Mail Art: Episode One

I think everyone secretly wishes for amazing things sent by snail mail. Ever since I was a child I’ve loved receiving post, though recently it seems to be more junk or bills than anything else, unless I pay for it. In the past few months I had just been involved in collaborations that involved sending work by mail, until @jessicagowling followed me on twitter. I was soon addicted to checking her blog and was delighted when we finally got around to swapping mail art, she sent me the most wonderful envelope back in June and above is my reply. I think one of the most inspiring things about Jessica’s work is the nature theme, if you are interested in that or printmaking as I am, you should definitely find her in social network land and follow her everywhere.

About a month back @Dig_A_Pony sent me some Victorian sugar mice, too amazing to eat really, and also enclosed some of her prints which you can see here. I admired her work so much when I first saw it and the more I look the more I want to live right in the middle of it. Shown on the right is the reply I sent to her.

Back in July it was my friend @Rooofz 18th birthday and of course the perfect excuse to send some surprise mail as we live quite a way away from each other. I included various bits and bobs of painting, collage etc and also one of the t shirts I produced for @adamficek of RKC (Roses Kings Castles) as I still had the screen from that.

Last May/June/ @PeterDohertyoff ended up in Pentonville yet again, for a while I had been considering a project sending mail art to prisoners so put a couple of mini pieces together for him. There are restrictions on what you can send to prisons so if, in the future, I do follow this project up I shall probably have to read up on those. I’m pretty sure that nothing dangerous was enclosed…

Above is a parcel I packaged up for my friend Steph of Sparrow Squad, you can read about them in my last post: http://thesecondmagpie.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/sparrow-squad-helping-sparrows-live-where-you-live/

Steph had requested two discs of the artwork I did for her so I put those together and added a few other things including stencils for Sparrow Squad, one of my playing card collages and a Peter Doherty-QPR shirt from the old days – I used to hand paint t shirts for friends and enemies. I posted this about a month ago and it should have arrived within a few days at the most but only arrived at it’s destination today, much to my relief. I had been preparing a riot for An Post.

A few weeks back I posted one of my tea zines to Twinings Tea. I used their mixed berries teabags to create the pink version of the zine/mini-book and I decided to send one to them so they could enjoy it too. Last week I received a lovely letter and a complimentary box of mixed tea.

And finally, I also posted one of the traditional tea zines to Tetley Tea as I created the one seen above with their circular teabags. Two days ago I also received a letter from them which included a voucher for any of their products.

Here ends the first episode. If you’re interested in swapping mail with me just drop me a message here, on twitter, facebook or email. I will soon be swapping a second lot of playing cards for anything and everything.

Gig Posters: Roses Kings Castles, Anto Dust, Lucky Clover

Gig posters from the past few months. I don’t usually do many because I have a habit of cutting, chopping, drawing and splashing for so long that the band are soundchecking before I actually complete the poster.

Each poster is put together ‘traditionally’ except for some small text details.

Featuring Roses Kings Castles, Anto Dust and Lucky Clover.

Roses Kings Castles – Suburban Timebombs

Adam Ficek’s second album ‘Suburban Timebombs’ was released last week.  More than a year has passed since Adam first contacted me about doing the artwork. Many miles of rainforests later, we have covers, sleeves and enough unused scraps to set the world on fire.

I was never sure of the final cover that Adam decided on until I saw it in print with the rest of the album sleeve. One of Adam’s ideas was to do away with working on the white background that featured on the first record and singles, so I dutifully took out my teabags and began staining paper.

The ‘splashes’ which feature on the cover are down to Adam’s wish that I play Jackson Pollock for a day, though unlike Pollock and his spontaneous splashes, the controlling side of my nature had me creating pages of splashes, chopping them up and sticking my favourites together. I do realise I am ridiculous, please keep it a secret.

It has been quite a journey, I won’t deny Adam did have to make a few frantic phone calls and push me to ‘hurry’ but I promise I never turned off my phone on purpose.

