Trip to the Seaside! Brighton Illustrators' Group this Thursday

If you're in the Brighton area on Thursday 29th July, I'll be joining the Brighton Illustrators' Group at their 6x6 talk at 8pm that evening. I'll be with a handful of other illustrators sharing six images which have inspired me, shaped my direction, or in some other way been pivotal to my life as an illustrator. And generally geeking off about pens and the like.

I was invited by Pete Mac who runs the group and I'm sharing podium space with 5 others. So if you manage to nod off during my monologue there'll be another one up soon enough!

Can't wait. Am making a fleeting trip to Brighton with a visit to Pete's studio in the afternoon - shared by agency-mate Nishant Choksi, and Vicky Woodgate, Mark Oliver and Penny Dann to name a handful of the thirteen artists there - then dinner at Bill's Produce Store. And this is my job? I'm a very fortunate girl.

Read about the series of talks on the 6x6 website and if you're thinking of coming along, let me know!

Cosmic Ordering On The Hoof

I'm fundraising for the first time in my life, and I'm worried I'm going to be dragging my sponsorship form round often for the next couple of months that when I get back to my normal running I'm going to expect to find a tenner at the end of every mile.

Oh well. I do however find a lot of interesting things on my runs. Spookily these things are usually found right at the moment I'm thinking 'I could really use a...'

Cosmic ordering? Who knows. I don't deliberately set out to ask for things, but if I happen to be thinking about them, there they are.
Here's a list of what I've found in the last few months.

- a size 8 black fitted New Look cardigan with gathered sleeves and tiny black buttons - kept, perfect fit, worn regularly. At the time I really wanted one but couldn't find one, and due to my strict 'no-made-in-China' rule, New Look would never have been an option. Here it is being worn in Newcastle's Jay-Z cafe in September (no really! it actually is called Jay-Z's):

- a size 8 black New Look cardigan with tie belt - a good fit but not as nice - washed and given to charity.

- a size 12 grey Top Shop cardigan - too big, washed and given to charity.

- a size 8 black vest top - too tight, cut for a teenager, given to charity.

- a pair of brand new scratchless River Island Jackie O style sunglasses - the day my own brand new ones were clawed to death by the keys in my bag. The first and only time I ran with two pairs of shades. Here I am trying to look serious in them.

- a ladies' lined technical jacket - waterproof with hood and many pockets and internal cargo nets. Found right next to me in the ditch just as the first raindrops came and I began to feel cold on a 7 mile run. Ran the last mile wearing it, located owner via the local theatre, returned to said owner and was rewarded with flowers and wine! She needn't have - the coat was stolen from her car, dumped in the village, and was the jacket she wore for her work as a guide dog puppy trainer out in all weathers, so it had to be returned, no question. All together - ahhh!

- an iPod, silver, full of Miley Cyrus and Disney and High School Musical. At the time I was running with my Sony phone which bounced uncomfortably on my hip. Just as I was thinking I could do with a proper iPod, it appeared right in front of me. My attempt to hand it in to the police station resulted (it's a long story) in someone keeping it who shouldn't have. Unfortunately, a few days later I found out it was my best mate's daughter's friend's iPod, and she'd had a proper bollocking for losing it. She still doesn't know that it was once found, but lost again, and it's perhaps best that she never does.
It looked like this:
- I have never found a body. It's always unfortunate 'joggers' or 'man walking his dog' who find those, isn't it?

So. What d'yall fancy? And remember - I can only bring back what I can carry while running!

Inkymole Is Running For Cash: Part One.

I've been running recreationally for two years and intend to carry on doing so. It's just that I've decided to throw in something which is a bit of a stretch. Having read Haruki Murakami's book 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' and how it is inexorably connected with his creative process, I realised that having found running, it was very unlikely I would ever stop.

