When I initially started exploring the creatures pieces I was as mad as a fruit cake and to revisit it is pretty obviously in the same spirit. It isn’t as though I am suffering or in a bad way but simply channelling the insanity into something creative. That in itself is good and if it is creative it is constructive. The pieces lately have erotic undertones and that was something I thought about last year with a couple of graffiti works. It isn’t explicitly obvious but it is hinted at and is in the new works on paper. They could be insects or viruses. It is very open to interpretation. That is where I tend to go when I detach from graffiti letters or coded pieces. The problem is how they can be anything other than curiosities. That is where I have always been and I have outlined the issue in prior posts in regards to ‘open’ ideas. They are oddities that may or may not warrant attention and it is hard to make them attach to peoples understanding.

So much of what we entertain is prescribed and that is how we can understand so much of the world and art. Art is a place where people can connect, but how do you connect to the disconnected? Really all of the work are curiosities but the graffiti based works were beautiful and that was the connection. The creatures are just ugly, fleshy, strange pieces and I think that is why the feedback has been they are companion pieces rather than something particularly their own. Only one piece has sold and that looked more like a scientific illustration of a young star in formation. The new ones are just so tactile but they are colourful in most cases with one looking like a cross between a blue bottle and a jellyfish.

It has been great to make some sales and see my artwork getting out there. It is hilarious though to see your bank balance looking half decent and then the bills creep in one at a time and kind of spoil the fun. It is just what everyone has to deal with really. There I am hustling away then out of nowhere comes a nice bill. Luckily though I have had some sales because otherwise I would be even worse off at the moment. Its just kind of one to one and that is just how it is. Realised I have a few expenses that I don’t really need to have and they will be dealt with thankfully by clients who are benefited by them so I have some faith in people because I was thinking that people just wouldn’t pay. Just have to keep pushing it all along.

Well it is definitely getting into the busier time of the year. So far I have been pretty stressed especially after my push for sales over the past few weeks. It makes me realise just how much time and effort you need to put in to get results. Because of my health I need to tread cautiously because I don’t want to start having any issues. At the same time I need to keep up a steady momentum to keep things ticking over. My newest direction isn’t getting a lot of traction and I am tempted to just head back to safety but some feedback has been that the new pieces work with the older ones and they play off each other.

Also I don’t know how far I can go with the new works. It is a little bit harder to gauge and now I have been thinking of how I would go about making small sculptural pieces even though I can’t really see that working. I don’t want to make models though I can see models in my mind working. I would prefer a jewellery approach but don’t know how to envisage it. When I can’t see at least a glimpse, not a finished product but just a glimpse it is really hard to see myself getting anywhere with it.

To be frank I am probably losing my marbles from all of the stress from the past few weeks and there have been times when I think that I am becoming a little unhinged. Although I am not suffering any particular symptoms or having any clear indications that my health is a little fragile I know that I need to take it easy. What may help is just to drop the tools and see what stays in my mind going forward. It is all good to entertain ideas but I really need to make great objects.

Well I am pushing through with the creatures series, it was initially an idea from 2008 that I entertained with a few pieces of work. That is why when I eventually saw Shida I instantly warmed to his work as that was what he was on about. His creatures are more like fantasy characters whereas the ones I did in 2008 where more like microscopic entities or energies as they had no real distinct human form. They were energies or undefined ideas and entities that were forming in the mind and in the world as the seeds of creative application. They were also meant to be the forms of madness that were viral and would take over the brain. So it was simply a crazy idea for me that can be applied to art.