Quick updates from Norway

So it has accidently been far too long without any updates. In the past few weeks I have been away on a quick holiday to LA, NY, London, am now in Oslo and have Berlin and Bangkok ahead of me. I was in NY when the Oslo attacks happened and left London the day before rioting broke out, it's been really bizarre, but thankfully the people I know in both places are safe.

I can not wait to get home and begin working a lot harder on my art and career as an illustrator, I have seen some amazing shit in museums and galleries and stuff like the grand canyon and viking ruins. Hooley Dooley.

Now just some quick updates which I will remember to go into later... I won the Appleton's competition so a huge thank you to all who took the time to vote and send it on to encourage others to vote, it's fucking incredible I am going to Jamaica in October and I have just now seen the first mug out of the kiln to approve the stain/glazing etc... IT'S SO AWESOME. I hope there are enough to go around, because I want like 10.

I almost managed to finish my organ series before fying off but not quite, so when I get home I will be working hard to push them through, and want to start on another bunch of exhibitions I have always wanted to do. I have also decided to separate drawing from painting to experiment more with paint and be able to keep my illustration style and develop that further.

Here is a photo of me enjoying Field Day Festival in London last week.

Voting Begins!

I don't want to have to type the same shit twice, so if you are unsure about what this Appleton Estate Tiki Mug Competition is, read the previous post on this blog and it will explain EVERYTHING (i hope).

Anyway, voting for this tiki mug competition started at some point on Monday, while I was attending a dear friend's birthday BBQ at a local park, and then I woke up early on Tuesday with little recollection of the previous night's events and saw that voting had started, and that it was ok for me to be sharing this image now. I am really pleased with what Tom Laura AKA Big Toe came up with because he actually did use as reference some of the illustrations i sent him about Seamus Morgan. I'm totally stoked.

I have been doing everything in my power to get people to vote my way, so i thought i'd plug it here, and see if anyone actually reads this (unlikely as i'm shithouse at updating.. this may change). so if you haven't already, head on over to the Appleton Estate Rum- Australia facebook page, like it, click 'vote now!' on the navigation bar on the left, and vote for seamus morgan, mu mug! (it's this one below)

Things are looking positive at the moment, with a whole host of people telling me they've voted and i don't know them.. so word is getting around which is great! Thanks everyone who takes the time! I now have TWO families in Jamaica I will be having dinner with! AWESOME.

Send me to Jamaica!!!!!!

I recently became a finalist in this competition on Facebook to win a trip to Jamaica! Appleton Estate Rum has been putting out custom tiki mugs to send to bars and this year Australian bartenders were given the opportunity to help design the next mug. Out of a butt-load of entries my concept was chosen with two others to be drawn up by some of Tiki-Farm's finest mug designers, and they go up for voting from the 4th to 17th of April. The winner gets involved in taking the mug through the design process and through to completion, plus a trip to Jamaica to the Appleton Estate and to meet the Master Distiller!!! WTF AWESOME.

Now.. I have several reasons why I NEED to win this. Ever since I was a little boy, I've been obsessed with the caribbean and tropical islands, and the first pictures I ever drew were of such islands. They had waterfalls, volcanoes, cannibal villages, tree-houses, quicksand, shipwrecks and I drew them all the time. ALL. THE. TIME. Still to this day I love cheesy tropical stuff, and being a bartender at Hula Bula Bar (Perth's only tiki bar) has only reignited my need to go to the caribbean. It's also introduced a fondness for rum, and I have been drinking this whenever I can, which is a pretty boss Jamaican overproof rum called Wray & Nephew. It'll put hairs on the hairs of the hairs of those that are on your chest.

This for me is a perfect marriage of career paths. I want to be an artist, and I love my job behind the bar because of what sort of bar it is, a tiki bar. I would absolutely love the opportunity to work closely with some of these amazing artists and delve into the seedy heart of this tiki culture and all associated scenes and their art, and see what I can do. If I could end up working for Tiki-Farm due to this, or find someone interested in helping my game become a reality then fuck yeah!

ANOTHER THING! My board-game! Is so heavily influenced by tiki culture, pirates, the carribean, rum, i totally need to go see the place! And the connections I could make and communication with these artists could give me some really good ideas about how to manufacture the boxes, pieces, and give the whole thing a really authentic and quality feel! Who knows, perhaps It might even get some Appleton's stamp of approval!

My mug design is pretty much taken from the game too! Seamus Morgan, the fearsome Voodoo Ghost Pirate is my "rum-god", who is pictured in the right side of the banner on this blog, so check him out, and imagine him much more rotten and tiki, in mug form so you can drink out of his hat. Dope.

