The positive side of snow...

If you're anything like me and live in England you'll probably share the same views on snow. Immense when it comes down and sticks, up there with toast and sex when you don't have to go anywhere and can just get out with the camera and roam. Fucking diabolical when you have to go anywhere on wheels. Whisper it at a conductor and the entire rail network collapses. The road's just become hostile strips of enemy territory for cars and inevitably you have to sit and watch the poor bastards sat in whichever airport the despondency correspondents for the BBC News could reach with their Christmas melting along with the slush on their wellies. I once had a Norwegian friend who almost lost her mind when she saw how pathetic we were at coping with it. "We just whip out the spikes," she said in amazement. Anyway after returning from Brixton trapped inside a train, trapped inside a hangover off the back of my agent's Christmas party and The Big Issue London staff party (I know people), I managed to upload the snaps I captured along the way. Also check out the classy snowman in the Church yard in Hulme, Manchester.

Still plenty paint rollers and loose wires knocking around and the meeting room (pictured) could easily be straight from Pan's Labyrinth or Silent Hill! Fear not, it'll be all nice and bright when it's complete but the skeleton of THE place to work in Manchester is well and truly in place.

Return to Openspace

I cannot put into words how relieved I am to be out my bedroom and back in Openspace and back into the Squared Circle (My own little corner). There's something very soul destroying about waking in the same place you're going to be spending the next 10 hours or so sat at a desk stressing over bloody splash accuracy and colour palettes. Anyway, after clearing a job this morning I found the time to scurry around and take some cheeky photos of the space albeit in it's 7/8 state of completion.

Graft Relief

After completing a trying four weeks working from my nest I have managed to retain the majority of my marbles. The initial 'one week' that we had to be out for turned into a month but the mezzanine is looking sexy as we speak. We got in there today and got the place hoovered, two coats of varnish and much more and how refreshing it was to graft without the mental niggles of illustration. Footie on the radio, brews aplenty and a omnipotent steak and guinness pie with veggies and chips. Now it's pure bed, hot chocolate, WWE Smackdown chased by Match of the Day. Nice to round up the tiny minds project thanks to the kindness of Ramona Costantine. Ramona sells the Big Issue outside Manchester Central Library and kindly posed for my photographs from which I put together the visual profile on this blog. See my official site HERE for the full set and outline of the project's origin.

What is this job?

I'm not sure there are many other jobs that involve erratic evenings that involve the following: Updating Blogs and portfolio sites, whilst watching a WWE Wrestling VHS pay per view event from 2000. Checking off a to do list that includes a job for a juggling and fire breathing show whilst eating an entire bar of 70% dark chocolate. Then obeying a random urge to work out in the front room with the weights the previous tenants left behind. Next up, awaiting the return of my flat mate from work to find out who he brought home last night to provide me with a dose of 4am 'Blind Man's Porn.' Yes the wall between our rooms is that thin. Is there any wonder that I wake up thinking such stupid things like 'there's a beaded dragon in my bed.' I wouldn't know the meaning of 'resting one's mind' if it beat me down with a Bratwurst sausage. Oh yeah, new illo too, a portrait of the late German goalkeeper Robert Enke.

Untitled project

Apologies for my lack of updates of late. I've been consumed by my latest personal project. I've been increasingly irked by people's small mindedness. I am attempting to encourage all you talented creatives to use your skills to help those who need it, the people who have things to say but no voice to say it with. The image is a powerful tool and I think we have a responsibility to help. Anyway, since moving to Hulme, I have been delighted by the community spirit. The local boozer is off the hook. It doesn't matter who you are, what you look like or which way you swing, everybody just gets on. So I have been creating a series of portraits and hand drawn bios. The focus should be on their achievements but the emphasis will be a tongue in cheek reflection on the way small minded people dwell on people's race, sexuality, social standing etc... Tomorrow I am going to head into the city and commission a Big Issue seller to be photographed, tell me their story and feature in the 4th of the series. Watch out on my website they'll soon be up.

Oh my dear Leeds...

I sit here watching my beloved Leeds United in the FA Cup 3rd round at Kettering Town and every one of our many falls from grace in this competition runs across my nightmare reel. Why I vent here I do not know but I am well and truly in the throes of petrification. Fused to my sofa I beg of you Leeds, just score a fucking goal and put me out of my silly misery.