Thus, I'm intending to run my first half-marathon on October 10th in London to raise money for Mind. It took me about five days to decide, because a half marathon needs proper training, which means commitment to regular runs at certain times. Clients would have to be ignored to get them done. Jobs might have to be finished early to accommodate them. I might have to (gasp) go out running in the rain. But I get to RUN further than I've ever gone. It's the Royal Parks Half Marathon through the parks of London, and should be a lovely route.

When I run, particularly on the long ones, my mind clears, calms and refreshes. I come back ready to tackle anything. I want to feel like that all the time, but am in a pressured industry where such spells are rare and precious. I also know how close I've come on occasion to 'losing it'. At least, I thought I did, until I started to discover friends who really had 'lost it', and learned just how commonplace and misunderstood, and how devastating, a poorly brain can be. The unfortunate popular figurehead for mental illness in recent years, Stuart Goddard (aka Adam Ant) describes it as 'a fist in the skull'. And 1 in 4 people will suffer from mental illness at some point in their lives. 1 in FOUR. Mind has therefore been my charity of choice for many years, and I'm honoured to be on their running team. More on Mind here: http://www.mind.org.uk/about

I've committed to raising £1000 minimum as part of my agreement with the charity. That's 200 people flinging a fiver my way. There are 600+ people in my address book and at least 50 people read this blog. Should be easy, right...?

Here's the page which makes donation a whole lot easier than going round your neighbours' houses with your Dad carrying a pen and a sponsor form from school:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/inkymole

- I do the sweating, they rattle the tin!

I really appreciate all your support, and I thank you in advance from the bottom of my weary trainers.

Status report: Currently running 7.25 miles. Speed needs to improve and I need to watch my knees! More leg presses and abs required. And don't bother with the Go energy gels again - they taste like Satan's wrung-out socks.

Pressies.

I had a morning of wonderment and joy the other day. It was like Christmas, but better, because the things that put the smile on my face weren't planned or requested, or expected: they just arrived.

First of all I received a massive box from my friend Amanda, who lives in Providence. Amanda is an all-round creative being and she makes, amongst other things, hand-blown cake stands for single fairy cakes (or cupcakes, as the Americans call them.) She and I did a trade, but her parcel of oddities far outweighed anything I'd sent her way.

First of all there was THIS - a half-sewn half-drawn note. Can't you just HEAR the frantic ZRRRRZRRR of the sewing machine?

Then delving through the padding was this: wahhh! Snakes and a newt! They later had a fight - turtle won with his flip-top-smother-prey-stealth move:

Beetleface leapt out a bit further down, 3" long, but HE was made of stuff we can't identify, with metal bits, and has a magnet stuffed into his belly so he can hang off anything which makes a clonking sound. I tried him on the range flue, but seeing as this can reach 127C at full pelt, I decided melted beetles wasn't a look I fancied.

Enough already? NO. Buried in paper was the magnificent surprise of an Edward Gorey tarot pack - MY WORD. Did I tell her I liked Gorey? No! Did she guess? Can she see it in my face? Shall I tell my own future and that of everyone I know with characters like The Black Doll and The Limb from now on? Yes, I shall.


And all this is before I even get to the cake stand. Here it is - and can you believe, I had JUST made a batch of sticky chocolate ones. Popped one inside. Yum. Amanda must have used special Dorian Gray-style glass to make her stand, because the cakes in the tin turned to mush that night...and the one inside stayed smugly perfect and youthful.

Then my friend Hayley, who normally writes books like this one showed me her drawing of a rhino. It was so good and so captured the essence of a rhino that I dared her to draw a Mole. Now this was bad of me, because my own drawn animals are always deformed beasts of indeterminate species, but she did it. And here he is. Charmed? I nearly cried. Looks at his massive digging hands! His tiny eyes! His surprised sun-struck face! Now that's what illustration's all about - capturing the squinty digness of the Mole. Ten out of ten, Hayls.

And on the same day I received a thank you gift, which are ALWAYS appreciated - even if I can't drink that wine or eat those well-meant chocs - this was received from Laura and was thoroughly spontaneous, made by hand, and reflective of the arts occasion which triggered it!
Thank you Laura, Hayley and Amanda aka Ezz.

