"without information you cannot make informed decisions as a public"

Audio of Bradley Manning's speech to the military court in Ft. Meade about his motivations for leaking government documents to Wikileaks:(via https://pressfreedomfoundation.org)



“In no case shall information be classified… in order to: conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency… or prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security.”

— Executive Order 13526, Sec. 1.7. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations

“The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.” - Nuremberg Principle IV

(taken from www.bradleymanning.org)

You wandered up a cul-de-sac, and now you've come back

I went to a record fair last weekend, and on the way back home I popped into Wolverhampton Art Gallery, where there was a wonderful exhibition of Harry Eccleston's drawings, gouache paintings and etchings (he was the first full-time artist and designer of bank notes for the Bank of England.) I was sort of hoping that the gallery might have some of his prints or postcards in its shop, but alas, the usual lineup of Pre-Raphaelite ladies on the carousel. 

I was really in awe of his work (including a fully labelled drawing of a fire engine he did aged 12 that made me want to just give up right away) - lovely rich velvety blacks and greys, gleaming slices, sprays and spreads of pure white. I wish I'd had the chance to try etching at some point in my art education, I'm always drawn to the look of it. 

Anyway, it fired me up a bit, after weeks of feeling deeply mediocre and uninspired, I sat down and drew all day long, listening to Leonard Cohen, Françoise Hardy and The Wedding Present.

Two Turtledoves...

David Icke & Ted Heath

David Icke's fateful meeting with Ted Heath (open in new window for larger view)

Based on a curious quote at the end of this article in The Independent:

"I once had an extraordinary experience with former 

prime minister Ted Heath. Both of his eyes, 

including the whites, turned jet black and I seemed 

to be looking into two black holes."

- David Icke

The Guardian, 2006

Glockenspiel, Ukulele, Fireworks...

Antoine Dreams of Inverted Rockets from Emma Ridgway on Vimeo.

Merz Beach Collage

I've started to play about with creating films and music lately - (in the most amateur sense possible) - but I'm hoping to find a way of combining this with illustration. 

I'm also (with the help of my very talented friend Line Lorna as well as Wendy Froud's amazing tutorial dvds) learning how to make dolls and puppets from polymer clay.

"Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper." - David Lynch

I've been experimenting with collage, watercolour and creating textures with a printing brayer.

Hebe (my cat) has been very ill lately, and became very thin and bony, so we've been nursing him back to (rather rotund) good health with sardines and mackerel.

The Idiot

I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody

I love the immersive feeling of connecting with an artist and their world - when it happens it is the most special thing. I exist coated in their ideas, my eyes see the world alighting on details I wouldn't have found special before. I agree with Alan Moore that writing is a kind of magic, though I think there are a lot of trick magicians out there and very few real sorcerers.

Salinger's stories have so much wit and warmth - he makes it appear so easy. You never feel like you fully get to know his characters - when Buddy Glass tries to describe his dead brother, you get more of an impression of how much his brother meant to him than what his brother was really like. The back-story always feels bigger than the story. Salinger only lets us glimpse parts of it.

Does every generation experience this ache for change?

It might be the biggest ink drawing I've done. I had to photograph it with my phone because my scanner is back in East Anglia and I'm in the (Wild) West Midlands. The next step is going to be to apply watercolours in a loose, very pale wash. Must be careful.

New Empress: The Stewardesses (1969)

An illustration for New Empress's B-Movie special, for an article on the 1969 film The Stewardesses

Sketchbook

I have a tiny A6 sketchbook. It tends to just be full of writing, but sometimes sketches creep in.