YES!

Hello there,

I hope you’re well. I’ve been so damned busy recently! Since the start of 2014 the amazing ‘Reframe’ project, (I’ve previously mentioned here and here), has taken me to Algiers, Istanbul and Brussells with my good friends Ilya and Hannah Berry. In those places we meet and made new friends with many great artists and movers and shakers. I feel incredibly lucky to have been involved. In the next couple of week’s I’ll post some photos and sketchbook pages from those trips.

In January I was contacted by Laura Malacart, a cross-disciplinary visual artist,  who had developed a multi-media project built around the portrait of a 27-year-old 'non-verbal' autistic man. In spite of his lack of language, Kyle had found a ‘voice’ through music: Laura Malacart’s work was focussed on the political identity of his ‘non-verbal voice' as well as exploring the complexity of his physical voice in his multifaceted expressions.

Laura commissioned me to make the drawings for a 6-chapter graphic story to be experienced alongside a non-narrative video work called Onomatopoeia. I have drawn the story ‘YES!’ on the basis of her documentary video and photographic material, while and her script reports verbatim conversations collected during months of filming her subjects.  For the launch of the event we have published a limited edition of the story on tabloid format, since she first learned about Kyle from a tabloid clipping.

She conducting the first two symposia at the Dana Centre and King’s College to launch our project and instigate a cross-disciplinary debate around the project’s core themes. Laura is a seriously talented individual who is committed to using her artistic practice to intervene on social issues. I highly recommend you seek her work out and follow her practice and how it develops.

Page 1, Chapter 6, YES

Here are the links to the event’s she’s staging, and the blog I produced to host the comic I drew.

Blog

Event at the Dana Centre this coming Wednesday

Event at King College London on the 26th

This week I got some tremendously exciting news about Helix, the digital comic I worked on last year with David Blandy and Dr Adam Rutherford. I can’t say much now, but will fill you in very soon.

And to top it all off, tomorrow is ELCAF. I’ll be flogging me wares on the Small Press Table alongside many other great artists. It’ll be a total blast! 

 

Reframe Reframed

Hello there,

And a very happy new year to you.

Just a quick post following on from the last one. The piece I made for the Reframe exhibition has been given a new year overhaul in preparation for it's up coming exhibitions in Algier (in association with FIBDA, the Algiers annual comics expo), Istanbul and Belgium.

The version I posted here at the end of last year was made with a very short deadline and as such there were a few things that niggled me about the colour and some of the compositional elements. Anyhow, I've tried to put those things right as far as I can and I post the new pages here so that you can be the judge.

Next Wednesday: REFRAME!

Next Wednesday (23rd October) will see the launch of Reframe an exhibition organized and hosted by Free Word of 9 comics by 9 nine artists from the UK, Turkey and Algeria. My humble offering will be joined by works by the UK's Hannah Berry and IYLA aka Ed Hillyer. I was asked to be a part of the project by Paul Gravett, thanks Paul! Here's the promotional stuffs:

Pioneering artists from three contrasting countries unite to create an innovative exhibition of new work exploring our contemporary attitudes to Europe. Bringing together new voices from Turkey, Algeria and the UK, Reframe invites nine emerging artists to use their distinctive styles and viewpoints to 'reframe' perspectives through a series of new graphic short stories that examine the cultural, social and political dynamics between Europe and each of the participating countries.

Here's a sneeky peek at my contribution:

And here's a link to an interview I did for the Free Word website: http://www.freewordcentre.com/content/2013/10/wr-daniel-locke/ 

(I also designed the logo)

A Sneeky Helix Peek

Here's a sneeky peek at some of the drawings I made for Helix. The show opens next Friday (25th) and goes on until the 30th.

David Blandy and I will be talking about the work we made together with Adam Rutherford, live at 1.45 on the Monocle magazine podcast, radio thingy this coming Saturday, if you fancy listening in, it'd be lovely to have you.