In order to help me out, head on over to the Appleton Estate Rum - Australia page on facebook and like it, then when voting starts give your vote to me please. And if you feel like telling your friends to do it too, that'd be killer.

JAMAICA!

Penny Quill/ Holdfast Tattoo Mural

So I had the great honour of working with a street artist from Melbourne. He is fucking bonkers. Sicks 1 and I were invited to begin working on the walls inside Penny Quill Hair Salon in Mount Lawley, which is actually inside Holdfast Tattoo. So arriving one night after a few beers with whatever paint I had left over and jangling nerves we began. The others finished their pieces pretty quickly, but I opted to use paint pens instead of lining with can because I suck at it at the moment.. out of practice, never been that good to begin with (note to self, set up boards in the garage already).

Anyway after a few weeks and sessions lining up what I started with no plan, I have reached a safety point. I can plan the extensions and typography and other bits of shit i'm adding and then keep going. I think it will look pretty dope when it's done.

The garbage on the jaw I just doodled when I didn't like the skull detail, so I am going to paint over most of it and re-do it. But i sort of like the power lines with mini shoes hanging off them with rooftops and palms.. could be a good idea for backdrop or future murals.

Comin up, Peach Long Selling Party

I have decided to finish off a bunch of paintings I started for the JERK exhibition last July and never finished in time. I want to see where they end up, to see if I hit the mark I expect to because I planned these to be tight, aesthetically-pleasing-when-hanging-on-a-wall paintings. It is a series of 9 on 30x30cm pine, painted in acrylic and lined with ink (which is proving to once again be a waste of time and money but still so crisp). After this series I'm deviating and experimenting with different methods of construction and heading hopefully towards a more free and painterly method, still hoping to achieve the same level of detail and intensity.

They're all basically parts of my body being lazy and mistreating themselves. This is an eye, mostly lined up but still unfinished. Also in the series is a tooth, a heart, lungs, liver & gall bladder, a hand, a stomach, a tongue and a penis (playing a gameboy, drinkin a longie from a brown paper bag, smokin a cigarette from under his mustache).

I am hoping to hold a selling party when these are done to raise funds for travel, as I should be heading to LA and beyond soon, and might also possibly be heading to Jamaica this year, (more on that later). So if anyone is interested in seeing and buying any once they're finished, please get in touch.

Relative #4 Launch

RELATIVE Magazine is a pretty fly little local mag that features local artists, music, food & drink, film, fashion, tattoo, everything. It's run by a bunch of wicked dudes and is top notch quality and totally free! I got asked to do the cover for #4 and provide a few pages worth of images and a tiny bit of text.. The cover image I just made a banner out of for this blog, so scroll up and check it out in more detail (minus the 'siren country' of course).

The mag features some work I haven't posted about on here yet (I don't think), like this collaboration with Pari Corbitt.. one talented son of a bitch who does amazing paintings and tattoos. Pari did a giant dead fish, and I did the junk coming out of it's mouth, and we put it forward for Windows On Williams when they had their window display thing.

The mag was launched down in Fremantle and I did some live art with Twenty Eleven (mine on the left, his on the right). It was an awesome night, I got free beer all night and tried to paint.

If you live in Perth, grab yourself a copy of the mag if they're still available! From the usual places like Luna, trendy hipster cloth stores and record shops etc. Or visit the Relative Magazine webpage or facebook page for more info.

Injured Ninja Vs Skylazer & GTMJ finished

I hate updating this blog, I always manage to screw with the formatting and it won't let me upload anything after spending a good hour or so finding images and writing about shit. So only small updates now.

Injured Ninja have been reeeeaaaal busy, playing gigs all over the place and have launched their debut album as well as a single from it, which I have previously posted about.. here is the new artwork, experimenting with layering with transparent materials (just ended up being annoying.. i won't be doing that again).

The album Vs. Skylazer pictured below, had a massive launch in sweltering heat at one of Perth's finest venues The Bakery, and I took the night off to go and got my mind blown by the sweet line up form start to finish. The launch and the album itself both received amazing reviews from multiple sources and the boys are touring this album in the United States right now, I think they've just finished at SXSW (South by South-West), which is a HUGE festival in Texas. After the states they're coming back home via the East Coast of Australia.

I don't think this last one will help, but it's meant to be bigger that the others to display some of the work that went into it.. detail and shit. screw this blog.

Coming up soon: more posts! I have exciting news.