Hello (again), Fig + a Short Film With Wilco as the Soundtrack

Good sweet LORD it’s been a while !! Well over 2000 days if my calculator serves me correctly

During that time I’ve tried and failed and tried and failed and tried and failed to get a science fiction novel published

I have tried and failed and tried and failed and tried and failed to buy Radiohead tickets

Both my children are suddenly LARGE

And my hair has sadly turned grey

But if you’re reading this, you’re still here, and so am I

Below is a link to a short film that I hope is nice to watch

It’s a “montage” – if you will – of various things I liked the look of (full credits below)

The song is “Love is Everywhere (Beware) by US folk-rock raconteurs, WILCO

— YouTube vids can’t be embedded on WordPress anymore, but here’s a link to my YOUTUBE channel, where you can watch the full video —

I definitely do NOT own the copyright to this song

I am glad you’re still here. Love is everywhere (beware),

Ben X

Full credits for footage used: ‘He Makes Me Feel Like Dancing’ (1983), dir. Emile Ardolino, dist. Direct Cinema. Life on Super 8 – pexels.com/@life-on-super-8-1092752. All additional footage either in public domain or archival stock used under the Creative Commons Attribution License

3 new collages + news (hi)

hey, you guys

hope you’re good / hope you’re well

it’s been a while, and some things have happened. i guess we can call these things ‘news’. shall we call these things ‘news’? i don’t know.

  1. last April i was commissioned by Wetherspoons to make a BIG collage (1.2m x 1.2m) about the history of Blackpool (sorry for the egregious link to the Wetherspoons Wikipedia page, btw). later on, i was asked to make another piece (the same size) by a mysterious, anonymous client. i have no idea where it ended up, but i like to think at an old people’s home, somewhere up north, maybe. anyway, here’s a quite bad iPhone photo of it ~walney 2
  2. i’m now ‘represented’ by two galleries in the UK ~ Brickwork in London and Dynamite in Brighton. my first solo show is due in April at Dynamite; more details to follow, mmmmmmmyep
  3. 7 of my collages appeared in Empty Mirror, on the internet. i feel good about this bc Empty Mirror like the beat writers and their head lady Denise seems like a lovely head lady
  4. my print store is now properly up and running, so far i’ve mailed prints all over the US and UK, a couple to France and one to Poland (thanks, Wojtek)
  5. my short story Apples was shortlisted for the Bridport prize + my poetry pamphlet Edibles was reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement + a poem, maybe the last one i’ll ever write IDK, showed up in Crispin Best‘s For Every Year

and THAT WAS THE ‘NEWS’!! SOME THINGS HAVE HAPPENED!!

ummmm, yep. ALSO, below are three new-ish collages (one of them has a bit from a novel i’m working on as a title) ~ hope you like them! HOPE YOU’RE GOOD! / HOPE YOU’RE WELL!

lots of love, from Ben x x x x x x x x hello x x x x x x x x x

 

holy smoke 2

holy smoke

the long walk 3

quote

always on my mind #4 - Copy

always on my mind #4

3 NEW COLLAGES

HELLOOO PEOPLE OF THE WORDPRESS!!!

you might not have noticed but i ain’t posted since like, TIME ago

basically i’ve been away learning how to weave. i am now a fully-qualified weaver who can practice weaving in a professional capacity *

um, here are some new(ish) things what i done made. hope you like them!

hope ur all doing good / hope good things are happening to you

lots of love!!! from Ben!!!

* i am not really a professional weaver. sorry about the weaving thing, earlier on 😉 😉 😉

Polyphasic Sleep

after the power-nap (commission for van winkle’s)

corridor of uncertainty

corridor of uncertainty

tainted love

tainted love (oh oh oh oh)

Fresh Figs #12 ~ Wilma Millette

Millette - Twilight Dreams

HOWDY! how-do?

new images / art / figs this week come from Wilma Millette (aka frenchapple) (aka creartfuldodger)

i feel there’s a kind of sweet darkness to a lot of Wilma’s work, if that makes sense

it seems sophisticated and playful but also kind of like a kid who spends the afternoon playing hopscotch then runs inside to watch the shining

or ummm, maybe that’s just me?

aanyways, here’s what Wilma herself has to say ~ ~ ~

I am a collage, mixed media artist from Vancouver Island in Canada. I have been playing with this medium for about 7 years. I strive to create a narrative in my pieces, hoping to give some relevance to the materials I use. I love the ordinary, often discarded and well-worn objects and paper ephemera from the past. They have a certain beauty that is often lacking in the modern world of mass production. I like to think that the people who made them all those years ago would be pleased.

Millette - this end up

here’s the rest of Wilma’s portfolio 😀

happy wednesday the 23rd june two thousand fifteen you all X

Van Winkle’s

BENZOS (1)

HEY

i was recently commissioned by Van Winkle’s to make a couple of pieces on sleep and drugs

the collage above (BENZOS ❤) is about 50s housewives on valium (and swiss roll) 😉

the one below accompanies a pretty interesting article about a drug called Baclofen that’s being used to treat alcoholism in France, but apparently causes hyper-vivid dreams and ‘encounters with supernatural beings…’

hope you enjoy! hope everything’s ok! bye bye!!

Ben x x x

BACLOFEN (1)

Fresh Figs #11 ~ Enrico Gaveglia

House of cards_benn

What up, folks? What, the heck, is up. The Figs have been ripening nicely over the past few weeks and here are two ready for squeezing, plucking, placing inside a bowl and devouring using our big human mouths / eyes

Or uhhhhhhhhh, idk 😉

BASICALLY, here is a wandering artist / troubadour of sorts named Enrico (aka kikontheroad) for you to enjoy

The painting above is ‘House of Cards’ and the one below is ‘Mr Smith’

Enrico’s work seems to me a highly-coloured blend of abstract and figurative; makes me think of almost-Cubist Picasso, but somehow seems contemporary too

Here’s Enrico’s bio ~

I left Tuscany in Italy since 2001, ever since I move around and I guess by now I may have lost the way back home. Had then to keep walking through countries, occasionally stationed for some time and charged and re-charged of places I passed through and from people I met. At times I do take snaps of what I see, at times instead its just my system offloading mix of memories and feelings in whatever form is able to.

kikontheroad is an Italian of 1975. He has mainly lived in Europe, Africa and Asia. Husband and father of a mixed race family, while he keeps expanding his milage on the road, you can see some of his art work, digital and non HERE. He has recently published on Aaduna & DiNK online magazines and exposed his work in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Last time we heard of him, he was heading to North Korea.

“Not all those who wander are lost” – J.R.R. Tolkien

HAPPY MONDAY YOU GUYS x

Mr.Smith_benn