BORDERING ON BEANO

I grew up loving comics and would share “The Beano” and all manner of “Marvel” comics with my brother. (Slight fib: these were not shared. They belonged to my brother and I stole them mercilessly.)Drawing cartoons is great fun and was extremely handy, when required to produce worksheets for my classes of Primary school children.

 

Working on my MA in Fine Art, I have sometimes used cartoons as the vehicle for my own work.

DOLPHINS OF THE DEEP – Marine centre

These double-page spreads were produced for “Dolphins of the Deep”, where the intent was to contrast the man-made tawdry banality of  most marine centres with the awe-inspiring beauty of the deep oceans.

 

THE HOLES WE LEAVE

We play a different role in the life of each person we know. I thought of the various views people might have of an individual; what “holes” would be created when that person died? The text I have used here is “cruddish” – an invented alphabet I created for  my closest friends and me to share notes whilst at school. It seemed appropriate that they would be the only people able to read my true thoughts in these pieces of work. (And it also meant I could use swear-words!)

TIME BANDITS 

Time bandits – my name for those people who steal your precious time, when you are desperately working towards creating something wonderful. They invade, cry out, whine, cling and press down heavily upon you as you try your damnedest to create.

NOTICE TO IMPROVE

Here we see a teacher, trying her hardest to show children the amazing wonders of the world and the joy of learning. Sadly, the National Curriculum is taking over, with its rigid, narrow, dull conformity, as it prepares children to be the factory fodder of the future. As with so many recent educational reforms, bullshit is king.