theLost&Found

weekly make #42

2012-01-29T19:53:00.001Z

This week at work I taught the three year olds mono printing - these are my sample prints, I like them a lot:

and then we went to Loughborough for my 30th birthday party, so Heather and I made a Red Velvet cake (the Hummingbird way) which I think is the natural conclusion to the evolution of cakes. Here's ours:

weekly make #41

2012-01-28T12:01:00.000Z

Last week's make:

weekly make #40

2012-01-14T14:50:00.001Z

Another leafy book...

weekly makes #39

2012-01-08T19:25:00.002Z

It's been a busy month or so and while I've been making, I haven't had time to do posting - here's I Walk With Freer Step. I finished it before Christmas and it was for sale at Laura and Lauren's Christmas Arty Party, but nobody bought it, so from the 18th of this month, it will be available to buy from Construction Gallery in Tooting...

weekly make #38

2011-11-20T17:39:00.001Z

I made an adjustment to an existing picture:

I also made progress on my new book, I Walk With Freer Step, and, among other things, a new picture:

The Mistletoe Bough

2011-11-20T13:57:00.001Z

Whilst scouring old books for words to collage recently, I stumbled across a great story. G. M. Valois, in Antiques and Curious in our Homes, was regaling his readers with some scintillating facts and figures about bridal coffers and wood worm when he recounts the story of the Mistletoe Bough:

It all fits on one long page because I photoshopped two pages together; rest assured the content remains exactly as printed in the book. I like Vallois' telling of the story a lot, but then I just looked it up on Wikipedia and that spoiled it. So, don't do that!

weekly make #37

2011-11-09T06:37:00.003Z

After what is fast becoming a fairly typical day at work:

weekly makes #s 35 & 36

2011-11-06T17:34:00.000Z

So I didn't post anything last week because I spent ages trying to assemble the preface for my new book I Walk With Freer Step and couldn't get it right. After another week it still isn't finished but it's getting there:

In the process I came across enough good words to assemble a new diagram poem, this one inspired by the evangelists that haunt Tooting Broadway underground station on Saturday afternoons:

That's one good looking theological knee jerk!

weekly make #34

2011-10-23T14:44:00.000+01:00

I was just out shopping in Tooting when I noticed one t-shirt on a rack of many which read: BODY OF A GOD, SHAME IT'S BUDDHA
It worried me.

Anyway here's another "theological" diagram:

I'm going to hold back from calling this one a poem, I think it's more like a map, maybe because I've been reading the Selected Works of T.S.Spivet, a novel with supplimentary diagrams by Reif Larsen, this week and it's made me have new thoughts about diagrams as maps.

weekly make #33

2011-10-16T12:35:00.000+01:00

Finally, a recording of "First Song" by the Death of Me, it's on myspace, not here... HERE

weekly make #32

2011-10-09T16:49:00.000+01:00

weekly make #31

2011-10-02T18:12:00.003+01:00

This week I have made slow progress with illustrations for my next book "I walk with freer step", here's a shoddy photograph of one of them:

weekly make #30

2011-09-25T18:06:00.004+01:00

This week I have been taking advantage of a one week unemployment break to knuckle down on the Quartershade Warning Lights video. I made the following 2 seconds yesterday:

Also, I finally got some video footage of Heather and I performing the song we wrote for our wedding at a mini festival so I made it nice (as far as possible) for YouTube, here is that too:

weekly make #29

2011-09-18T16:55:00.004+01:00

This week I have been catching up on things that take longer than a week to make like this book that I started about three years ago(!):and my animated music video for Quartershade's Warning Lights single. Here's a screen shot of the scene currently in production:

weekly make #28

2011-09-11T16:32:00.002+01:00

weekly make #27

2011-09-04T17:22:00.002+01:00

Dabbling in other genres of diagrams:

weekly make #26

2011-08-28T17:29:00.002+01:00

No.s 6 and 640:I gave them to my best man and his wife for their house.

weekly make #25

2011-08-14T12:19:00.002+01:00

So, I missed five weeks of weekly makes due to the mayhem of planning a wedding, getting married, going on honeymoon, moving house and still having furniture to buy and boxes to unpack... Here's a leafy picture for your delectation though:I'd be lying if I pretend I made it this week, I made it a few weeks ago. It was a rejected wedding invitation design that resurfaced and was amended and framed to become a piece of wedding party decoration art work.