Helix

This past year I've been working with artist David Blandy and scientist Adam Rutherford on a digital graphic novel called 'Helix'. The piece considers the conceptual link between the creative process and the history of DNA. I've made all the illustrations as well as collaborating on the story and content. The work is going on show at the GV Art Gallery in London town from the 24th of this month.

HIc&HOc&HIc&HoC&HIc&Hoc!

A wee while ago,

The most excellent Lizz Lunney and Joe List contacted me to ask if I'd be interested in contributing a strip to Hic & Hoc's Humour Anthology, the UK Edition. I said hell yeh! And now it's here, it's real and includes work by some of the coolest names in British comics.

Kristyna Baczynski, Becky Barnicoat, Dan Berry, Fred Blunt, Gareth Brooks, Clark Burscough, Abe Christie, Stephen Collins, Joe Decie, James “Couk” Downing, Rick Eades, Jonathan Edwards, Liz Greenfield, Isaac Lenkiewicz, Dan Locke, Gary Northfield, Luke Pearson, Philippa Rice, Jack Teagle, Donya Todd, Timothy Winchester, Ben Wright.  Cover by Jon Boam.

That's One Hell of a Helix 2

A few months ago I mentioned that I been working with David Blandy and Dr Adam Rutherford on a illustrated history of DNA, I thought I'd pop one of the finished illustrations up for you to have a gander at. The finished work will comprise 80 pictures in digital graphic novel called 'Helix'. It's going to be launched in October, but my deadline is rapidly approaching so I've been chained to the drawing board these past few weeks!

Tomorrow I'll be at this years Elcaf. I've made a new comic for it all special like. If you're in the Bethnal Green area do come along, it'll be great to see you.

It's the Mall Not the Shopping Mall

 Ahoy,

As of next Tuesday (April 30th) I'll have a wee collection of drawings in this show:

I'm stoked to be included in this show, which culminates on the 4th with a day long celebration of sequential illustration and a comics fair. Respect to Oliver Jelt at the Mall Galleries and huge thanks to Hannah Berry who pointed me in Olivers direction.

Here's one of the pieces that'll be included in the show:

Out of the Box Againagain

Hello there,

The mighty Amy Douglas and Tom Buchanan are up to their old tricks yet again, they've only gone and arranged another exhibition of the finest contemporary box art this country has to offer! This time around the show is being hosted by the excellent folks at Into You, St Johns Street London. The show goes up on the 1st of April and runs through to June, so there's plenty of time to head over and check out what promises to be the most exciting collection of cuboid art in the northern hemisphere!

Here's a pic of me piece:

It's called 'Through the Night and Through the Day He Gave Chase'. It is a work of DRAMA and THRILLING SUSPENSE!

That's One Hell of a Helix

Ahoy there,

For the past couple of weeks I've been working with David Blandy and Dr Adam Rutherford (with the Wellcome Trust and Lighthouse) on their new new project 'Helix'. At this early stage it looks as though the finished artwork will be an online comic/illustrated publication that tells the story of DNA through the eyes of one of David fantastical characters.

The development meetings for the project have been fascinating. Some of the topics under discussion have included; spider goats, glow in the dark cats, chimeras and synthetic biology. Over the course of the coming month or so David will be making sense of all these things and I'll be providing the drawings. I'll keep posting as the project develops.

Tonight (26th Feb.) Together with David and Manga artist Inko I'll be taking part in a round table discussion about art, science and science fiction at Lighthouse, oh do say you'll come.

Here's a page from my sketchbook that I doddled during one of the meetings:

Motel Sale

Hey! Tomorrow I'll have my work for sale at this:

 The Motel de Nowhere Christmas Fete Worse than Death

Saturday 8th December

11am-7pm 
Get your hands on exclusive artists’ originals!

…….prints, t-shirts, dvd’s, zines, badges photos, drawings, adornments and much, much more…....

Mulled wine, festive snacks and multi-million pence treats from the lucky dip!