The First Paid Gig.

Just found my first ever live commission after graduating, while organising some archived work samples for the new plan chest (when it comes). I'd had some paid work while at college, but this was the first where I was out on my own.

I got paid £200 for this A1 pastel pencil piece for Southend School For Boys who were celebrating their bicentenary. I drove down there in my custard yellow Citroen 2CV, took a brief (there was no email of course, this was 1993) and lots of photographs (which needed taking into Boots for developing) and went home to draw this over the next couple of weeks. I had to deliver the piece back the same way - on the motorway, with 602cc and a packet of B&H. I was good at driving one-handed. This time they had me down for lunch, and let me have some of the 200 prints they'd had made - all of which I had to sign.

If you look carefully, you can see that the image can be viewed any way up. They'd spotted my piece in Images 17, which was a delight. (Parental-sounding note to young 'uns: see, it IS worth entering the Images competitions!)

They were really pleased with it, and the original still hangs in the Great Hall in a frame (well, as far as I know). Model was boyfriend at the time - I just gave him three different hairdos and coloured his face a bit. I seem to remember he wasn't the most enthusiastic model, but then again, he wasn't the arty type...

Blimey. Foreshortening eh? Don't know if I could do it now!

It's my business.

I like to get behind anyone who's actively promoting and supporting the illustration industry as a whole, so it goes without saying I'm a life-long member of the Association of Illustrators, whose new members are welcomed to the fold with a juicy package emblazoned with a message by Inkymole.

In addition, I try to keep up with the many Illustration sites around like Illustrationmundo, Spraygraphic and Illustration Friday, but I don't often get the pleasure of a simple leisurely browse (which is a good thing if you think about it!) These things are usually run by people who aren't being paid to do it, and do it for the love the trade they're in. Obviously, the existence of the web and the ease of blogging makes this a whole lot easier and cheaper than the days of the AOI's early printed-and-posted B&W newsletters.

This one's a new one and I thought I'd report on it, as it's nicely done (though I think a hand-written header might draw more people in), and has been voted one of HOW's Top 10 Best Sites for Designers. Their catchphrase is 'creativity, community, culture' - which sums it up nicely! Being part of it reminds me of three important things:

1) This is fast-growing industry for which there is no Trade Union, just a solid core of people working away at their trade and its issues, and

2) It is a harder-than-ever industry to work in, because although the web has made it easier and cheaper to promote from a technical point of view, there are... thousands and thousands of us, and we're competing on a global - no longer a local or country-wide - playing field. Which not only sharpens pencils, but focus, ability and professionalism too.

3) Humans LOVE pictures.

Which, for the ongoing longevity and prosperity of my trade, with me in it or long after the pencils have been put down, is A Very Good Thing.

Cakes.

When I'm stuck or unmotivated and I'm in the mood where I'll do anything except what I'm meant to be doing, two things break the stalemate: running, and baking. Thankfully the two are mutually beneficial (well you could run without the baking, but to just do the baking might have me in trouble after a few short sugary months) and there's nothing better than making them for other people.*

Since various craftsmen - builders, plumbers, sparkies, chippies, tilers, shotblasters, metalworkers and scaffolders - have been our extended family for four months, they've benefitted from my frequent oven sessions. You might expect an illustrator to put a great deal of effort into the appearance of her cakes, but prepare to be disappointed.

Not all were captured on film, but here's a round-up of my flour-and-marge endeavours. Disclaimer: not all of them are cakes.

*actually there is, and that is eating them all yourself.

Vanilla Fairy cakes in star-shaped silicone. Date unknown but most likely January.

Fruit loaf. 10.2.10.

A tin of peanut butter and chilli cakes. 3.3.10.

Hardcore Chocolate Sandwich: baked in an industrial-sized loaf tin, jam and buttercream filling. 11.5.10.

Baked especially for Mark and Mick the Builders. Vanilla Sponge with buttercream icing and obvious sprinkles. Two layers. 4.5.10.

