon) and rejigged the elements. The motif was used on all the information panels, the welcome poster, the tea towel wrappers and the leaflets. We've hung the original, appropriately enough, on the Victorian door of the bathroom.

You can read about the show and its opening night on the Factoryroad Gallery website, and see most of the work. If you would like a print of the piece, please get in touch.

Lily's blog.

We have a guest blogger this month, Lily Blythe from Stoke on Trent, who is working at the Inkymole studio just a month after graduating with a first in Graphic Design. Lily has something of an obsession with - and incredible flair for - typography, and was in the audience at the last college lecture I did in 2010. When she approached us at the D&AD New Talent Show last month, we were only too pleased to get her involved in our current projects.

Watch this space for more about What Lily Did Next!

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This month I was invited down to the Inkymole Studio to lend a helping hand in this month's installation at The Factoryroad Gallery space.

After bumping into Sarah at the D&AD exhibition in London in July, on the last day at around closing time, we got chatting and she was kind enough to give me a project to help keep my hands and mind busy. The brief was to use all of Inky's unfinished creative scribbles, which were a result of years of process work showing an insight in the life of a busy creative.

I kept an open mind and when shown the three crates of work, thought…this isn't that much. Little did I know that once I started to delve into Sarah's work, it was like Pandora's box. Thousands of tiny treasures on scraps of paper, ones which folded out, ones which were covered in coffee stains, blue-tac and ink splurges, and ones which were stuffed into folders along with many other different versions. All of which were done with love.

Whilst taking this sneak peak into Sarah's work I saw that being a creative with such love and passion, it really isn't a job, but it's her life. All the stains on the work showed hard working nights, and early mornings, thousands of drafts trying to get the right solution for a client (and yourself). Every picture really did tell its own story.

After reflecting on all the hard work we put in as creatives, many of us with little money in our pockets, many sleepless nights and cluttered work spaces, this experience has made me realise that I really do love what I do and I can't wait to get my first foot in the door of the creative industry.

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The show is on the walls of The Factoryroad Gallery until our group show in September, 'The Penis Show', opening Saturday September 24th. If you're interested in calling in for a look, please get in touch on gallery@factoryroad.net and we'll get the kettle on.