The Corner Studios, on the edge of Stockwell and Brixton, is opening up to usher in the Christmas festivities. 
Artwork created by the photographers, illustrators and animators who use the studios will be on show. 
Free studio passes are being offered – first come first served! - and with mulled wine, mince pies, and the chance to meet some of us who work there, it is the perfect chance to have a good nose around, so do come and join us if you can.

Our neighbours at Van Gogh House, Slaughterhaus Print Studios, Sofia Ceramics and San Mei Gallery are also open - so you can visit these other fantastic local creative spaces too, and maybe even get started on the Christmas gift buying.

When: Sat-Sun 4-5th December 2022
Time: 12-5pm
Where: The Corner Studios, Vincent’s Yard, 23 Alphabet Mews, SE21 8ED

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Curator Jill Tsai put together a fascinating collection of over 300 items, collected from 20 years of travelling the world, on display within Brixton Library at the weekend.

I love random collections of anything to pore over, especially when fond memories of travel are conjured up alongside desires to explore foreign countries.
Just like these emotions, some items were deliberately paired together to ‘explore the cultural translations between them’. The similarities and the differences could be compared, trying to understand what this might mean in the context of their origin and the people who would have used them.

This kind of archive justifies my own collection of random bits and celebrates the ordinary, while inspiring discovery and appreciation of the power and meaning of everyday objects. Distant cultures can be brought closer through this understanding, through the stories of each item.

As well as sparking wanderlust, I suppose it also made me yearn for the past; flicking through a Bulgarian bank savings book or a rent book from Liverpool or seeing the packaging design from earlier eras, that I’m always drawn to; light bulb boxes, some magnificent milk cartons, a beautifully simple hair-dryer box design and a Taiwanese puncture repair kit.

In the style of jumping on a train as it chugs out the station, I just caught the final half hour, when I could have happily spent hours considering each object.

See more of this collection and find out more on the Travel Things website or follow them on Instagram.

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I created a quick Reading Challenge reward chart for my daughter, to encourage her to keep up a bit of reading aloud over the school holidays.
Feel free to download a copy for your own use,  it has a space for your child's name. This version is black and white, ready to be coloured in, or if you'd prefer there is a colour version download available over on my online shop (for just £1.20) here.

There are 25 spaces to add ticks or stickers to. What you deem worthy of reward - and what the ultimate prize is - is up to you!

Download the chart to print off here.

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I recently read Nina Simone's Gum by Warren Ellis. I enjoyed it profoundly. Like the best books, it told me as many things about myself as it told of the teller and the tale. As I learnt about Warren and his journey with the chewed gum he rescued from Nina Simone's post-concert piano, it provoked me to think deeply about all sorts of past experiences, people and feelings.

I felt my life-long internal conflict between collecting and possessional anti-sentimentality, that not rages but peters perpetually, stoked.

My daughter is a born collector. Of everything, every scrap of nothing. I love it. This book made me realise that the value is never the object, it's in it being chosen by her. The intangible emotions now stored in an unremarkable pebble that can only really be unlocked and felt by me. The pebble, the scrap, becomes a conduit for the emotional bond between us. And this, of course, is how Nina's gum works, too.
The book also seemed to validate a lifetime of following the shadows of serendipity, of trusting whims enough to be guided by them. Of seeing the connections in our lives, with other people and the things we use and create. And the beauty of these connections and how items, collaboration and individual expertise and knowledge combine with imagination to foster bonds and increase the emotional, even spiritual, resonance in all directions.
I don't hold many, if any, in higher regard to Nina Simone and her work, but although I knew some of Warren Ellis' work with Nick Cave, this book led me to listen to his band The Dirty Three. I'm now immersed in their LP Horse Stories, and it somehow feels right that I've only just found these songs, despite the album being over twenty years old. And so here is sketch of Warren Ellis. I wanted his hands to somehow be prominent. They felt important in the story, of the gum and also his life. Read the book and consider what is precious and why.

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Logo design is for me very occasional work, but I thought I'd share a few examples in one place.
I love simple, minimal logos, although some of the above examples don't adhere to this because obviously the client has wanted a more detailed image. This can be a challenge but satisfying when the little elements fit together in a pleasing way. I think an illustrated logo can add an extra little bit of individuality and friendliness compared to more slick, corporate, vector-style logos (that are best left to a graphic designer), especially with the hand drawn imperfections.

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I recently produced this website header for the furniture shop Orange Otter, for whom I also did the logo some time ago.

They do lots of amazing work on reclaimed furniture, using lots of bold colours, geometric shapes and retro patterns. Just my cup of tea.

Saved from the scrapyard before being given a whole new lease of life, the cinema seats they refurbish are a marvel. Orange Otter make them ship-shape, comfortable and looking sharp and swish in a range of colourful patterned fabrics. Well worth looking into if you have some space, they really finish off a home cinema.

The reason I'm sharing this here, is that you can now buy some of my prints in their shop. So when you're having a little look around their shop, make you check out the art section.

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My daughter finally started school last week, leaving me to draw all alone. Since the start of lockdown life pretty much all my drawing - well, everything - has been done with Echo and I'll miss this a lot.

Drawing urgently, often to her precise instruction and added 'advice', sometimes with odd materials (wax crayons, cheap brushes and poster paint), all at the same time as dealing with the usual random demands of a three year old, was surprisingly liberating.

She is better at picking a subject to draw and just going for it. Often we would draw the same thing, like the portrait/self-portrait above, but her pictures are always more joyful and fun.

Picasso once said he spent a lifetime trying to draw like a child, and I know what he meant; it is impossible to capture that purity that just flows from their pencil. It isn't just innocence or naivety, I think it's more that thoughts of who will view the picture, it's purpose or final destination, are absent, as is any pre-conceived idea of how it should look. Drawing just for the hell of it.

I learnt quite a bit from these sessions so I'm planning on reviving my stagnant Instagram with our drawings. To chart Echo's development and as a reminder for me to continue this re-discovered habit of quick doodles, without worrying about the quality, maintaining the spirit of Echo and drawing purely for it's own sake.

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This image is from the small exhibition of prints from the Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston picture book A Child Of Books. Yes, it is basically the book pages on the wall, but the British Library is a majestic place to visit with a three year old and there is something special about treating these pages like the works of art that they are.
I would have studied them for many minutes more (if I wasn't with a three year old). The images are simple yet so rich. I'd wallpaper my house with these pages if I could.
Whatever your age, if you like words, books, pictures, typography, design or stories, then seek out this exhibition or book.

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