The One Percent Protest
Writer and Poet Mike Church me to contribute some illustrations to his new poetry book. In late 2017 he sent me the collection to read and I created The One Percent Protest. This protest occurs on each page of the book, beside or beneath Mike's poetry, which is heartfelt, politically engaged, and to me comes across as a daily fight for optimism and empathy in the front-lines of a post-industrial Neo-liberal society. These characters are who he's up against.
Very fashionable T shirts
Don't step on the art; it's worth more than your mother. These T-shirts are some from a series I did with the idea of trying to create clothing decor that fashionable stores would never steal.
Box-Son
My Illustrated book about a father's struggle to raise two children whilst dealing with his own empathy issues. These characters were invented whilst I studied two-thousand years of western comedy for my dissertation.
My thesis was 'You can extrapolate public opinion, and in turn morality through the study of humorous cultural artefacts'.
Visible here are six pages taken from the full graphic novel.
My thesis was 'You can extrapolate public opinion, and in turn morality through the study of humorous cultural artefacts'.
Visible here are six pages taken from the full graphic novel.
Lifted by Beauty : Adventures in Dreaming
Lifted by Beauty : Adventures in Dreaming was a community Theatre piece in National Theatre Wales and Mark Storor.
https://www.nationaltheatrewales.org/lifted-beauty
As the illustrator for this production I lived in Rhyl for a week, mostly illustrating the story of the project at National Theatre Wales' shop at 66 High st. The stories and activities that fed into the final production on the weekend of 31st March - 2nd April 2017 came from months of National Theatre Wales and Mark Storor working with inspirational community groups in Rhyl.
My work was to illustrate the information and stories gathered during the week leading up to the show. The information came in the form of spoken stories and descriptions through Mark, songs and poetry in writing from residents of Rhyl, workshops (some of which i was able to attend) and from Mark and National Theatre Wales showing/explaining to me parts of the production and also some personally gathered history of Rhyl.
Working on Lifted by Beauty: Adventures in Dreaming was an emotional experience; I was learning a lot about the town's history as a successful seaside tourist resort which carried a lot of happy memories for it's residents, and also it's history of being a comfortable destination for evacuees and the optimistic feel this gave to the town. But I was also steeped in the personal information (poetry writing and 2nd hand stories) of the individuals that are trying to build stronger communities in Rhyl which has a reputation as a rough, struggling town. On top of this I was meeting people throughout the week, hearing their responses to Rhyl being the setting and theme of this creative project. Their responses were often based in a kind of fear of optimism whilst also being very interested.
Having immersed myself in Rhyl so thoroughly meant that by the final performance (in part of which I illustrate the windows of a greenhouse in one of the car-park installations) Mark's visuals and Brian Duffy's music/sounds were both so haunting and at the same time optimistic that I felt I could have carried on investigating Rhyl for years.
Below are pictures of only my part (for others, see NAT website and twitter) in the production 'Lifted by Beauty : Adventures in Dreaming' a project that I am very grateful for having been able to work on.
Photos by Stephen King / National Theatre Wales
The Bargoed Miracle
The Bargoed Miracle is a graphic novel born from a Communities First project in partnership with Literature Wales, Caerphily Arts Development, and Petra Publishing.
The story was written in workshops hosted by Mike Church at the Innovative Project in Rhymney in the south-Wales valleys. The writing team attended this alternative school because for various reasons they didn't click with mainstream education. The story that they came up with is a very lively and also very particular in parts to the local knowledge but which all readers can empathise with.
One of the strategies used to develop the characters was to act out an episode of the Jeremy Kyle show. Through this method Mrs Hargreaves and her seven children were created.
The story was since reinterpreted as a play at a nearby school.
This was a great project to be part of.
The story was written in workshops hosted by Mike Church at the Innovative Project in Rhymney in the south-Wales valleys. The writing team attended this alternative school because for various reasons they didn't click with mainstream education. The story that they came up with is a very lively and also very particular in parts to the local knowledge but which all readers can empathise with.
One of the strategies used to develop the characters was to act out an episode of the Jeremy Kyle show. Through this method Mrs Hargreaves and her seven children were created.
The story was since reinterpreted as a play at a nearby school.
This was a great project to be part of.
The Mouse and the Mine
This children's book was written by Mike Church in early 2017 through conversations we had with residents of Aberbargoed. They were miners and families of miners who spoke about their experiences of mining, community and camaraderie. What I took from hearing their stories and feelings towards mining was that the strong camaraderie they shared and now occasionally missed was born from a shared experience of tough work and often danger. I remember the sentiment was shared that although they missed the mines, they would not want their own children and grandchildren to work in them. The miners we spoke to said that their own miner fathers had also wished for their sons to find other kinds of employment rather than join them at the coal pits. This mixed feeling of slight regret with warm sentimentality and solidarity was something we wanted to capture in this story.