weekly make #24

2011-07-02T07:35:00.003+01:00

The last two weeks have beentaken up with house hunting, paper work and packing, so I've had little time for making. Having not posted anything last week, here's two weeks worth in one image. It's a triptych called THE PURSUIT OF LOVE:I am moving house today and my not have the internet now for a week or two, but then I'm getting married after that and going away so my weekly makes may not be quite so weekly. Bye for now!

weekly make #23

2011-06-12T16:34:00.005+01:00

This week:
I made little progress in the search for a home
I made myself very tired trying to do to much
I made journeys and dinner
I made most of a new song
I made progress on my next book

But none of these can be shown to anybody because they don't actually exist. I also made 3 seconds of animation for Quartershade's Lights Out music video:

Not the most productive week!

weekly make #22

2011-06-05T20:31:00.004+01:00

I'm working on a book of diagram poems made exclusively out of words from Brian Behan's literary travesty Time to Go. All of the poems are on post it notes. Here's the yellow ones:Y'all can see the rest when you buy the book, when it's finished. In the meantime I'm writing a couple of new songs, having ideas for comics that I haven't the time to draw and generally trying to work out how to make all this into a career.

weekly make #21

2011-05-28T15:07:00.002+01:00

A musical make this week. I've been working on this song for a while and it finally feels near completion - only near though, not quite complete yet. It's got to the point though where it can't go any further until it's been tested in public. So, with no gigs lined up youtube must suffice:

weekly make #20

2011-05-22T16:38:00.005+01:00

You may remember, or you may not, that in February I mentioned I was working on a new collection of diagram poems. Well I finished it and printed and "bound" it in the form of an A7 four-fold pamphlet book or one of these:They're £2 (1.50p + 50p p&p) from folksy, and some are printed on recycled white sugar paper, others on recycled white cartridge paper.

weekly make #19

2011-05-15T13:01:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Brian Behan (see #17), an "earthy" diptych:There shan't be many more like this - I put the book in the recycling!

weekly make #18

2011-05-08T18:41:00.004+01:00

It's been a busy week and I've made a few different things but I don't know what counts as a "weekly make" and what doesn't...
I made spin paintings with the 2 year olds at work:and I've been making bunting with Heather, here's some from a couple of weeks ago:
And here's another adapted wedding invite design:

weekly make #17

2011-05-01T13:29:00.004+01:00

I bought some old books from charity shops to cut out words for diagram poems. One of which was Time to Go, a deplorable novel by Brian Behan which seems to be a badly written account of murder, affairs and general misogyny. Think Bukowski without any of the skill, beauty, clever turns of phrase... it's terrible, from what I can tell from skim reading it to pick out the good words. The only words that stood out during skim reading were not suitable for the sort of diagram poems I have been, and was planning to make. They are only really suitable for "earthier" poems. So I decided to make some... I made a great one as a present, so I can't post it yet because I haven't given it yet, but I can reveal this little gem:I also made the little book below. I was cutting out eyes and mouths again for work and found some interesting products and services on offer in the classifieds, mostly ridiculous and unecessary, and I wondered, who even wants any of these? So I mis-collated some:

If anybody wants it, I'll put it on folksy for a fiver. Which, by the way, is a bargain as it took me a lot longer than 20 minutes to make!

fun at work

2011-04-29T13:33:00.006+01:00

At work I have to choose an artist of the month, each month, on whom to base most of my lessons. Last month it was Jon Pylypchuk, here's what we got:

Pylypchuk's Now How Will We Get Around?:(Of course I didn't show the children this particular sculpture, it's inappropriate)

My example:
The 3 year olds':

weekly make #16

2011-04-26T07:16:00.003+01:00

Amongst other things:

weekly make #15

2011-04-17T17:48:00.005+01:00

This week I have been working on a small animated film to go on our wedding web-site. It's sound track is a lesser known hymn we are planning to have at the wedding, so hopefully every body will be able to sing along on the day. Here it is:

weekly make #14

2011-04-10T18:07:00.006+01:00

1: I made a sad discovery. Between the people that come up with ideas and those that actually make products, there was no-one in Sainsbury's chain of command who flagged up Easter crackers as a bad idea...