Think of others this Christmas while you buy yourself everything you’ve ever dreamed of!

Motel de Nowhere

Unit 007

1^st Floor, BJ House

12-14 Hollybush Gardens

Bethnal Green

E2 9QP   

2 mins walk from tube. Hollybush Gardens is the road off BG rd with HSBC bank on the corner. BJ House is then on the right and may still have scaffolding up. Look for a black gate. There will be a sign directing you into the building.

http://moteldenowhere.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Motel-de-Nowhere/222876501072009

The Winter Printer

Ahoy there,

For  the past few months I've been running courses in Screen Printing at the most excellent Ink Spot Press in Brighton. This Saturday (24th) we're having an open day, and I'll be there singing the joys of all things print. Come by and say hi, there'll be cheese and biscuits in it for you!

Poot-tee-weet again

Hello there,

A while back the fine people at The Teashed asked if I'd be interested in making a repeating pattern for one of their gift boxes. I said hell yes! And here it is:

I can't wait to see it applied to one of the great gifts they put together!

Momento Mori

The End of the Adventure

So sad,

My Lamb's Conduit Street adventure is over, I took down the work earlier this week. A big thanks to the lovely peeps at the Perseverance who gave up their wall space to me, Hannah Eaton and Esther McManus. And props to Tanya Meditzky who worked so hard putting the whole show on.

Here's a pic of some fella pointing at one of my pictures:

In other news, Out of the Box has been given an extra weekend at the No Format Gallery, go check it out.

All This Stuff, All This Weekend and Beyond!

Ahoy there,

I'm going to be at the Alternative Press Fair tomorrow with my close compatriot James Parsons. It's being held at the Conway Hall in London, and starts today! I'm really looking forward to it and hope to see you there.

The fair is just one part of a larger festival that the most excellent Jimi Gherkin and Peter Lally (amongst other fine notables) have made happen. Included in the wider events of the fair is an exhibition of drawings, paintings and prints at various shops and pubs on Lambs Conduit Street. Some of my drawings are being shown at the Perseverance public house alongside the work of Hannah Eaton and EstherMcManus. The show has been curated by the noble Tanya Meditzky.

Here's a pick of my work in situ:

The whole festival looks like it'll be a winner so try and come along. I heard that the latest issue of the Comix Reader will be available. that alone should make the trip worthwhile! 

In other news, Out Of The Box, the exhibition of box art I mentioned in my last post opened last night! Sadly I was unable to make the private view but it looks to be even better than the first show in Brighton. If you're in London take the time to have a gander why don't yeh! (I'll have some photos of it soon...)

 

Get Outta That Box Again...

Following the success of the its first incarnation during the Brighton Fringe festival Out of the Box has relocated to the No Format space in London. I'll be represented by this piece (and another one if I can finish it in time!):

Here's the need to know:

GRRRRR

New illustration, there you are my friends.

From Me Sketchbook, See

I'm on Tumblr, still working it all out, but I'll be using it to show you guys some of my sketchbook, ohh I feel so exposed.

Here's the image from today's post.  And here's the link to the actual blog: danlocke.tumblr.com

I'd like to link up all these blog's and twitters and facebooks etc. But trying to do it is making me feel old! If anyone has any handy hints, I'd be happy to hear them.

Post ELCAF Post

Would you look at all those people! Apparently 3000 bodies came out to gander at all the wonderful paper goods (and paper associated talks) that were on show yesterday at ELCAF! 

I had a really nice time, sharing a table with the very friendly and right honourable folks at Decadence. Having a coffee and comics chat with the Karrie Fransman, saying hiya to Alex Fitch, Hannah Berry, Seif Alhasani, Tom Humberstone and Luke Pearson and Rose Robbins amongst many others. As well as seeing the guys at Nobrow, who put on an absolute blinder of a show! 

There was so much great work to see, to be honest my wallet took a complete battering! I would also add that Joe Decie makes a very companionable traveling partner.