Yorkshire Art Loop Exhibition II

The Yorkshire Art Loop Exhibition is moving to the Print Workshops in Mirfield. It opens on Thursday 12th Jan. The poster has opening times and dates.

Conspicuous consumption. New work in progress.

I've been working on a new head..you can certainly tell I'm between carnivals...it's a symphony of bad taste. This one is for an exhibition in Yorkshire in which artists have been asked to respond to another artists work and then pass it on - a kind of visual chain letter.

I received a copper pipe sculpture a couple of weeks ago with some small metal balls inside it. It's reminiscent of those old puzzles where you have to release the balls from a maze. Anyway I had no idea where I would go with it... it's a long way from anything I would do. I was rooting through some fabrics and found an old scarf with a kind of pipework design on it. That started me off ... I added embroidered gold balls...the creature was becoming a joker or trickster of some sort.

Then the riots happened + the news was all about disaffected youth + looting. The disparities between rich + poor are grimmer than they've ever been, we're funding massive bank bailouts to fill the pockets of a tiny percentage of rich people, MPs are looting the public purse to furnish their homes and getting away with it. Meanwhile a kid writing something 'inflammatory' on a social networking site or stealing a bottle of water receives a long custodial sentence. The billionaire 'rich list' is full of the people who own the telecoms companies, the electronics giants, the clothing chains ...the people pushing consumer goods down our throats at every opportunity. I sat looking at my work and the phrase 'down the tubes' kept coming to mind. The head became a 'fool' - 'Eat the rich before they eat us' is tongue in cheek (obviously I'm not inciting cannibalism...). I imagine the rich would taste leathery from sun + botox anyway.

It's not finished. It needs more, more text and frills...

Sofa Monkey + co in progress

I've been attempting to reupholster my old 1960's sofa - I've had it for years and it cost the grand sum of 20 quid form a second hand shop. I used to keep it in the studio and many artists over the years have taken their rejuvenating afternoon naps on it! Anyway I took it home when I moved house a few years back and finally got fed up of its muddy green velour, black paint and pancake flat cushion. I stripped the arms and base back to bare wood and bought it a new foam cushion.

My upholstery skills leave a lot to be desired so I'm aiming for quirky, psychedelic flower power over beautifully crafted. I've finished hand-sewing the bottom cushion together and put on some newly covered buttons - it's gone slightly baggy already so I can see myself having to redo it. I've used a mix of new and vintage fabrics patch-worked together with vintage edgings and military braid.

For the back rest I've decided to make a series of faces that will be patched together, again with braid and vintage edging - I've completed a monkey and a bird - I guess I need another 2 or 3 to finish it.