I followed ‘The Aither’ on my new Instagram account and came across an artist I followed on my old account called ‘Daisy Attack’. The Aither had done an interview on Daisy Attack and it was interesting to get a bit of background on the artist. She also makes music and I was pleasantly surprised by her disbanded band ‘Dweeb City’ (the link to the article is: https://theaither.com/2022/11/23/we-chat-with-artist-musician-daisy-knight-aka-daisy-attack-of-sandwich-magic-ex-dweeb-city/).

Her artwork is like a psychedelic cartoon full of hyper-coloured aliens and oddball creatures, I have seen her work around the inner west as I have painted around there quite a bit. I think the interview is a good read and I enjoy seeing her creations on Instagram (@daisyattack). Lately, she has been making models of some of her creature creations and they are also packaged in quite a cool packaging which are all designed by hand. Dweeb City music is available on most streaming platforms and Bandcamp. 

Sadly David Duffy passed away recently, he was a very private person and I think he didn’t want to alert me to any issues I might have been able to help him with because most landlords will boot people on the street. When I first met David around fifteen years ago I could tell he was an interesting person and we made an agreement to keep him housed for at least five years. My Dad was managing the property for most of that time and he kept the rents low. I wouldn’t rent David’s old flat out again for at least a few years or maybe never. 

Some of my friends find my altruistic nature a little odd but I am very into free thinking and anyone who has seen my creative output knows that I am not interested in making a profit. I just want to live in peace and make my art. Once you start worrying about money, no matter how much you have the worrying never stops. I suppose I keep my overheads low and as long as I have good tea I can keep being free to create.

Work is always busy because nothing is particularly straight forward but I am the type who likes to solve problems and chip away at things. I and Zapgalaxy will be participating in a festival in the next two weeks and I personally feel that aerosol art, at least in my case is very old hat. I feel like Merda and Felipe Pantone have moved it forward through techniques that are more involved and plotted. The repetition in Merda’s work is perfectly executed through masking and geometric precision. Pantone brings in the world of digital graphics and the work is also masked.

My own push into less precise solutions and chaotic squiggles and lines satisfies me philosophically but doesn’t really have a place in the world we currently live in. I suppose I have painted my own erasure, this kind of thing interests me because I like things that seem to fall away into a world of shadows. Forms seem ready to coagulate into something but then are left open. What are they left open to? Probably rejection but maybe I am staying true to the idea of a hidden master. Though even when the master had disappeared into the mountains someone would come looking for them.

In my case, this fantasy of being hidden to be hopefully found is a bit of a lost cause although I am quite enamoured by the journey. I look at the work of Merda and Pantone knowing everything is in its right place and knowing that in many ways they are also hidden like beautiful diamonds with many faces. If we think of Daisy Attack though her work is like a digital home for all of the lost souls of the video games sitting in people’s garages that have come back for revenge for being forgotten. They all bring some joy in a world that is too functional and efficient for its own good. Everything exists somewhere even if it is in a box in the basement or an old digital file backed up. These things though eventually reach an arm out of the grave full of drama and surprise, especially when you are not ready for it.