Chocolate Bruiser. Two layers, damson jam and chocolate and carob cream. 10.4.10.

This is a haggis pie, 16.5.10. Pastry excuses: see below.

Mincemeat and Apple Tart, 25.5.10. Borrowed Mum's baking gear (and kitchen) because mine is all boxed up, which is the only reason why the pastry doesn't look like a boxing match in a pie shop.

Well they can't have it without tea, can they?

Speaking My Language.

It's been a trying time over here, having to move out of house and studio in early February and suddenly having tools, food, clothing and gear spread across two locations - briefly three - with two studio moves and a third still to come.

I don't adapt well to upheaval, and certainly am not one of these people I read about who can just pick up a sketchbook and a couple of pens and produce work gaily on the hoof. No, I'm a creature of habit and routine, and like to have everything in its place where I can see it.

So there was a real comfort in settling into this job for New Scientist magazine, which has amazing articles with bonkers titles like 'Levitating glass bead proves Einstein wrong' and 'Human Lego could build artificial organs'. This busy piece was done over the course of six days with the studio in bits, and using nothing but a list of the 6000+ languages spoken around the world, an A3 drawing book and two big packs of felt pens. Soothing and calming!

Sometimes, it's as if the Freelance Gods (they do exist) seem to know what's going on, and prescribe exactly the right medicine. Cheers Ryan and Craig at New Scientist!

The first part of the image (this is the cover):

Then the centre part is added, separated out for the interior illustration:

And here's how the cover looks:

Final cover - reversed at the last second, for greater impact!

Memory & Conscience

Being a busy illustrator trying to couple heavyweight clients AND a conscience is difficult, and an ongoing daily dialogue is required to negotiate my way through the dilemmas presented by some of the creative opportunities that come my way. This one was easy though.

I've created a small piece for this project created by Garrick Webster of OneTenEleven, called 'Memories', a book of stories written by people who have lost a person to cancer. I'll be showing the illustration when it goes live for the project.

Far from being maudlin, the stories are interesting and positive, and the art is already looking full of life. Other artists contributing artwork include Vaughan Oliver, Jules Julien, Gary Taxali, Yulia Brodskaya, Ben The Illustrator and lots more people I can't list here - I think the total is up to something like 100! The end result is a book and an exhibition. The project is being launched summer 2010 by Designers Against Human Rights Abuse (DAHRA), Subism, OneTenEleven Media and editor Garrick Webster. Designers Against Human Rights Abuse (DAHRA) was founded in the summer of 2008 by Rishi Sodha. A non-profit organisation, it exists to promote and raise awareness amongst those involved in the creative industry of their social, political and ethical responsibilities. You can see why I was interested.
Go here for more information.

Information Is Beautiful

I bought this book at the weekend, and as the title suggests, it's one of the most beautifully informative things I've ever seen.

David McCandless is an illustrator specialising in information graphics. That is, he makes hard things like maths and statistics and charts easy to interpret by showing us pictures and using colours and shapes. Just what I need, since I find politics and stats and maths don't suit my generally rather simple right-leaning brain (in a cognitive, not a political sense).

For example it took me just a few seconds to learn that almost exactly the same amount of people die from suicide (71m) as die from smoking (70m). One might argue they are the same thing, but that's not why the book exists.

I now know the most-viewed viral on the web. I have a better understanding of the relationship that Israel has to its neighbours. I also know that all the fizzy pop bottle caps being undone in the US releases more carbon than a flight, and that a vegan diet is the most carbon-friendly you can possibly have. Indeed the book is an enormous and delicious feast that you can dip into like a good pot of organic houmous, and is backed by a sprightly website, its own path to existence tracked by a graph in the back pages.

Yep, file this under 'This is Brilliant: Must Try Harder'.

www.informationisbeautiful.net/

See also: Stefanie Posavec - how I would love to see what these people's brains look like!

Inkymole Giveaway 4

Having another clearout. This time it's several years' worth of illustration annuals that I just can't hold on to any more!

