My Dog Sighs - Quiet Little Voices

My Dog Sighs shortly before the opening of his latest exhibition at the Play Dead tattoo studio this evening.  Looking relaxed, as well he could, with the queue starting to build a couple of hours before opening time.  On a freezing November evening.  By opening time the queue snaked (well, kind of sprawled) all the way down the street.

There were no last minute hitches - other than that the bottom half of the mural outside had to be repainted due to . . . being tagged over.  Not a big hardship for MDS - the guy loves to paint.

During the day today Play Dead did good trade in My Dog Sighs tattoos and before the show there was some proud showing off.   Eventually it was time for the big reveal.  MDS and sidekicks removed the paper taped to the windows and we're off.  

As I mentioned earlier in the week My Dog Sighs is equally at home painting big and painting small.  Have a look at these two pictures:  to the left of Everyman's feet (where it says Brook Club) those are double doors.  That's how big that is.  And the message in the bottle, well that is the size of a thumb nail (it is, it's right here in front of me).  I tell you if you need to commission a scale picture of angels dancing on a pinhead, he's yer man.

If you're an artist, a performer, a pop group, an actor and you've got a successful style, routine, song or role there's got to be a temptation to keep on repeating the formula.  Change your style and you're in danger of losing your audience.  Some people get away with that for a while but the law of diminishing reasons means that it can't last forever.  The really successful artists, performers, bands, actors develop, mutate, take chances, take risks.  Look at those Beatle boys.  Billy J Kramer, Freddie & the Dreamers, Gerry & the Pacemakers had one idea and ran with it and those that still can are still running with it, playing I Like It and Ferry Across the Mersey at Butlins Weekenders in October.  The Beatles though.  They developed, mutated, took chances, took risks. From 1963 to 1967 they went from I Wanna Hold Your Hand to Sergeant Pepper.

And what is their legacy? I was at Abbey Road yesterday, just one of many, gathered in gangs of four, to hold up the traffic while gamely but lamely trying to recreate a Beatles album cover.  No-one does that for Gerry & the Pacemakers.  Or Oasis.

 

Where does My Dog Sighs fit into all this?  Well, MDS has some signature pieces.  Everyman, eyes and painting on old tin cans.  What if, what if that's all there is? I mean, we all love Everyman, the eyes and mournful looking tin cans. But if we've already got the debut album . . .

So here's Everyman.  And below there's the eyes,  Some cans down under.  And nothing to worry about.  There is so much going on with these works.  The box below is phenomenal.  The photo really doesn't do it justice (actually all these pics were done on a low quality camera phone - apologies). My Dog Sighs continues to develop, mutate, take chances, take risks.  The future's bright.

I've just seen the news from Paris.  I'm going to stop writing now.

 A brilliant dance where nobody leads at all

My Dog Sighs selfie with crowd.  The Corn Poppy is in there somewhere.

the nightingale's code

Manchester Free Trade Hall - May 1966

Audience member with an aversion to electric guitars
"Judas!"

Bob Dylan (for  it is he)

"I don't believe you

You're a liar

(turning to Robbie. . . )

Play f***ing loud"

fast forward half a century . . .

Royal Albert Hall - October 2015

Audience member with an aversion to Sinatra covers
"Judas!"

Bob Dylan (for  it is he)

"I don't believe you

You're a liar

(turning to Charlie . . . )

Play f***ing lounge"

with apologies to CP Lee

Roll up! Roll up! Quiet little voices play dead in Southsea

My Dog Sighs umbrella design, 

photo by Andrew White, 

shown on The Times website, 

image saved from My Dog Sighs Facebook page 

This post is mostly about My Dog Sighs' exhibition opening this Friday but I want to start with a word about copyright and protecting intellectual property.  Who owns the rights to the image above?  Who can give permission for it to be used?  Facebook? The Times? the photographer? I'm guessing the photographer was commissioned (paid) by the artist who was trying to promote his work/flog some product.  I could be breaching copyright four times.  Or (I would argue) I am furthering the aim of the artist in promoting his work.  I mean, look at that brolly, nip over to www.mydogsighs.co.uk and buy one. Only £45 and worth every penny.

The great thing about the internet is that it is like a cross between the world's greatest circus (all human life is there) and the Wild West (anything goes).

The worst thing about the internet is that it is turning into a series of walled gardens.  The gardens are owned by big korporations which exist to make money.  They make money by mining your information, much of it while you're not looking.  While you're admiring the flowers they're picking your pockets.

What does that have to do with this?  Nothing, except that I nicked all the pictures and the words from My Dog Sighs' F*c*b**k page.  I intended to contact My Dog and ask him to answer three original questions.  Three questions he hadn't been asked a hundred times.  I tried to frame three original questions. It didn't work. I was also going to ask permission to use the pictures. Haven't done that yet. Hope he doesn't mind. 

So my revised plan is to just pinch the photos and, indeed, some words from off the internet.  This is of course the way that most internet news stories are sourced, I feel that it's a bit of a cheat to do this but my intentions are good:  I just want people to know about My Dog sighs' exhibition. 

It may be a wrong way of thinking but it seems to me that if anyone, anyone, anywhere in the world, can google and find a certain image then copyright laws are pretty redundant.  I know that the hundreds (thousands?) of photos that I have taken and used on The Corn Poppy are in the public domain and are fair game.  There was one photo I took that ended up on a right wing American news website.  If they had asked me I would have said no (because I didn't like their politics).  

