'Puma Yard'

Early Spring saw me team up with Creative Director Phil Sims from Neighbour, housed down East in Batemans Row.  Excited to be involved with anything to do with the Olympics, (wasn't it A-mazing) Neighbour have being creating Jamaican themed promotional artworks for Puma, official sponsors of Usain Bolt.  I was unaware that Olympians aren't able to endorse their sponsors products whilst the Games are on.. fair play.  Neighbours natty direction allowed us to capture London folk showing their version of the Lightening Bolt, capturing the growing Olympic spirit as the Opening Ceremony approached.  Alongside a revamp of their Carnaby Street store, Puma transformed Brick Lanes Truman Brewery into 'The Puma Yard' with many a rum cocktail and even a little beach!

    Outside The Puma Yard, photograph by Kate Gibb

Creatively, turning the photographs in to a series of silkscreens was pretty straight forward.  The majority of the images were to be treated in the colours of the Jamaican flag, for me this was hardest task.  When given a free palette I can keep on going.. but green, gold & black felt nothing short of an Olympic challenge.  But it was Neighbours spin on how they used the nineteen or so lightening-bolters that really made the job special.  Fly-postered around the East End, layered up over shop fronts and what seemed to be almost ingrained in to the local brick work.  A simple but striking idea.

   Outside The Puma Yard & Old Street Hoardings, photographs by Kate Gibb

New gouache painting, well almost..

'Studio 4, by Tomoko Suwa-Krull'

Our studios moved over two years ago, but I still reflect on the old Great Western building with a little more fondness than the new.  I guess it's down to a lack of the inherent aged characteristics that new builds can only pass the time for.  (Although the fully functioning heating system eased the blow a little.. ) Last weekend photographer Tomoko Suwa-Krull came to visit, on behalf of Japanese publication '+81'.  I couldn't have dreamt her resulting images would pan almost the entire width from what appeared to be quite a small lens.  The studio has a limited flow with its triangular floor space & my abundance of box shaped equipment.  Looking at Tomoko's beautiful photographs reminded me that in essence not that much has really changed, how important studio life is to me and the creative charm this functioning space holds.  See more of Tomoko's beautiful work here..

A kind of Camouflage

I'm getting in to the habit of taking quick shots of my prints in progress, mainly to provide a stack of content from which to choose for my upcoming website.  (There, now I've said it. )  It's handy to have  a visual record of prints evolving, noting all the changes that occur en route only to disappear beneath the finished piece.  On viewing, these shots can take on a life of their own and become (for me), like an experimental painting.  Masking layers off and lifting out shapes from sticky back plastic to screen on another colour, I'd never remember what went on under there..

The crowd scene peeking through this fluro yellow sheen makes me want to ditch the illustration and continue building this figurative camouflage that's appeared.  Unintentional and unexpected.. it's random appearance makes me like it even more.

Warp&Weft

Weaving has always appeared to me as one helluva big effort.. I also enjoy the way pigment inks can sit quietly proud of the cloth, showing off its woven properties a little more.  The best of both worlds. NousVous's second studio visit became a heady afternoon of applying drawings we had to hand, on a length of fabric resurrected from a sample pack that morning with the few coloured dyes that hadn't gone mouldy on closer inspection.  It's early days aesthetically but screening ink directly on to fabric allowed us to appreciate the options of working on a more malleable surface.  We're all keen to explore more.

'Nous Vous'

Nous Vous are on my all time faves list.  I'd been wondering how it might be to address a project together, see what we could conjure up.  Last month Nic & Will, two thirds of their Collective, joined me for the day which was spent playing with various experimental techniques.  The results as images aren't yet important.. the onus lying in what each silkscreen application revealed and where this could lead us when we create a piece more purposefully.  Today, our second workshop saw us move towards working with fabric.  We think this the way forward.. See more on NousVous's own blog here.  

'M' Magazine, Le Monde

Finally I've made the cover for an Editorial job.. the fact that it was for 'M', the weekend magazine of french newspaper Le Monde makes it taste that little bit sweeter.  Again, my thanks goes to the wonderful art direction of Eric Pillault.. he pushes me in directions I didn't think possible for an editorial.  And what I currently don't know about French politics I could fit on a postage stamp, so an education as well as a paid job!

'Jubilee'

In some vague homage to our imminent Jubilee celebrations, I remembered these two silkscreens created for 'Push & Pull' back in 2008.  I nattily titled them 'Union'.. something to do with flags maybe? Although not much of a royalist I am looking forward to the 1000 strong flotilla parading down the Thames from Battersea to Tower Bridges.. though this will most likely be from the golden perspective of my sofa.