These are the fat tomes of Contact, numbers 22-26, and two Le Books from 2009 I think. For the uninitiated, they're juicy collections of full-page illustrations in full colour, hard-bound, about 10" x 12" in size. I also have an Art Book, which is the one that showcases only illustration agencies.

Excellent reference books and free if anyone would like them, but I've got to ask donation of postage as they're HEAVY - a handful of quids should do it - which can be Paypal'd if you're keen. Or, you could collect.

I'm guessing these are going to end up being donated to a college or university, but I thought I'd give the troops first dibs!
Email me: sarah@inkymole.com

I'll give it a week, then they'll be leaving the house, by hook or by crook.

Oh I've got a shed to get rid of too. No really, I have. It's big too.

L I F E

A new cover for New Scientist on a subject close to my heart. A chance to draw as many insects, animals, birds and flora as I fancied! The article's an absorbing read too. However I have excellent books on all those things except the animals: I need a REALLY good, 90% visual guide to 'all the animals in the world'...can anyone suggest one? Google's great but I prefer books for getting legs and ears correct!

Read the article

Spring Shopping!

Just to let you know there are some fresh gubbins added to the Factoryroad Shop, which stocks not only Inkymole's goodies but items by co-conspirator Solo One and our record label Blunt Force Trauma as well. Records, stickers, prints, t shirts, jewellery, stationery and some lovely spring tote bags (featured in a new book by Jitesh Patel about...erm...tote bags!)

Whether you want to spend 50p or £25, there's a small something-or-other in stock. More to come later in the year. Yeah. We have plans.

www.factoryroad.bigcartel.com/

My First Ever Jobs. No. 1 In A Series: Cliff.

This is a series I hoped to start ages ago. But I was so busy doing my 'Most Recent Ever Jobs' that I've not, till now.

This is the first job I did for a commercial client. I was not even a full term into my second year at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design and was on a self-directed work placement at a design company in the Midlands. I had to design Cliff Richard's tour shirts, and even then, my 'skill' for typography and its commercial application was recognised, as I was asked to do Cliff's signature. Since I had no idea how Cliff signs his cheques - and I told them so - they just said 'oh that doesn't matter, just fudge it.' So I did. The red insignia is meant to be a C and an R...more like a G, or the bottom half of a treble clef I think, but they loved it, and it sold in thousands on his tour.

This one's up for grabs as the ongoing space-clearing continues. It's a Large. Surprisingly, never worn. Anyone a closet Cliff fan, or know someone who is? Hey woah come on now, easy! Not all of you at once!

Never mind that, we're all about to be turned into one giant pixel.

Remember I said I love looking at things that make me feel dim? Sort of the 'must-try-harder' syndrome?
Well this one's a 100% organic-prime-beef example.

Made by French director Patrick Jean, this scales up all those bleepy munch-munch sounds of 80s video games and shoves them in the direction of New York, where they proceed to invade the city. There can, of course, be only one conclusion.

Soundtrack here by our man in Berlin, Bazooka, of Aural Carnage Records and Sub-Carnage Records, whose second 12" 'Knowledge and Wisdom' we re-released because we loved it so much.

It's great to see such a perfect hook-up of sound and vision.

EX-E- CUTE:

In a fight between Timmy Burton and these lads...

...I know who'd win. Now, I do love Timmy and his bonkers creations, and I get asked a lot whether I am 'inspired by Tim Burton' and there were the never-ending type comparisons a few years ago. Well, yes, of course I am inspired, but the word 'dark' is so often used to describe his work it makes me feel a bit tired sometimes. It's not 'dark'. Dark became a word as over-used and high-streetified as 'eclectic' did ten years ago (everyone's latest release was bloody 'eclectic') along with words like 'awesome' ('it inspires awe in me') and 'underground'.

So, although there's a fair amount of reduced light levels in there, Tim Burton and his friendly-scary creations are many subterranean levels up from the murk and dinge of these two quiet fellas, the Brothers Quay.