On the other hand, on another occasion I found some music that essentially belonged to me for sale on a dodgy eastern European file downloading site.  While I was a bit upset that they were taking our royalties I was more pleased that someone saw fit to pirate our product.

So what's this all about? Gather round, let me tell you.

My Dog Sighs has a new exhibition opening this week.  At Play Dead, Highland Road, Southsea, starts Friday 13th, opposite the cemetery.  MDS wrote "a couple of lines" for the local Evening News.  Here he is, in his own words:

Quiet Little Voices seemed to come about in a moment of serendipity.

It's a been a manic year for me, working on walls, commissions and shows all over the world and I hadn't really had chance to stop and take stock until the latter part of the summer when Samo and Dan began setting up Play Dead [tattoo studio].

Both Samo and Dan are good friends of mine but their style and approach to the creative scene are very different so I was fascinated to see how the space would come together. Dan's strong colourful graphic design led background and Samo's fascination with all things dark and her painterly approach to ink seems to have merged to create a strong visual aesthetic in the space. The tattoo and the street art scene aren't often associated together but they share so much in traditionally being on the fringes of society but more recently becoming more accepted and embraced in today's grey corporate world.

The gallery is on the studio's doorstep so while they were setting up I'd pop over for a coffee, help out, pick up some paint, chat and bring my sketchbook over and sit on the sofa drawing alongside the tattooists.

I've been filling my sketchbook up recently. Taking the visual elements I use in my work and rearranging them to create a new visual language.  Instead of the very simple perfectly executed eye or face, I began to repeat and jumble them in a loose, less ordered way.  They seemed to keep the melancholy I'm known for and use new visual elements to develop a sort of lonely freakish ethereal quality.

With the gallery opening on my doorstep and a new series of drawings and prints developing it seemed the perfect opportunity to put together a small exhibition.  I even embraced the world of tattooing and have designed a few flash pages of small affordable designs which Samo is offering to tattoo over the weekend of the opening.

Of course my fascination with the found material continues and there are a small collections of cans, both completely crushed but also more sculptural free standing cans nestled into corners and spaces; Captured in moments of melancholy. Some have embraced the nod to a gallery called Play Dead, opposite a grave yard and are slightly darker, but not all.

It's just so happened that the show opening coincides with the release of a new project for me. Over the years I've always painted an umbrella to take to festivals. Just a bit of fun. They've always gone down well visually but the paint peels off pretty quickly so they were never anything other than a flag to stop me getting lost and to keep the rain/sun off. But I've been working with an umbrella company over the last couple of years and am really excited to announce the release of an exclusive run of specially printed mds golf umbrellas. Expect colour and fun in these. Some will be available at the opening and the rest via my website later in November.

The official opening to the exhibition is 7pm on Friday 13th November at Play Dead gallery, Highland Road, Southsea but with the response to the opening so overwhelming, we have decided to have a second 'opening' during the day on Saturday 14th from 10am til 5pm.

umbrella photos by Andrew White at www.longexposures.co.uk

other photos My Dog Sighs www.mydogsighs.co.uk

Play Dead

quiet little voices

regular readers will need no introduction to My Dog Sighs.  Based in Southsea, Portsmouth, UK with a world spanning reputation - and pieces on several continents.  MDS is at home painting big on the side of a house or painting angels on a pinhead.  Here's a house:

the house is in Gosport near St John's School

 the owner is (a) happy and @ OhkayPaints

this is a great colab between My Dog Sighs and a whole bunch of kids, part of a project called Democracy Street.  you can see the collaborators reflected in the eyes.

 On Friday My Dog Sighs latest exhibition opens at the Play Dead studio in Southsea.  

Things are gonna get a bit smaller. 

Things are gonna get a bit darker.  

More tomorrow.

this is not art (this is)

some big graffiti demands your attention like an annoying child.  

sometimes its nice to have one around that doesn't shout "clap me! clap me!"

this Allen Ginsberg sticker has been watching over Portswood, Southampton for years.

noticed and unnoticed at the same time.

part of the street furniture

and as Ginsberg said "Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture"

so some nameless slap-up guy is controlling the culture of Portswood.

well done, guy

just over the way on Adelaide Road is an-anti-art statement

this is not art

this is

and who am I to disagree

I've said it before and I'll say it again: sometimes simplest is best

here's fake Banksy again - a flipped copy of a real Bnaski by @Bingodisco

and another piece by by @Bingodisco
(thanks to @jipcr2em for the info)

hang him on your wall

Andy Warhol, Korupt, Southampton

Andy Warhol used to put in regular appearances at The Corn Poppy but he's not been around for a little while.  This morning I turned a corner and there he was, lovingly stencilled by Korupt.  I turned another corner and there was another echo of Andy.

This was painted on the wall of a florist.  Obviously it could have been painted by a child. Or a florist.  But you and I know it is based on Warhol's Flowers

Here's the corner and there's the shop.  Scents of Occasion.

Here's Warhol in situ:

Not overstated at all.  Keeping a low profile you might say. Not doing anything to stand out from the crowd.

and on remembrance day here's a poppy from The Corn Poppy

the failings of an ordinary man

 an ordinary man

with the failings of

an ordinary man

he lied like a man

to put food on the table

he lied like a man

ordinary lies

took away tomorrow

ordinary lies

fresh flowers

where their paths met

fresh flowers

black ties

in the sunset

black ties

goodbyes

no time for

goodbyes

forgive and forget?

don't you ever

forgive and forget