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/