This collection of photos of discarded Christmas trees is brilliant.

The whole collection is over at Less Bling Bling, which states the idea as ‘Beautiful in the living room. Glorious in the street.’

Glorious indeed! Happy New Year everyone…

(via Build)

When I was younger one my friends who had a finely tuned and often surreal sense of humour would often baffle people by answering almost any question with the answer… Twenty Ten…  :) So, as a result, in my mind and the mind of many of his other old friends, the coming year will be and was always going to be his.

Mr Pepper, I salute you !!  ;)

It’s not the first time Chris has shown in the USA, but what adds to this is the fact that the exhibition was juried by the respected and influential photographer Mary Ellen Mark.

Respect from the respected if you know what I mean…

Good work Chris!

They joined Mudwig, Xenz and Eine in a group show at the gallery which has now moved to a good spot on Park Row in central Bristol.

Way back in the last millennium I went to art college with these guys and it’s fair to say I’ve loved their work since then. One thing that makes it easy for this to continue is the fact it’s constantly developing and growing.

Mr Jago is exploring the abstract (unlike anyone else I can think of?)…

and Will’’s gift for first of all imagining and secondly capturing scenes never seen just keeps on coming…

brilliant…

ps:

a few days later I noticed Will posted his starting point for this painting on his site – check it out – prolific is an understatement!!

I really had to add this as it pretty amazing… Will had shown me on his camera but now it’s public… complexcellent – is that a real word? it is now…

Just back from my first visit to Italy and what a great trip it was.

After a chilled week staying in the the lovely Puglia countryside and visiting some lovely old towns, we headed south to the town of Grottaglie to catch up with our friends and attend the launch of the Fame Festival 2009.

Lucy was back again this year and we’re so glad we took up her suggestion of going out to go to the show.

Beat13 / Lucy McLauchlan – Fame Festival 2009. from Beat13 on Vimeo.

The brainchild of the supercool Angelo from Studio Cromie, Fame brings together artists from Europe and the USA to engage with the town and make work for the exhibition.

Throughout the town, walls are found for large scale outdoor paintings -
these pics give you a sense of the scale and quality.

Erica il Cane

Dem

Vhils

Conor Harrington

In a nearby derelict monastery artists have set about painting rooms and corridors. Awesome.

I loved Lucy’s room looking through the doorway into the head

and this room by my friend and super talented artist Will Barras painted last year

- and they’re just the rooms by Brummies!! If this keeps rolling year on year, this place has the potential to become an alt museum of ’street art’… brilliant, really…

At the opening of the ‘formal’ show this new animation was previewed. A collaboration between Blu and David Ellis, it really is quite amazing and gives you a sense of what the monastery is like.

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

It also featured loads of great work including these paintings by Word to Mother

and these amazing photos by Slinkachu

oh and how can I forget… some crazy ‘life like’ figures from Mark Jenkins

The people we met were brilliant, the food was stunning and it seems that in that part of the world, hospitality is the default setting.

The only things that kept us on our toes were the apocalyptic rainstorms (we were in 2! – first 2 since the summer apparently), some crazy driving (I’m not used to being on that side of the road!) and the siesta time (midday to 5pm – makes sense but we learnt the hard – hungry and thirsty and nowhere is open – way!) – oh and the mozzies who seemed very partial to a bit of tourist… zzz zzzzz

To all the artists, the people of Puglia and of course Angelo and the Studio Cromie team – Thanks and Salut! Maybe we’ll see you next year –  :)

I love this set of images. Some friendly chipmunks and some classic Star Wars figures. Brilliant!

Shot by Chris McVeigh, here’s what he says about these pictures…

The critters you see in these pics are wild chipmunks that live in my folk’s backyard. Using a few simple techniques, I was able to get them to socialize with us on a regular basis (and certain chipmunks would even come to the yard when I whistled.) Each of them were quite comical and very easy to get along with, as you can probably tell from these pictures. 

And in case there is any doubt, I want to assure you that these pictures are real and not clever composites made in Photoshop. Chipmunks can be very easy to get along with, once you’ve taken the time to befriend them.

Great stuff… we don’t get chipmunks in our garden but there are a few squirrels… hmmm – I might  work on a few Jedi mind tricks…

Check out Chris’s flickr for more fun stuff…

found via the brilliant made in england blog.

Well done Pete for a) your ace pictures and b) the speed at which you’re sharing them with the world.

Also another massive Hooray for those lovely Capsule ladies. You rock!!

Lots more pics will appear here too. Tis good this t’internet thingymejig…

Exhibition Visualisation at Walsall, UK

Jonathan’s unique photographic images capture motion using hand modified cameras with amazing results.

By the looks of the info on his website, we can expect huge reproductions on the gallery walls. 

I first met Jonathan when I started my degree in Bristol. Seeing his works (and cameras) develop over the years has been a real treat – from the early black and white shots of Will on his BMX at Bedminster skate park (moving so fast he ended up looking like a carrier bag floating in the wind) to these large scale colour images, some with obvious distortions and some very, very subtle.

Gallery 13, 10th August 2002, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK, 2003

It’s really great to see his hard (and brilliant) work now being rewarded with a solo show in such a prestigious venue as New Art Gallery Walsall.

The exhibition runs from 10th July – 6th September 2009 and a new publication will accompany the show.

The Destroyers release their debut single today.

‘Out of Babel’ and ‘Where has the money gone?’ are available to buy from iTunes and the push to sell as many as possible during the first week of release, could edge this crazy band of maestros towards chart success.

Anyone who’s seen them live knows that this band mean business – armed with virtuoso playing and solid infectious rhythms they can render even the most static of audiences helpless to the urge to dance.

Recorded at Magic Garden studios with Gavin Monaghan, the single comes from their forthcoming debut LP,  due for release later in the year.

So, go on… for less than two english pounds, grab yourself an mp3 now and help this band toward the wider recognition they deserve.

We were fortunate enough to have an early line up of the Destroyers play our wedding… you’ve never seen a conga like it!!

- so, here we go oh oohh… Out of Babel!

ps. the slightly unhinged looking chap with the white hair?…  yep, that’s my Pa!  

He’s taken lots of LP covers and treated them to look like Pelican book covers of yesteryear… very nice indeed.

Definitely worth a browse.

It’s a similar idea to the ‘I can read movies’ set  by Spacesick, that I first saw a while back. Classic films presented as 60s/70s style book covers. Brilliant stuff too.