You can Google them of course but there's no website. They don't want one. So thank God for YouTube then and their plentiful supply of films.

Marvel at how one rotating cube and a pile of iron filings become the most unsettling thing you've ever seen. Be sobered for a moment at the way a change in speed makes things less comprehendible, and a simple movement of an inanimate head is so unnatural you can actually feel your own follicles trying to get away. Tiny motions, mute details, claustrophobic viewpoints, lots of chiaroscuro, and beautifully curated sound.

No point me banging on any more, I know what they do for me, but have a look and see for yourself. Sometimes you just have to share.

This is a rejected 1991 ident piece for BBC2, which makes me want to turn back time and go to animation school:

Brothers Quay -1985- The Epic of Gilgamesh
Uploaded by petitlolotechre. - Independent web videos.

and my favourite, 'Stille Nacht I Dramolet':

The shape of things that hum.

I'm in the mood for talking about some things by other people that I like. Talking about your own work gets really boring sometimes!

My friend Kev sent me his new record recently, 'The Shape Of Things That Hum' on Ninja Tune records. Kev is better known as Strictly Kev (I never have found out why), of the DJ Food outfit and I do need to point out we were buying his records long before we started getting free ones! *winking emoticon*.

This one's a bloody corker though. Not that the others haven't been, I play A Recipe for Disaster (listen to it here and/or buy it here) a lot, even though it must be cocking on for 14 years old (my partner prefers Kaleidoscope), it's just that this one comes with exquisite art (Kev is also the Charlie Big Potato designer for Ninja) and we can't stop listening to it. The artwork is jewel-like and very pretty; it looks a bit like a mad man with a healthy dose of OCD has gone into a jeweller's, smashed up all the gems, and calmly re-arranged them all on the big shop windows with glue then shone a light through them.

The line work for the art is by Henry Flint, whose detailed writhing comic book art work you'll have to seek out in a non-web format as he does not have a site of his own. (Strangely refreshing, that). Kev has painstakingly coloured these images retrospectively and 'against all the odds'...


And it's a killer package too - big juicy poster and download and there's a DVD to go with it. But the main thing is that it really sounds like someone who's taken time to ruminate and masticate and all those other things you have to do to stir up a really fresh brew. It takes time. It still sounds like DJ Food, but DJ Food gone away for a bit and had time to fondle some new sounds and play for days on end with robots. Because this does have a robot theme, you see; Kev is a big fan of the mechanical man, and this suits me just fine because if I only ever had to watch Iron Man and Robocop and Terminator and all their sequels for the rest of my cinema-going days, I'd be a happy geek, though not quite as happy a robo-geek as Kev himself:

It hangs together really well and the sound seems, if I may so bold, more fulsome. More reverb and bass. Still very Kev though - narrative vocals, jazzy bits, groovy percussion (groovy in the old-fashioned sense of the word) and ... an element of minor threat lurking beneath. Or at least a warning.

The other thing is the cover / re-invention of one of my favourite artist's tracks, 'Giant' by The The. I put the record on without reading any liner notes (always do, listen first read later) and kept thinking, bloody hell! This is cheeky! But Matt Johnson and Kev have been friends for a long time, so it only made sense that they'd collaborate on something like this eventually. There's a fresh vocal being recorded for it too, which I can't wait to hear. The The was the inspiration behind my 'O' level art exam project (don't laugh) and to this day I go all tingly when I hear the opening notes of 'This Is The Day'.
Cheers Kev for sending it and making it in the first place, and may there be lots more. Kev's studio by the way is one we should all aspire to - tidy, clean and decorated with all things visually delicious and design-tastic - have a look. (Then go and tidy up in an embarrassed frenzy!)

Li(f)e in pictures.

My friend and long-time inspiration, Sage Francis, releases his latest album in May called Li[f]e, named after a line from one of his earlier tunes on what is one of my most-played albums, Personal Journals.