Film makers 'Made in Tredegar' documented parts of the day in a short film to accompany the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1f3rAfKbJs
The mouse and the Mine is by Petra Publishing. British Library ISBN 978-0-9957827-2-3
Film makers 'Made in Tredegar' documented parts of the day in a short film to accompany the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1f3rAfKbJs
The mouse and the Mine is by Petra Publishing. British Library ISBN 978-0-9957827-2-3
Riot at CSAD 2016
When Jimmy Cauty's ADP tour came to Cardiff School of Art and Design we welcomed it with a full blown riot performance. My part of the performance was the part of one of three policemen attempting to control the citizens, bystanders and rioters using only banana skins. The stress of the riots soon reverted myself and the other officers into chimp-like beings and in frustration at the lack of order we used the rubble created by the riots to grind the traffic cones (banana peels) into dust.
The following zine I created and distributed at our riot performance since most street voices seem to agree that the housing crisis will be the cause of the next big riots in the disunited Kingdom.
The following zine I created and distributed at our riot performance since most street voices seem to agree that the housing crisis will be the cause of the next big riots in the disunited Kingdom.
The Boy who Rode a Sheep to School
For now I can only share a few of my scans for 'The Boy Who Rode a Sheep to School', another childrens book I illustrated for Petra Publishing. I'll post photos of the book and links to buy when I get my hands on a copy.
Written in Mike Church's writing workshops in Fochriw where the story is based, the narrative revolves around the valleys village in which the sheep are free to roam the gardens and roads and fields of the village due to the lack of fences.
I cycled with my camera to Fochriw from the nearest train station to get an idea of what the illustrations would look like. The day I chose happened to be a golden sunny day (but freezing - this was winter in late 2017). So my illustrations for this book I think carried on the colours of that day.
Written in Mike Church's writing workshops in Fochriw where the story is based, the narrative revolves around the valleys village in which the sheep are free to roam the gardens and roads and fields of the village due to the lack of fences.
I cycled with my camera to Fochriw from the nearest train station to get an idea of what the illustrations would look like. The day I chose happened to be a golden sunny day (but freezing - this was winter in late 2017). So my illustrations for this book I think carried on the colours of that day.
The Bear who Struggled to Care
This Children's book is awaiting publication as of right now (Feb 2018) but as it's my most recent work I'm in a rush to get some examples of it out there. Commissioned by a Charity interested in communicating the experience of Young Carers, this book was written again with Mike Church and a writing workshop group (attended by a group of Young Carers) in Bridgend during the later quarter of 2017. Basically together we smashed out a bear book to rival Jungle Book. I'll post more details and photos when I get them very soon.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
The Light at the End of the Tunnel is a children's book written through workshops in Church Hall in Bargoed by a community group. The book subtly deals with the experience of being bipolar and of being a friend/relative or spouse of someone suffering with the disorder. The story focuses on Millie the "life and soul of the party" mole and her friend Mollie during a local bake-off competition.
British Library ISBN978-0-9957827-0-9
British Library ISBN978-0-9957827-0-9
A Sense of Society
These portrait paintings are visually graphic-novel-esque, humorous depictions of myself and friends living self-indulgent lives. What I wanted to show was something that looked glamorous and rock-and-roll at first glance, but maybe got a bit depressing or laughable at closer inspection.
Meat Paintings
During my time at Cardiff School of art and Design I left an acoustic guitar around the studio and corridors for people to play. But I painted the guitar to look like a garish pork chop. I think I did this so that certain people would be annoyed at it and wouldn't use it to play anything vapidly cheesy or at least they would have to look more interesting if they did.
I also liked that something that made such a nice noise would have to look so ugly. That got me thinking about why raw meat might look repulsive (or at least it does until it's cooked on a plate). The answer that I came up with was that meat is flesh that we don't care about. From here I started trying to use meat in my work as a symbol for empathy blind-spots.
I also liked that something that made such a nice noise would have to look so ugly. That got me thinking about why raw meat might look repulsive (or at least it does until it's cooked on a plate). The answer that I came up with was that meat is flesh that we don't care about. From here I started trying to use meat in my work as a symbol for empathy blind-spots.
Meat Man
I created the character of Meat Man as a kind of cartoon figure of modern blues. He sings songs of neglected perspectives. His song titles include 'Local Schizophrenic', 'Jailbait Rock', and 'Berlin Wall (it's too late to sober up)'.
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Meat Laptop and Performance video
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