Joey Sim

Joey Sim's graduation show at Gray's School of Art was fluid amorphous paintings, layers of colour opaque and translucent building up into a wave of sea kissed pebbles, an impression of the tide.
Joey Sim takes inspiration from old maps of the Kingston area, and the coastline where the River Spey meets the North Sea and uses found beach combed objects to make brushes. Using ink, and oil layers on sandwiches of dense ply that have been glued, clamped and sanded before having canvas applied.

A Memory The tide is high as we watch the waves. My friend says that every seventh wave is a big one, so we crouch down and count. We shout to be heard over the roar of the sea and the wind and the rush of stones being sucked up and spat out again. There is excitement, but a sense of vulnerability too, as we are young, and the sea seems to be coming for us. Joey Sim

Ashley Figgis

It is good to be challenged, to not know what you are seeing and Ashley Figgis's degree show at Gray's School of Art, certainly succeeded in bemusing and generating wonder in it's audience.

Ashley had sliced and excavated potatoes, dried them, and stitched or varnished some of them all.
Some were suspended others arranged on shelves and walls, all were fascinating.

"A key element of my practice is the idea that you can made from anything. I enjoy working with materials which aren't expected  - specifically, a material which I frequently use in my work is the potato. I enjoy taking an object with pre-existing connotations and using it as a material with which to produce new objects which no longer share those associations and are almost completely unrecognisable from their original form. By using natural, biodegradable material to create art from, there is always an uncertainty towards how the art piece will change over time." Ashley Figgis

Mirosław Pokora IV

 'Babcia na jabłoni' (Grandma in the Apple Tree) Mira Lobe and illustrated by Mirosla Pokora intrigued me, I liked the idea of a crazy grandmother in an apple tree, and as I couldn't find as many illustrations as I would have liked, I bought the book. 

So here is a selection of the typically genius line drawings of Miroslav Pokora.

Ya Wong

Ya Wong's degree show at ECA was a confetti of characters and scenes fluttering down the wall like a dream.

Eleanor Cook

"My art practice is concerned with the pace and sequencing of architectural imagery found within urban environments. I work primarily in with silkscreen printing using hand-drawn positives and photographic elements. I am interested in examining the intersection between design and art through the installation of screen-prints and artists books." Eleanor Cook

This is Eleanor Cook's strangely hypnotic degree show featuring a table of rhythmic graphic screen printed books which she described as 'Sequencing'.

Mirosław Pokora III

'Odwiedziła mnie żyrafa' published 2007(I was visited by a giraffe), a charming book written by Stanisław Wygodzki, by Miroslaw Pokora (1933-2006) has his wonderful stylised line work (see the steam above) and lovely minimalist illustrations.

Jana Glatt IV

A delightfully surreal underwater cycle by Argentinian illustrator Jana Glatt, who packs so much humour and expression into her visual stories.

Mike Swaney II

Mike Swaney's new paintings are all about hands and fingers from a recent exhibition at Ever Green Projects in San Francisco.

100% Orange

'It's my birthday so I am celebrating by sharing this beautiful book; The Two Birthday Cakes', by 100% Orange is an illustration company formed of husband and wife Kenji Oikawa and Mayuko Takeuchi who together have published over thirty books. I only wish I could share more illustrations from it as I love them, but this is all I can find.

News

This blog has been concerned mainly with graduates of the Scottish art colleges for the past few weeks. I am hoping that I also get to my final possible degree show at Grays in Aberdeen this coming week. I like to get to these shows; see what talent is coming through and see the new designers and artists before they get absorbed by industry etc.

I have had a strange and busy year so far and I have also broken my coccyx so I also have to have an operation this week which will hopefully enable me to sit down in comfort and return to some projects which have been on hold.

So here come the pigeons!