Stuff On The Walls

We have a guest blogger this month, Lily Blythe from Stoke on Trent, who is working at the Inkymole studio just a month after graduating with a first in Graphic Design. Lily has something of an obsession with - and incredible flair for - typography, and was in the audience at the last college lecture I did in 2010. When she approached us at the D&AD New Talent Show last month, we were only too pleased to get her involved in our current projects.

This month I was invited down to the Inkymole Studio to lend a helping hand in this month's installation at The Factoryroad Gallery space.

After bumping into Sarah at the D&AD exhibition in London in July, on the last day at around closing time, we got chatting and she was kind enough to give me a project to help keep my hands and mind busy. The brief was to use all of Inky's unfinished creative scribbles, which were a result of years of process work showing an insight in the life of a busy creative.

I kept an open mind and when shown the three crates of work, thought…this isn't that much. Little did I know that once I started to delve into Sarah's work, it was like Pandora's box. Thousands of tiny treasures on scraps of paper, ones which folded out, ones which were covered in coffee stains, blue-tac and ink splurges, and ones which were stuffed into folders along with many other different versions. All of which were done with love.

Whilst taking this sneak peak into Sarah's work I saw that being a creative with such love and passion, it really isn't a job, but it's her life. All the stains on the work showed hard working nights, and early mornings, thousands of drafts trying to get the right solution for a client (and yourself). Every picture really did tell its own story.

After reflecting on all the hard work we put in as creatives, many of us with little money in our pockets, many sleepless nights and cluttered work spaces, this experience has made me realise that I really do love what I do and I can't wait to get my first foot in the door of the creative industry.

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The show is on the walls of The Factoryroad Gallery until our group show in September, 'The Secret Members Show', opening Saturday September 24th. If you're interested in calling in for a look, please get in touch on gallery@factoryroad.net and we'll get the kettle on.

Clouds over Factoryroad.

For our second ever show Carl Rosati from Newcastle, aka The Cloud Commission, came to install his unique brand of gentle stories of love and loss, told through the tiny expressive eyes of his myriad, exquisitely-drawn people.

We've already told you about the way Carl sees the world, but we weren't prepared for such immediate bonding between visitors and pictures. From his large and perfectly-painted 'Death' tableau on The Big Wall to his tiny pencil-drawn image of a pair who'd rather starve at sea than be parted on land, guests paused to blink and acknowledge the little pain in the heart valves his work generates with such brutal casualness.

Work begins.

The perfect outline (finally...)


Scribble me purple.

Carl's work can look very 'vector' but there isn't one artwork made of pixels. He thinks nothing of creating a 15mm thick, perfectly consistent line with a 0.5mm Rotring, his historical involvement in architecture presenting itself in all of his current pieces, and his pencil sketches, though appearing simple and undemanding, can take more than a day. (We know, we watched). Eyes - the windows to a rainy or overcast soul - go in last, and mouths don't even need to be present. It was argued that the solid, stubby-fingered hands of his characters express more than their dotty eyes, but the jury's still out on that one.

Dance City.

Work for Idle Hands.

He brought with him not only a specially-created print of Bret 'The Hit Man' Hart the 90s wrestler (which we have for sale, prices are here.) but a pair of paintings on canvas, a new medium for him and not one he felt immediately comfortable with - though it was noted that this was the pair of images in front of which people spent the longest time. She's extracting her own tooth to stop whatever it is from hurting ('Better'), and he's accidentally shaved off a strip of his hair ('Broken') - every single follicle hand-rendered. Apart they'd be lost causes; together, they might just sort each other out.

Bret 'the Hit Man' Hart.



From our own collection of Cloud Commission works.

As well as a quartet of brightly-coloured screen prints, framed drawings, a trio of mini-screen prints and a brand new large scale print created just for our show, Carl brought his signature laser-cut diamond jewellery pieces with him. You can buy his 'Old Man' bolos, Diamond brooches, rings and cufflinks, along with his available prints, in our shop.




Guests in the form of clients, colleagues, friends, fellow illustrators and artists came from up and down the UK to cast curious eyes over our freshly-clouded space... and left with slightly damp sparkly ones. His work looks bright and character-driven - which it is - but it's also beguilingly personal and poignant.

If you want more, go to Carl's website.

If you're interesting in purchasing any of his work, then here's a price list.

Since Carl's the descendent of an Italian ice cream empire, refreshments for the night were by Booja Booja the finest ice cream in the known universe.

Real ale was Goat's Milks 3.8%, supplied by Ridge Lane's Church End Brewery.

and fresh juices from Naturally Good Food in Cotesbach.







Guests Cory from Truth Marketing and Mark Sperry, moved to tears by it all.

Carl and rapt visitor Chrissie, the night before.

Carl, the morning after.

Upcoming in April: The Cloud Commission

Opening Friday 15th April at 6.30pm, and open through to Friday 29th April, our space will be home to the work of Newcastle's Carl Rosati, aka The Cloud Commission.

Carl Rosati, aka The Cloud Commission, likes to play with pseudonyms - first coming to our attention as Cassette Club the Myspacer a few years back - but is really still the beach-grown boy who left the seaside to curl his magic fingers around a pencil.

He’s got a chest-swelling ability to capture gentle souls on paper, their little eyes, expressive hands and button nips communicating everything you need to know about them. Stories abound. But he’d never tell you that. Descended from an Italian ice-cream empire, his modest seaside ways belie the touching power of his stripped-down illustrations and swirling pistachio-and-vanilla colours.

He says it takes him longer to create on paper than it does walls. We’ll see. But we absolutely had to show him to you, because as collectors and commissioners of his art already, we know this diamond in the rough has more to offer the world than he thinks.
His pictures make our chests ache and our eyes sparkle.

Roll up, roll up; come and see for yourself...pictures, stories and little manufacturings...all the fun of the fair!

Please come and enjoy the locally-microbrewed ale and food with us on Friday night.

RSVP and further info:
gallery@factoryroad.net
(please let us know you’re coming - space is limited!)
And we're at: 71 Factory Road, Hinckley, Leicestershire, LE10 0DW.
07941 279374

The Cloud Commission's website

Is four Christmas trees greedy?

As you might know if you read the Inkymole blog fairly often, 2010 was largely dominated by the building of a new studio and gallery space at Inkymole/Factoryroad HQ. Although still with some work to do, the new space is restful and makes practical use of what was already here, while incorporating land that hitherto lay unused.

The first show in the little gallery was Witches, a third and final showing (in October) of the project exploring the confessions of the Pendle witches. We were very taken with the trees that Tom Hare had built for this new installation of the show, using Ash to create three trees which looked for all the world as if they had thrust themselves up through the floor overnight. We liked them so much we decided to leave two of them in place for Christmas, and make them our Christmas trees.

Grandma's tree dominates the far left corner, and the usual modest-but-loyal Christmas tree will come out in a couple of days to sit out the rest of the holiday with the smaller baubles in the box (I'm a bit uncomfortable leaving it shut away in the loft...). So that's four. Too many? Never!

It's a shame it can't stay full-time, and I always get teary when it's time to un-decorate, but on twelfth night they'll come down in readiness for the series of shows we've got planned for 2011, and be thrown joyously onto the woodburner. See? Nothing wasted.