This set of drawings has a long evolution. I’ve always thought about what a drawing is trying to say and then consider whether the technique used to make the drawing was helpful or at odds to that intention. For a while I found hatching or lines to define shade problematic. Similarly anything other than an orthographic view felt like it was introducing a narrative element that I didn’t want to add to the subject. I just wanted the object. I guess I wanted to draw like a photocopier… a direct transfer where the hand is absent – and no detail too banal. I started inking up objects and rolling them on to the paper. I’d then use the whittled end of a brush to burnish in tone or line to make the object ‘appear’. Of course the artist’s hand is still there but it seemed like it was put in the background. The approach is more that of the printmaker.
So a couple of words about the title – it is slightly ironic and double-edged. It’s about living. The dreams and fighting talk that start and end in the beer can. The label can be noble like Heineken or more to the point like 8,6. The aerosol paint tin is the means of direct action that you may or may not take.
I want to make available and edition these drawings. Interestingly the prints feel like they are the most appropriate expression of the drawings. They are expertly made with great care by the printer ensuring great fidelity that is close to the original. A whole process of digitization, calibration and testing is carried out before printing using pigment inks (UltraChrome) on Beaux-Art 240g /m2 textured paper. They are a standard size 40 x 30cm and each drawing is numbered and signed out of a total edition of 18 examples.
Each print is €30 plus p+p