Anyone who's kept an eye on what I've been doing for the last ten years will have an understanding of how important Sage's work has been in developing my own, and Sage's words will need no introduction. But for anyone who isn't aware, it was Sage's music which prompted me to undertake one of the biggest and scariest projects I've ever done, my show 'If A Girl Writes Off The World', in 2006.

Here's a quote take from the website for the show, which you can still visit today:
'I played connect-the-dots with your beauty marks, and ended up with picture-perfect sheet music...you can still hear me humming your nudity under my breath' (Hopeless)

Sage's songs are strewn with tiny linguistic gems and white-hot pin-pricks of personal expression, leaving the hip-poppers littering their charts with fake diamonds and teeth.

And if being reduced to tears or smarting from a sharp political smack round the chops isn't enough to remind you you're alive, his beats'll do it for you.

I wish I had written the words, but I didn't; I can only pick up the crayons and scribble hard at what they conjure...it's going to take more pictures and more day trips out of the comfort zone before I can say I've done this man's work justice.

The exhibition was a collection of 2- and 3D pieces made as a raw and energetic response to a selection of his words. In contrast to client and professional work, these pieces were imperfect and impulsive, some being sold, some becoming permanent installations with fans around the world, and some making their way to the walls of Sage's home, where I'm proud to say they remain to this day.

A video of the show coming together.

Voxpops of the show with Sage making a cheeky entrance/exit.

When he asked me to produce artwork for his previous album, 'Human The Death Dance' (above), I was awestruck and bloody excited - what's better than being asked to do cover art for your favourite artist? But I was equally excited for to discover Sage's next cover artist is fellow Rhode Islander Shepard Fairey, who's created this beautiful illustration based on an old snapshot of a very caucasian Sage from a time when it wasn't at all cool to be a white rapper. Not one to give in to tired and silly rap preconceptions, Sage stuck his face in all its pasty beardy glory on his album cover, and it became one of his most iconic images.
Having watched Sage's cover art move from hand-drawn covers, photocopied for free at Kinko's, to collaborating with one of our most renowned artists (and fellow Bernstein & Andriulli creative) has been a journey I almost feel a maternal pride in; this is a man who's worked harder than I can describe to get his label to where it is today. Constantly in awe of his vision and commitment, I'm proud to have played just the tiniest part in that!

Congratulations Sage on the beautiful artwork and I cannot WAIT to hear the album.

Sage Francis starts touring in May 2010.


Read about and order the new album here.

Planned Obsolescence

*This is a long one. You might want to get a cup of tea before you start.

I was thinking about this phrase, brought to my attention by B. Dolan and invented in the 1930s as a way of boosting the economy and I realised that from the moment we started planning the new studio, currently being built messily downstairs, there has been a constant flow of objects outward, as things are agreed upon as surplus to requirements, better suited elsewhere or become superceded.

We always knew there would be some serious 'cleansing' to do; for years we've kept a charity bag on the go, regularly taking it stuffed-full over to the Mind shop where I am a Gift Aider and from whence I receive regular letters telling me how much money my unwanted things have raised. We were aware there would be an escalation of things leaving the house as we cull the studio, kitchen and living room contents, and look objectively at what we have. Although we live fairly minimally, not having a loft to use as a convenient 'disappearing space' for things we can' decide on, or a parents' garage, there are still too many things to potentially litter our new space.

No; everything we have has to earn its keep. Do we need it? Can someone else re-use it? Can it become something else? If not, where do we take it so that it's responsibly disposed of? Questions like this have, over the last few weeks, thrown into sharp focus the difficulties of 'getting rid' in a responsible and ethical way.

We've had a skip outside for weeks now, and I can see why humans see these as convenient yellow and black holes which make nasty or dirty things magically go away. Just bung it in. The temptation to hurl things in and close the front door is strong - but passers-by have done that for us, adding the obligatory pizza boxes, chip papers, plastic bottles and and fag packets. The thing is, they don't 'disappear'; although some materials such as wood, hardcore and metals will be separated and recycled, much of what is thrown in can end up in landfill where they may or more likely may not break down, lurking ruefully for decades under the earth. It wears me out just thinking about it.

