News and Updates!

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 - Current and Upcoming Exibitions

Revelation Exibition at The Northcott Theatre, Exeter

I have three pieces on display at the xNorthcult Exhibition at Northcott Theatre, Exeter. The pieces will be up from 5 September until 8 November. There are many other great artists at this exhibit, so please come down and enjoy the art. As always, I invite email if you would like to discuss my works or if you are interested in displaying pieces from my collection.

xNorthcult flyer 1 | xNorthcult flyer 2

Bullseye Exibition at The Ark, Crediton

I will be having an exhibition with my good friend Chris Rees at The Ark in Crediton. It will go from 3 October to 17 October. Not long, so make sure you come out and have a look! We have also managed to borrow a projector, and we will be using it to screen on a wall (edited) versions of some of the films I've made, along with 'Heroin' and 'Thanks Andy'. Please see the press release below.

Click here to read the Press Release

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 - GAIA and The Ship of Fools {Tibetan Games} ATU XX 'The Aeon'

Several months ago I had a dream where I was still working as a reception teacher. A parade of parents were presenting me with my future pupils. I was transfixed by an Afro-Caribbean Woman who held out a kind of cocoon to me with some kind of wriggling pupae inside it.

I made a sketch of the dream the next day as it was clearly some archetype.

After some weeks of working on this vision, I realized that it was GAIA appearing to me in the dream. I had this need to put down some form of parade of monolithic masks, Easter Island being my starting point. As I continued, I realized that it was the stumbling from the past into the future of humanity. This is where the 'ship of fools' became their vehicle. The ship is constructed from houses-mortgages-attachment. There was always a strong insect element in this Vision and I realized it was about what would be left if human beings finally desecrated the Earth and annihilated themselves.

I also became obsessed with The Mother Goddess of The World, Chomolungma or Sagarmatha (Mount Everest in shite Western male ego/national worship), and what reality would be next above the stratosphere. This naturally led to Tibet and the final recognition of China's barbarism which the Western Powers have always colluded with to their disgrace (no oil).

The ONLY heroes of Beijing are the 'Free Tibet' protestors, the Olympics in the face of what the Chinese did to Tibet mean absolutely nothing.

I didn't know why I had to work so hard on getting this picture finished, then the penny finally dropped when Laura asked me for work to exhibit at Aeon, which is also the Tarotic reference I gave this painting (ATU XX 'The Aeon' in Thelemic terms, 'The Last Judgement' in the traditional tarot).

Synchronicity is always my living proof of God(dess), or as Dr. Leary put it better: 'SHe'.

Western Occultists & students of Tantra will be aware of the presence of KUNDALINI, the Goddess Energy of the Cosmos. I didn't really mean to include Her, but a corridor just opened up and wouldn't allow me not to.

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 - Text Updates

There are some new images in a couple of galleries, as well as updated explanatory text.

In the Latest Works gallery The Grim Reaper and Mary Magdalene have received the explanatory text.

In the Psychedelic Vision gallery the Four Children, Ain Soph Aur, and Kondalini have new additional text.

Also, in the Wardrobes & Magick gallery the Peggy Lauries Banshee, Tunnels To Egypt, When There's Nothing Left To Hold Onto, The Demon That Is Margaret Thatcher, Damsel With A Dulcimer and Dreaming Levels have new additional text.

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 - Text Updates

We've updated some of the explanatory text along with a few of the images in a couple galleries.

In the Latest Works gallery This Is Dedicated To The One Eye Love, Albatross, and The Art of Painting have received these changes.

Also, in the Psychedelic Vision gallery the Thirteeth Floor Elevators, New Tours Around The Bay, and Reaper Train have new additional text.

More updates to come...

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 - Velvet Underground's Heroin with the Art of Alistair IW Campbell

Mon, 3 Mar 2008 - The Art of Painting

The composition and ratio is exactly the same as Johannes Vermeer's The Art of Painting, so in a lot of ways it is a tribute to Vermeer.

The seated figure (Vermeer) is made up of the Aurora Borealis, the Native American designs are from The Chilkat and Navaho tribes.

In the original painting there would be a wall hanging at the back, but I've replaced that with a picture from my childhood, of me on the rocks at Kirn (a little town one mile from Dunoon on the Firth of Clyde). The picture was probably taken a year or two before I discovered Vermeer at a Library in Glasgow.

I think the first Vermeer picture that I looked at was in a children's part of the Library (Langside). I used to walk there with a friend as an 'outing' on a Saturday morning, it was about a mile away from where we lived. The picture was 'The Milkmaid' c.1658 - 1660, it was in a book of famous works of Art.

I also remember looking at Van Gogh and Rembrandt, maybe it was a book about Dutch Art? I remember my friend milling about the library and me sitting transfixed by this book while he was getting bored and wanting to go. I still have a vivid memory of sitting there looking at these paintings while some sort of powerful recognition going taking place in my soul. Looking at these works of Art gave me a thrill even back then, and still today. In some ways this new picture pays homage to my childhood connection with these great Artists.

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 - Two new works underway

Periodically, especially in my formative years, I liked to copy a picture of a particular master I admired. I do often draw visual references from my favourite artists, but this time I decided I wanted to start a Vermeer from scratch. This meant that the proportions had to be exactly right - which meant creating a grid for blow up from the working picture. I have long ago learned that when I draw an animal, bird, whatever, I take on the attributes of that being into my psyche. This mechanism is called 'sympathetic magic' by historians & anthropologists. It is also used by occultists and in particular by the English occultist & artist Austin Osman Spare who was a Master of this ancient lore.

I had incredibly strong feelings that I needed to incorporate Native American Indian Art and the Aurora Borealis in this piece - these come directly from my subconscious, and I obey.

Creating this picture has been VERY hard, but I am on a downhill run now. I also chose this work because it was Vermeer's statement of the 'Art of Painting' which is it's title.

Around the same time, we picked up some cheap canvas from 'Lidls' which I bought as I feel sufficiently confident at the moment to start some oil painting.

Our lovely wee cat Strat, is dying from a cancerous growth in his bladder. So I decided I would like to record his 'suchness' from some photos of him in various 'cat states'. I'm taking my time with this work as oil paint allows that possibility.