You can purchase Suburban Timebombs here: http://www.adamficek.com/shop.php

 Also featured above are unused ideas for the record cover and the artwork for Subtleties of Love, the second single, which is available as a free download.

Breaking Records: The 405 Album of the Year 2010

I was recently asked by The 405 to do some illustrations for their Album of the Year Shortlist. You can see who made the shortlist and vote for your favourite on the website: http://thefourohfive.com/articles/4307

I have voted for Baths in The 405’s list but while sketching I began thinking of my favourite records of the year… 

Delays – Star Tiger Star Ariel This record is perfection and there are no words to describe how much I admire and respect this band. My sister is better with words than I am, a link to her review of their recent show in Glasgow: http://www.soundproofmagazine.com/United_Kingdom/Live/Live_Delays_King_Tuts_Wah_Wah.html

Arms – Arms EP This EP is free yet it is worth more than all the gold and silver in the world. Download it here: http://www.armsarms.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45&Itemid=54

Roses Kings Castles – Suburban Timebombs I did the artwork for this record and I think it has become an extra limb, official release is next week. You can download ‘Subtleties of Love’ free here: http://soundcloud.com/360degreemusic/roses-kings-castles-subtleties-of-love

Surf City – Kudos This record sounds like what I used to think treacle would taste like and that was a very good thing indeed. You can download the title track free here: http://tinyurl.com/22uaoyx

Roses Kings Castles UK & European Tours

I’ve made some tour posters in keeping with the artwork for the forthcoming album from RKC. The UK tour will be with a full band, the European tour is solo and included on the poster are various DJ sets.

 http://www.adamficek.com/ and http://www.ficekforever.net.tc/ for full venue/ticket information and any updates or changes.

If anyone is making posters for specific dates/venues please contact me for the RKC logos and artwork and I will be happy to supply them.

She’s in Fashion

I have finally had a chance to start screen printing t shirts again, I have a 2009 diary full of design ideas that I have been itching to work with for a long time. I do need to restock my t shirt supply though, and buy some more screens so to fund that I have relaunched some older designs, available from today in my shop: http://thesecondmagpie.bigcartel.com/

The Roses Kings Cassettes design is one I printed which Adam gave away with copies of his Apples & Engines record, if I remember correctly. There were only 10 printed at the time and Adam has agreed to let me print up another lot as I have had quite a lot of messages about them.

The other t shirts come from collages and prints I have been working with over the last while, ‘I shagged my way to the cover of NME’ was a hit in their office so I decided to reprint that one with larger font, apparently it’s something to be proud of. And while Drew has been off with The Bronx and Adam has been digging gardens, I sat down to make the much requested Team Ficek McConnell shirt, for everyone who asked.

I am always happy to take commissions and am also open to printing onto other fabric or t shirts if you should like to send them to me. If you have any enquiries about this idea please email me at acupunkturedesign@googlemail.com or write to me on twitter or facebook.

One Born Every Minute

This is the cover, front and back, of Adam Ficek, Roses Kings Castles next single. One Born Every Minute is the first single taken from the new album Suburban Time Bombs and is released in May. You can pre-order the single here:  http://roseskingscastles.360degreemusic.com/shop/category-contents/Compact-Discs.htm?catID=47

The cover is a collage of everything I keep, parts of screen prints and clock hands. Who knows what I used them for in the first place. Originally I had been playing around with the idea of a maze for the Suburban Time Bombs cover and this evolved, so we decided on it for the single cover.

You can hunt Adam down on these sites:

http://twitter.com/adamficek

http://www.myspace.com/roseskingscastles

http://www.facebook.com/roseskingscastles

Episodes, fevers and a mirror or two

“Little Episodes is an organisation started by professional writers, editors, artists, musicians and actors aiming to use the arts as a platform to raise awareness for people who suffer from depression, addiction or mental illness.”

http://www.littleepisodes.org/

http://www.littleepisodes.org/profile/TheSecondMagpie

You can visit and join Little Episodes at the above link and if it takes your fancy add me to your list of acquaintances there.