We now know just how much work it is to enable an object to leave us responsibly. But boy, it can be hard work. Here's a list of what's gone, and how we 'got rid' of it:

-The piano was sold to an eBayer who bought it for his little girl, learning piano aged 11. Her Dad's a singer in his spare time, and I couldn't have wished it a better home, though it took huge amounts of perseverance to get it sold (and a tear or two when it finally left).

- Our gas boiler, no longer needed but in full working order, was given to friends whose recently-purchased house is still without central heating. Mmm, warmth! We had to pay a plumber to remove it, and it was our dinner guest in the living room for some time, sitting disconnected on the floor, but it was worth the wait.

- The cooker has followed it, replacing theirs which had a silly non-closing door. It took chums to helps us lug it out it, and take the two items to the next town - but they've got a new home.

- Our two removed windows were sold on eBay to a man in Bristol, who's building his own house. We've lost a handsome amount of money on them, but Mr Builder will look out over the Avon through two beautiful sash double-glazers, and he'll send me a picture. That's good enough for me. The alternative - firewood? Giving them back to the carpenters for dismantling? Not for us.

- My first Mac, blogged about in a previous post has, for the princely sum of £17 and an hour spent on eBay, gone home with the wonderful Graham, Mac collector and Apple geek, whose boyish smile betrayed his excitement at the latest addition to his collection. Strangely I couldn't give this away, not even to charities pleading for old computers, but once on eBay, it was snapped up.

- The carpet was a different matter. Now at Worklink, the reaction I got from the carpet shops I called to ask about recycling had me double-checking I hadn't just asked them what to do with a sack of dismembered puppies. I could feel them recoiling. Recycling? Not our problem, they said, throwing me at arm's length - we don't need to recycle, we leave all the bits with the customer. Oh, for them to recycle? Yes, they said. And where do we do that then? Erm... they said. In fact, carpet retailers can join this association.

- The new washing machine in the flat we're having to stay in wasn't wanted by the previous tenant, and the landlord didn't want it either, so that's gone to a family somewhere in Leicestershire. The sofa, armchair, dining room table and chairs went to Worklink. Their fridge will follow, as our own inherited 1956 Frigidaire is still doing its job handsomely.

- Two old mattresses are the only thing the council has had to collect, but the sum of £20, and the amount of hassle saved by not taking it ourselves, is worth it.

- Our builder's had the antique radiator (we kept the big fat one in the bathroom), and the living room radiator's gone to a friend with a freezing cold house (another friend with a freezing cold house).

- ...she had the TV, too (Mark the builder's given us our first flat-screen. Yay!)

- Mind had about 30 DVDs. Some bloody good ones too. But you can't keep everything.

- The original lath ceiling is stacked and ready to be burned in the yet-to-arrive woodburner.

- The cast iron fireplace (we've opened up the original arch behind it, before you panic!) is going to the bloke who supplies our reclaimed bricks and iron columns. Nice.

- The same man's had our 50s kitchen cabinets by Daintymaid - someone's going to go bonkers with excitement when they see those.

- Even my old studio phone has found new employment at the builder's house.

There's more, but you get the idea. It looks like a huge amount of hassle that we could easily have chosen to avoid by going the 'skip' route, but despite the dust and muck we breathe easily that we didn't add to the piles of decaying crap in the process of giving the house its next lease of life. More money has left the house than has been generated by parting with these objects, and it's a cliche, but we feel we're really lived the 'reuse, reduce, recycle' mantra. We're so relieved about that it almost makes us want to lie down.

Despite the effort, it's completely possible not to fill the skip, and to send things onto gainful employment somewhere else instead. It's not difficult, but you have to be dogged in the face of challenges like terrified, cornered carpet retailers and the desire to just...'bung it in the yellow hole'.

There's an entirely separate blog on the raw materials we're building with, and how we've swapped and traded for some of the things we've needed. But that's for later. In the meantime, please marvel at the current state of the kitchen.


And the same corner before: