Guess who's off to the Party after all

Thanks to Kevin who called up out of the blue and asked if I wanted to join him for the opening games held here in Shanghai, Argentina Vs Ivory Coast but I may be wrong.

genius

just re-listening ro the roots mahuda, the ital vision of the rodney smith. man is legend. lyrics tripping like nothing n earth, put kool keith to - no wait - as good as KK, kicking cack, kickin the program... to use his words 'french kissing the chaos' - that right there is modern poetry mike skinner would be proud of... while watching barbara windsor on telly in some freaked TCM madness - tis a crazy telly night indeed
that right there is poetry , i think you will find...

weird shit

just caught a scene or two of a film which confused and amused. The scene I saw was basically a jewish market scene, and being a musical the film spent the next 10 minutes making a musical out of being jewish and how jovial it was to be a nomadic and disenfranchised people, but what jolly good fun it was... but then it got better because it descended into a market place disco meltdoen, with traders formation star jumping to a pretty damn cool disco dub, beards, caps and all. It was surreal, to say the least

Desert Island Disco Party

I have been asked to sign a 5 year contract with Island6, the contemporary art studio who first supported me in my initial projects in shanghai. The work that I produced for the Chinese Pro Skater Project surprised and exceeded their expectation, and will be exhibited in its entirety at in August. I would like to thank Joe at Wildrampage for his unrelenting support in my work here in Shanghai...

work in progress II

Its been a busy and I felt very drained earlier- painting takes it out of me in a way nothing else does... after a full day I am left feeling hollow, emotionless (except bad tempered or intolerant) drained mentally like something has sucked my brain dry- its a peculiar feeling. Gin helps. And the Depeche mOde album exciter...



It looks a lot worse in real life, but then most paintings do- except Freud's, which look better. The photograph smoothes the edges and fills the gaps...

Call for entry

Island6 have asked me to submit works for their new exhibition. Having recently moved to a new space they wish to kick off with an exhibition entitled Urban Lust. Hmmmm. If my work fits curatorially then I'm in with a shout... but I am not that happy with my offerings. Heres one, but its not typical of the other 5 I submitted...

meditations on being

Spent 2 hours in the park today thinking. Had gone there to take iggy skateborarding - his new passion (how cool is that, im a proud skater dad!) - but he fell asleep in the pushchair on the way there. So I was left with 5 cans of beer and plenty of time to pinpoint what it is that makes a person an artist,. Its a recurrent theme, and one which frustrates me still. I also thought about ways in which to exploit my skills and current position to further my myth- for i have calculated that every artist needs to perpetuate his or her own myth, one that people can buy into and believe in, criticise, shoot down, commemorate, exhibit etc etc. Its a point Mathew Collings raised, using the examples of Warhol, Pollock and someone else... picasso i think. Bottom line is that you and/or your audience must perpetuate the myth. It has to have meat on the bones, be plausible or risible, but always present. That Israeli portraitist who I went to see (whose name escapes me) fully believes in her massively cultivated myth- from her dreadlocks to her nosering to her poorly executed middle eastern faces- it all forms part of the story, she doesnt ever doubt her work or its capacity to 'artify' the viewer- to make them believe what she believes - and that is that SHE is an ARTIST. Thats its poorly drawn or the colours are a\straight out the tube does not deter her belief. And she is a success. Where am I? Worrying about skin tone and underlying theories of my direction and sincerity, silently and anonymously indoors through a drunken fog.

So today I spent 2 hours drinking and evaluating what I need to do to be more like our Israeli friend. As I have said before, I only wish I was gay, or black, or penniless, or unhappy... its not easy being a white middle class comfortably off father with a beautiful wife, 2 beautiful kids and a mediocre income.

But todays meditations have left me with a bit of direction. I just need to keep creating. night, day, here on this blog, in the studio, at school- I just need to keep producing, keep drawing.

And the other, more important revelation. An ode to Jilly Booth, my printmaking tutor- PLAY. I need to play, to fuck about a bit- push things around, step and repeat, invert, re-arrange- just keep playing, keep on PLAYING. Jilly said it to me repeatedly during,my education, and I found it so difficult because I was intent on producing cool or beautiful images... but she was AND IS right- keep playing. That is my myth- I am the ICONOCLAST (secondary school art teacher Mr Ross, now expired, coined the phrase in my school report - Nicholas is a cheerful iconoclast- and I have never felt prouder than when I read this) and still to this day spend my time not taking things quite seriously- myself or others, a sort of defensive mechanism I am guessing. But it is probably the cosest I have come to shaping my myth - that is that I am a cheerful iconoclast, and that I need to keep on playing, keep on prodding, jibing and playing the fool. That is the artist. it is he whom I need to reconcile myself with. Starting today.

ds,mf,.sdfam., ><

god drun k again, cant be fucke dto rage agaisnt the article in th eguardian hat offended me about global waorming, gfeeel satisfied to listne to beck, all ogwhich i am inlo ve with ... more batmND

...how it looks this morning

Spent another hour in mi pants at the easel... dont picture that

Free - time

So I have around 10 days with which to indulge myself... its just the boys in the house, Kelly has gone back to england to pick up our daughter after her bold independent England trip.. a valuable exercise. What it means is 10 days of painting, blogging, researching, housekeeping, holidayplanning and drinking, basically. Already today I have spent 6 hours painting a portrait of a boy that I started about 6 months ago. I have been a little lost, well actually completely screwed creatively since the start of the year. The watercolours that I have been working on for Thomas (my gallery) have been pretty much all shite- labour intensive and weak in production, they just basically dont cut the mustard. The reference is partly at fault, but Ive been slaving away with what Ive got- some look ok but its not what I would consider the best possible kick ass work that Nick Hersey would like Shanghai to know him for... then again nor is the work that is currently being exhibited at Arch. Its a great theme, and theres a good project in there somewhere... but the stickers just arent as good as Id like them to be. Anyway, a day spent at the canvas today has gone some way to allaying fears and lack of self confidence that have been brewing since feb. Not that the work is dynamic, its just passable... but thats a lot to me right now. I aim to get a few pieces done over the next 10 days, and hopefully get back on track with some stuff that Thomas might be able to exhibit in the autumn...


As you can see its a bit of a monster at 2m x 1m, and it fills up our little rabbit hutch... but its going ok for today wahey

Postcard from Puxi!

Lovin this menu from a little restaurant round the corner from our new house in the french concession...

Brief Summary

Arch Cafe went off smoothly. It certainly was not a consumate expression of the time and efforts spent in the 2 months previous to this time, but it looked ok, and got a good review in the City Weekend and was listed in a few magazines...








The question now is whether to continue with the exhibition (the cafe want to organise their own private view and have the band play there) or jump while i'm ahead (I picked up a commission at the show which will cover all my costs)

I can see it becoming a money pit as the cafe are not that sound when it comes to paying for stuff... so am moving my focus back to Thomas's project with the skaters...

Postcard from shanghai

Right in the centre of Shanghai, this sort of scene (old making way for the new, at the expense of any heritage or architectural reference) is rather common.