These are reprinted storys from redbubble.com by my designer friend Glen Smith who goes by the moniker No Frills Art. Glen works with community groups around Geelong where he lives and is an intrical part of the GAA. I'm printing this because it shows Glen's art as it has progressed through the years, plus he's a nice guy and has influenced lots of students and others (including me) with his enthusiasm.
Here are some more links on other things Glen has done in the last year or so when you have finished reading..
Festival of the photocopier
Giving and Sharing the No Frills Way Part 1
Giving and Sharing the No Frills Way Part 2
Giving and Sharing the No Frills Way Part 3
Something else at late notce but still very NFA
Printmaking, Multiples, Artists Editions and other random ephemera
I was asked recently if i would throw up one of my little rants about projects i have been involved in, work i have been making and whats going on in No Frills land in general. Now i did think about going over a few projects i have done over the last year or so and ones in the pipeline but after thinking about it i figured some were a bit more community orientated rather than arty…so after a little think i thought i would throw up some of my artist editions and explain a little about how i came to be here on RB making tees. This is going to be a little bit of a ride so hold on…
(If you cant read much online, fee free to just look at the pictures and ignore my spiel)
Now i have been a little bit quieter than usual of late due to a number of things not really worth listing, but
on the art side of things i still have been doing things in the real world. I have over the last week just got a new book back from the printers which i am most happy with.
Fast Food for thought – 32pgs Full colour – perfect bound
And a couple of weeks before that i got back three postcards for an edition i was working on from the printers. These may look familiar!
Now to give you a rundown on how i got into artists multiples, there are a few factors that have led me down this path. Firstly i have a diploma in photography(a form of multiples) and when doing my BA in Fine Art(painting) i shifted sideways at uni to undertake my honors year in printmaking as the direction my work was heading supported this notion.
Here are some very old(early 90’s) prints of mine…not the best quality, but the few i could still find lingering in the studio.
At about this same time i also met David Dellafiora who i eventually became really good friends with, and who i still work on about half a dozen projects each year with now. Anywho, David was into mail art/correspondence art and i had been doing this type of activity either to myself(yes, i sent artworks in the post to myself…i liked the postal markings) or to friends, but had no awareness of the network of artists out their who actively particpated in this activity. David quickly got me up to speed on this. Now making editions for artist’s assemblage books via low cost photocoping, active links to visual poetry and fluxus actions, social connection and a means for those in closed countries to have a voice and gain support were where i found my entry point. And i loved it.
Here are a few documentation books of my activities from around this time.
Now im sure most of you who know my work have probably seen some of the zines i have been working on over the last few years(Thanks Danny)...and btw another one is about to be printed. Available at Sticky in melbourne, or if there is a zine fair i will probably be there.
These are not the first books that i have made though. Doing printmaking kinda put the whole bookmaking and multiples addiction into my head. Here are a few from my uni days doing printmaking.
speaking of printmaking…i’m not sure if i have shown any of my graf stencils here before. These are from an exhibition Versus(sex/violence) that i did, which were documented for me. Stencils easily fall into the multiples/printmaking genre.
...but here is what may have started me even doing them, i guess my first attempt at printmaking was from back when i was maybe 13 or 14 and i used to skate…i always want a tony hawk skatedeck but could never affort it, so i took to an icecream container lid from memory and cut this stencil.hehe…
yep, and i sprayed it everywhere i could. Classey hey?!
Anyway as this is getting rediculously long…i need to abridge about now.
Each show i do i try and put out either a catalogue or ephemera to go with it. This tends to document something that after the event seizes to exist other than a line on the CV. This stuff is also fun, collectable and helps land further exhibitions and opportunities from my experience.
So here are a few more examples:
catalogues
multiples inc. artist trading cards, bookmarks, etc.
more…stamps, tickets, objects and if you look closely labels for no frills art cans from 04 i think.
postcards
stickers
badges
and working for a community arts org i also do their stuff often as you can see below. (Some catalogues)
(and dvds) – I didn’t lay out the NQA one…but i did the art residency.
and finally(congratulations to anyone who has made it this far)
i started making t-shirts both for exhibitions and simply for myself to wear way back before RB days, when if you wanted them done you either had to get them screen printed(or do it yourself) or do the old inkjet transfers.
Anyway, that leads me to why i found my way here onto RB and why it appeals to me. I still make my own tees to wear, i generally just get them made here at RB now. It also allows me to sell a few around the globe and feed my new addiction for t-shirts designed by other artists.
To sum it up…
I like art in galleries…but i also like art in the real world. No matter if its posters in your home, tees on your chest or graffiti on the street (well if its good graffiti! Actually i feel the same about art in a gallery too, its just gotta be good!). Art needs to be embedded in life.
So thats me done. Its not a definative back catalogue…but probably more than enough.
Hope you enjoyed the ride. I’m out of here…
G aka NFA