Cut Along the Dotted Lines (the collage above), features in the first publication by Little Episodes. It is a collection of artwork, poetry and much more. Also included is work from Sadie Frost and Clint Catalyst and it can be purchased here: http://www.littleepisodes.org/page/3897964:Page:8145

A poster from Kristian Marr’s February ‘tour’ of Paris: http://www.myspace.com/kristianmarr

A recent illustration for The 405, and interview with promoter God Don’t Like It. http://thefourohfive.com/articles/2523

And of course you can now pre-order Adam Ficek’s (Roses, Kings, Castles) latest single from his website and view my ‘collaged parts of screen prints’ which ended up as the artwork.

http://roseskingscastles.360degreemusic.com/shop/category-contents/Compact-Discs.htm?catID=47

So you see, sometimes I get things done, in between my suffering with fevers, some of which have been unidentified or so I’m told. During the course of these I discovered I could move light with my eyes, unfortunately I seem to have now lost this new and much loved talent and have had to return to my paints and papers.

No kisses, just some books and the odd cigarette…

I wonder if my traipsing round gigs has resulted in my confinement with the flu for the past week. We had much fun, it was just like the good old, bad old days, when we were young and innocent and had half a wit between us. Adam’s RKC sets sounded fantastic, I haven’t too many photos of his antics because I had to rush in from slave-driving on his behalf every night. I really enjoyed Alan Wass, thanks to Loz who I’m sure ‘made it happen’ with magic.

I have no idea what sort of a reception the dancers get; do people love or hate that idea? The light and movement fascinated me and you shall surely see some prints along these lines soon. Peter was wonderful actually; Hooligans on E and Love Reign O’er Me had me grinning like the Cheshire Cat. I had so much fun I declined a lift with ‘Adam Fitch’ back to Dublin on the last night for his DJ set and subsequently missed getting back to Dublin on time for it at all. Poor Adam Fitch.

As some people may know, I have been working on the artwork for Adam’s next single/album. Above I’ve posted the piece that’s going inside the album cover, I do believe. I’m going to print up some sort of backdrop for Adam too, I had this idea while we were watching Peter’s set in Dublin and it took quite a bit of shouting ‘backdrop’ over the sounds of Arcady into his ear, deafness in old age eh? I feel some RKCassettes shirts in black coming on, if Adam agrees, and many other things when I manage to undo these puppet strings.

I’m currently working on some pieces for group exhibitions, illustration work and personal commissions. At times I feel like I’m expected to be a constant and bottomless pit of creativity, if I ‘burn out’ by the age of 30 I blame everyone mentioned in this blog.

Much Love xo

Shut Your Stupid Little Mouth…

If I haven’t taken too much time from the world of RKC, here is the print Ficek will have on t shirts for the November tour avec Peter Doherty, check out Adam’s sites for more and come and say hello if you see me in any of these destinations….

www.roseskingscastles.com

www.myspace.com/roseskingscastles

22 Nov 2009 20:00 Utrecht – Tivoli Utrecht

23 Nov 2009 20:00 Rotterdam, Watt Rotterdam

24 Nov 2009 20:00 Einghoven, Effenaar Einghoven

25 Nov 2009 20:00 Cafe Central Brussels

26 Nov 2009 20:00 Antwerp – Trix Hall Antwerp

27 Nov 2009 20:00 Cafe Kairo Bern

29 Nov 2009 20:00 Munich, Backstage Werk Munich

30 Nov 2009 20:00 Cologne – Essigfabrik Cologne

1 Dec 2009 20:00 Hamburg – Uebel and Gefaehrlich Hamburg

2 Dec 2009 20:00 Berlin – Kesselhaus Berlin

4 Dec 2009 20:00 Stockholm – Debaser Medis Stockholm

5 Dec 2009 20:00 Malmo – KB Malmo

6 Dec 2009 20:00 Oslo, Rockefeller Oslo