The Fab Four on my Door (step)

Apologies for my absence, been through a lot in the past month and simply haven't had time for anything else. As the situation improves, however, my spirits are slowly lifting and yesterday I took a trip into the city to visit the Fab Four Store. It's been a while since I went in and I duly spent about an hour inside looking at every single item present. I bought another Beatles poster and on the way out spotted a brilliant T-shirt which I invested in as well :)

This is the tag from that T-shirt and I thought the simplicity of it was so effective and recognisable the least I could do was take a photo. I feel so privileged to come from the city 'where it all began' and able to visit such great places which stand on my doorstep. P.S. I recommend any Beatles fans to visit the shop in question, it's a great place and contains some real one off memorabilia.

The Timekeeper

Where does our time go these days? Life today is so hectic it's rare we even get an hour or two to ourselves to just relax. It takes me over a month to read a book these days, where I use to whiz through one in a few days. What happens to our ideas? It seems there isn't enough time to ever actually put our plans and ideas in to actions and they forever remain just that; ideas.

I wanted to make an illustration about this and for some reason kept getting this disturbing image of a blob like monster ruthlessly chewing up any potential ideas along with the time of day needed to execute them. So that's what I drew, making a second (lighter) version, too.

Note: I am aware the 5th of November has long passed, I'm just having an issue with uploading the original background! Will defeat the problem soon I promise! Take care everyone, have a fun week!

Alone in the Dark

As I haven't posted anything 'halloween-y', I took this shot a few hours ago for my blog. I went to Sefton Park where a (brilliant) lantern festival was taking place. This particular park is very big and I find it hard enough to navigate in broad daylight so when I found myself lost taking a short cut over some stepping stones in a river and in to the heart of a pitch black wood I genuinely felt slightly scared. The sound of distant voices in complete darkness is very eerie. My only light source was my mobile phone which gave me just enough light to see what I was standing on... any lurking creatures behind remained hidden *cue scary piano*

As I slowly stepped my way through the wood one stride at a time I couldn't help but think of a scene from Salem's Lot which I am currently reading. With that I decided I'd had enough fun for one night and quickened my pace until I seen someone, then another person, then another...

I love horror and Halloween is definitely my favourite date of the year! Hope you all had a scary one, and if anyone has read Salem's Lot, make sure all your windows are well and truly locked!

Bliss

September 6. Lincoln. My birthday. Sat on a hey bale in a field.

No planes.
No cars.
No distance drones of the motorway.
No tribes of cannabis smoking parasites.
No deadlines.
No schedules.
No plans.
No stress.
No pit-bulls.
No bother.

Bliss.

On the Eighth Day, Jim bought some carrots and a six pack of Carling for under a Tenner

There’s an old grocery store in Bold Street, Liverpool. It’s been there for a number of generations and is a family built and run business that is well known for it’s quality produce, a rare oasis of fresh and natural fruit and veg that hasn’t come from some un-pronounceable country. It’s just closed. Why? Because Terry Leahy has just opened a SEVENTH Tesco store in the City Centre… Bold Street in fact… facing the old fruit stall. In just two years I’ve seen first hand each supermarket take the place of an old friend almost overnight (the Tescolution as I call it). One of the supermarkets is big enough to provide half the city with food, towering over any other shops. According to the Liverpool Echo,  work has started on an even bigger store ten minutes away. Anyway, that’s my rant of the day over!

 

About the pieces; The main image was created last through photoshop; the second is the original illustration; the third being modified slightly just to make sure you know they’re there to stay with their nice big colourful logo. I chose to show a converted church as it shows the mind set of todays companies such as Tesco. Local Gem stooped in history and tradition? Sounds perfect, at least it gets people talking and as most people are familiar with the location because of the previous building that now makes up part of someone’s garden wall, interest is one thing guaranteed. Nothing against Tesco but do we need seven stores in the city centre? Crazy. At least ASDA (Wal-Mart) don’t stuff their brand in your face, you may find one store for every  five/six districts. I added the Bud logo to the sign merely to represent consumerism at it’s ugly best. The first image I added a tranquil country scene to portray their ruthlessness in their plans; location or history don’t matter as long as them nickel Queen’s heads keep rolling in. Be sure to take note of the logo if it seems un-familiar, I’m sure you’ll know it inside out sooner than you think. I really enjoyed drawing it by the way, shame about the meaning…

The Long Ride To and From

Every day the same routine. Every day the disappointment of seeing the latest batch of gobshites dressed in all black standing at the next bus stop. The constant hearing of ‘lad’ while the girl in front has her ipod on so loud she might as well take the earphones out so if we have to listen to her truly awful tunes we can at least listen with some clarity. The rain forever trickling inches from your face on the other side of the rattling window. The same grey tones above and the same boarded up houses that makes up the landscape as we’re caught in the same traffic jam as yesterday due to the same road works as yesterday. The same dull groan of the engine as it tries to continue after picking up another gobshite, group of school kids who whisper louder than i can shout or after another stale lager smelling smack fiend tries to get on with a discarded supermarket receipt or ticket from 1997. The same feeling of relief as the parasite on the back seat finally figures out the meaning of ‘push’ and dings the bell… only to be replaced with another one of his lids or another group of school girls who ‘aren’t assed if everyone can hear me’. The same border line alcoholic that sits next to me instead of in front. The same surroundings when i realise i’m home and ring the bell before asking the miserable soul next to me to let me out as he uses a pole, rail or person as support. The same feeling of escape when my size 8 rubber soul embraces the pavement. More of the same tomorrow.

Blowin' In The Wind

Blowin' In The Wind from Jamie Davies on Vimeo.

Okay, this is my first ever animation so bare with me! Basically, as part of a University project, we were all given a different song from the past and asked to choose a section/verse/line of it and create an animation describing it. I was given Bob Dylan's 'Blowin In The Wind' and after deciding to create mine using silhouette figures I managed to patch something together (no sound yet unfortunately!) using card and a light box. I loved using the cutout technique, the first time since my Hansel and Gretel project, and look forward to using it, and animation, in the future!

Vertigo

My first piece I created for university. We were asked to make a wearable sign portraying an interesting fact/story about ourselves. I created this t-shirt with just a fabric pen, showing my fear of heights! 

Lincoln 05/09/10

A couple of weeks ago I visited some family in Lincoln. It's a strange, beautiful place that possesses two equally impressive faces; on the one hand you have miles upon miles of serenity and natural beauty provided by the infinite crops and fields that  dominate the landscape; the other side shows the bustling urban lifestyle of an ever growing city that possesses a wonderful array of both modern and old buildings.

I thought these two shots portrayed this view well; the abandoned telephone box gathering cobwebs and slowly being overshadowed by the spindling weeds and winding grass and the grand cathedral that completely dominates the horizon for miles on end, never to be overshadowed or disrespected and always full of equally admiral people like myself.

1998

Yesterday I got a letter from my bank saying that I had gone in to my overdraft by £6 and for each day I didn't rectify it I would be charged a further £6. Before I knew it I owed £30. Without sounding over dramatic or suicidal, life's shit when you're all grown up.

It got me thinking about the good old days as a kid around 8 years old. I was either playing on my SEGA Mega Drive on my dodgy telly or out all day playing football, making dens or climbing trees... and that was it; my life as an 8 year old summed up in that one sentence. The only stress that came my way was choosing what sweets to have in my 50p mix. What I'd give to be in 1998 again... maybe I didn't realize it at the time but, fuck, life was good.