Esquires 2006 2007

Some more with colour. Some without. Must remember to use colour in the future. Pipe and whisky driven. 

Circa 2006

...........then of course I was guilty of stuff like this. For Chuck Klosterman page in Esquire. Dodgy lettering apart I still like it - all that colour.............. and it fitted in the scanner.

INTERMISSION:

When your're dead.

The local cinema showed Finding Vivian Maier for one night only last night.  6.30 Sold out. Work of art. Fair play to John Maloof for exposing her.  She does rank alongside Diane Arbus, Cartier -Bresson and the greats but even greater. Maybe Mr. Maloof might risk overexposure. She used her job as a cover as a means of survival, a really single minded formidable independent individual a genius seven foot tall with a goose - step march and a sense of humour.  Striking appearance I think she was described as looking like a 1950s Russian factory worker. Throw away the phone. Chuck out your digital cameras. Return to film. Keep your corner shop chemist in business. 

The biggest illustration ever I did. 1997

This was enormous. For an illustration drawn in ink. Bigger than Tracy Emin's 'Iconic' unmade bed. Bigger than Shoreham By Sea's aerodrome. Bigger than Shoreham By Sea.  Had an aircraft to itself. In fact this was the aircraft. It glided across the pond to Entertainment Weekly magazine in New York. Across the Atlantic Ocean. Ink and watercolour and a stamp. Non - porno. No commercial value. Protected. Wrapped in layers of stiff cardboard. Strapped with reels of gaffa tape. Sealed with wax. Sealed with glue. Transported to America. A shadow over Greenland. Newfoundland. Bigger than a flying fortress. In 1997. Big. Too big for the studio. Courier couldn't stick it under his arm. Impossible to fold. It took hours just to build an envelope to put it in. Label it Fragile. Before the scanner. Took it to Ron the printer in the high street to photocopy it in twenty six parts. Ron would out moan me for the gold medal. Probably fed the fax machine to show the art editor it's progress in instalments. Two rolls of fax paper. I took a polaroid  of Elton John singing Candle in the wind at Princess Diana's funeral on the television for reference. Didn't get paid as much for it as Tracy Emin's 'Iconic' unmade bed. The original piece now hangs on a wall near Preston in Lancashire. Had to demolish the lobby to get it in position. Diversions on the A59. Had to close the country lanes to traffic to transport it to it's new home. Near The Inn at Whitewell. In the Ribble Valley Lancashire. In England. That was the nineties. Since 2005 when I converted to digital, it's all digital delivery. It's all memory stick, no fragile labels to stick. A59? It's all less than A3. If I had any work. That's history. Bye gone days. Anyone for golf. Anyone live in the East? Fancy a weekly walk, chasing a little white ball with a set of sticks. Putting the little white ball into a hole eighteen times. Handicap? I was  an illustrator.  

Stanley Plumly 2010:

I'm still here. I am trying to continue on an illustration theme as a subject. From the archives. There was a young hare visiting the garden this morning. There is a dead blackbird lying on the kitchen roof. Collided with a window. 

SWAN SURGERY:

8:52. Blood test failure. Go back six places miss a turn. One hour wasted won't get that back.  I should be drawing more important subjects. Drawing what really matters. Drawing is such fun. Keeps me out of jail.