#255: You are your own experience

#252: Black Dog Ideas I and II: Black dog's a-coming tonight and His Black Dog

Black Dog I: Black dog's a-coming tonight

Oil on canvas.  A painting of a man who is frozen still, his eyes shut tight.  A recording of a dog running and painting, getting nearer and nearer, can be heard.

Black Dog II: His Black Dog

Oil on canvas.  A painting divided into four panels in the style of Man with a Newspaper by René Magritte.  A man is seen sitting in an easy chair positioned in a living room in each panel, in the same pose each time.  Only his face shows any change in the man.  The room itself is seen from slightly different perspectives in each panel.

In the first panel, we see the man only, sitting passively, looking out at the viewer.  In the second, we see the man, his eyes looking to the window, his face concerned.  In the third, we see the man, again sitting passively and looking straight out at the viewer but now a black dog is present, standing on its hind legs behind the man, its front paws on his shoulders.  In the fourth panel, the man is sitting, serenely, the black dog lying at his feet.

#225: Happy black days, this here’s the summer (here's the summer)

Oil on canvas.

Scene of someone in a terrible state (their eyes dark, their skin pale and sallow, their hair long and bedraggled) exiting a building into bright sunlight.

#219: Small black flowers that grow in the sky

Oil on canvas.  

A view of a bright blue sky, dotted with a few clouds, the sun shining in the corner.  Vines with flowers grow across the scene along the bars at the top of a cage.

#216: Lament for the weak for they will be crushed vs The weak die young and right now we crouch to make them strong

Oil on canvas.  

The painting split into three parts: two are alongside one another and feature separate images while a third contains words and runs along the bottom of the canvas below the two previous sections.  

The image on the left is of someone lamenting.  

The image on the right shows someone heroic lifting a platform on which many people are sat on the edge or standing behind.  

The text along the bottom reads, “Which would you rather?”

#186: The Human Spirit

Oil on canvas.  

Word painting reading:

D oes

N ot

A ccept

#185: Remember Victims

An exhibition of portraits of the victims of murderers (both those killed and those left behind).  Alongside each picture is information about their subject’s life.  No mention is made of the details of their deaths or of the murderers.

#184: Close your eyes

Close your eyes.

Be somewhere else.  

In place, 

time, 

space, 

situation.  

Count to ten and find yourself there.  

Use anytime you need it (or anytime you can, or want, to).

#183: No light, eyes...

GIFs of the patterns you see in the dark when your eyes are open or closed.

#182: Bright light, closed eyes

Oil on canvas. Monochrome painting that is the colour you see when you close your eyes in bright light.

#181: Closed eyes (Art anywhere, anytime)

The impressions made, in red on black or black on red, by the light on your eyelids when you close your eyes.

#171: Losing It and Loving It (Self-portrait XVI)

You: 

lost in something you enjoy: 

in the state where you are losing your shit and loving it: 

where you just don’t care how you look: 

you are not even thinking about it: 

(zero fucks):

you are just in that moment: 

doing whatever in wherever.

(For example, while singing it loud at the indie disco).

#170: Divine Youth? (Self-portrait XV)

The self-portrait in your own mind of how you imagine yourself to be.  That is, the version that lives inside your current self and that is the image you see in your mind’s eye before looking in the mirror - possibly causing you to get a bit of a surprise when you see the real you - especially if, like Nicky Wire, you are seeing a sort-of idealised younger version of yourself and your inner self does not match-up with your outer self: 

“Divine youth is lying in

A battered and a bruised skin

I wear but don't recognise.”

#169: Put yourself in Munch's place (Self-portrait XIV)

Take a look at Edvard Munch’s Self-Portrait. Between the Clock and the Bed.  

Behind him is a room full of light, showing his life and work.  Beside him stands a reminder of passing, counting down his time left on earth, to one side, and, to the other, his deathbed.  Each waiting to take him away.  

Put yourself in Munch’s place. 

What would you be leaving behind at The End?  

What would be in the room behind to represent your life?

And how would you look when facing the inevitable? 

What would be going through your head?

:

What would your Self-Portrait look like?

#158: There is never redemption, any fool can regret yesterday

Oil on canvas.

Black text on a white background reading:

Just think first.  A lot.

#157: The earth stripped bare by its inhabitants

A landscape of rock, punctuated only by seas, covering the entire world.

#141: Bedroom Walls

Your Teenage Bedroom Wall.

Recall it, recreate it in your mind.

How far from it have you strayed?

Your current wall.

How well does it represent you?