2: I made a triptych out of wedding invites designs that we decided not to use, adapted with the addition of some cut-out words. Like this:

weekly make #13

2011-04-02T13:38:00.004+01:00

This week I have spent a lot of time turning a story and pictures by the children I work with into a proper story book. It begins like this:and ends like this:In the meantime I have also been working on leaf and diagram poems, for books and for wall display. Also, I was cutting out eyes from a magazine at work for the two year olds to make collages with and Aggie thought the remaining faces looked creepy so I made a special picture just for her, like this:

weekly make #12

2011-03-27T21:32:00.003+01:00

Over a year ago now, I started this comic, the first page was embarrassing, it went like this:It was the first half of what was supposed to be a one page introduction to another comic that I'm struggling to make headway with. I don't know if these are things I should be admitting... Anyway, I was not particularly happy with this half way point so the remainder went unfinished, until this week. So here it is, continuity errors and all:

weekly make #11

2011-03-20T16:30:00.002Z

This is one that I actually drew about this time last year. But it's just been lying in my sketch book - I took a photo of it for a previous blog but never had a chance to properly clean it up and make it look nice. So that's this week's make - making an old thing presentable, here:

weekly make #10

2011-03-12T11:45:00.002Z

It's pretty self explanatory...

weekly make #9

2011-03-05T10:15:00.006Z

Rebecca Dyer made an awesome run of Being and Tim 2011 Diaries, I got one for my birthday. Heather was jealous, so I made her a diary for her birthday, this one has diagram poems in it, look, see:
In the process I made a bunch of extra diagram poems. I like this one:

weekly make #8

2011-02-27T20:44:00.003Z

It's fairly self explanatory this one:

weekly make #7

2011-02-19T13:19:00.003Z

It says "Breakfast was an agony"

weekly make #6

2011-02-12T12:43:00.003Z

I've been going on with the diagram poems. This one's on A2 paper and available to buy, framed, price on request (e-mail mxtthxw AT yahoo.co.uk)The words are:

heaven and earth
two people
a strange feeling
the divine image
inspiration
excitement
Hard and soft
the deed of partnership
frenzy of delight
a little embarrassing
Bleeding
personal emotions
joy, faith, love

weekly make #5 (and #4)

2011-02-02T21:58:00.006Z

What with being quite ill last week and going for a short holiday in Paris and having my birthday, I didn't make anything! So this week I'm going to post two things, although they're quite similar... I am working on a new volume of diagram poems - the first make is one of this volume. The second make is another diagram poem that is not for inclusion in the new volume. So here they are:

If you like them you can wait and buy the new volume, which will cost around £3 most likely and include a colour illustration as well as the pie charts. It'll be available shortly from my folksy shop. The other one is an original made in a very limited edition of one and also for sale - e-mail me (mxtthxw AT yahoo.co.uk) and let me know if you want it framed or not and I'll give you a price and my paypal details; that feels simplest!

weekly make #3

2011-01-21T18:31:00.003Z

Three weeks in and still going strong... YEsss!

This week I have a made an animation that goes with a song I recorded after a night out in 2004. I recorded it lying on my bedroom floor very quietly at 2am. The animation is a series of drawings by one of the 3 year olds I teach. She was doing monoprinting with chalk and trying to print a picture of a man, she didn't press hard enough to transfer the image, but she drew some great people, so I scanned them and made them dance to my song. Vivre la musique pop!

money tree

2011-01-15T13:49:00.004Z

My mum had this old money tree. It was dying when we went to stay at Christmas but it had three buds on the top so I watered it. She said I could have it if I wanted it. I took it home and put it in a bigger pot and low and behold a few weeks later... A flower!

weekly make #2

2011-01-14T07:16:00.002Z

This week I have been trying to get back into making diagram poems and leaf works but the tax man has used up a lot of valuable making time. I did get a bit of making done though, I did this:

Weekly Make #1

2011-01-05T23:16:00.004Z

So the story goes that last Christmas (not the one just gone, the previous one) my parents gave me a ukulele. I started learning songs and decided I would post a new ukulele video to YouTube every week. After a couple of weeks my proficiency hadn't particularly developed and I could only really play two songs so the project became one of generic "Weekly Makes", which meant I could do pretty much anything that could be deemed creative and not have to worry about my ukinadequacy. These "Makes" remained predominantly musical and after 14 weeks I decided they were a bit clichéd and gave up. Since then a couple of people have asked about the project and mourned the disappearance of some of my better videos from the internet. I have also decided that I need to spend more time making things. So, my new years resolution for 2011 is to try again to make a new thing every week. Hopefully I'll at least get past 14... Anyway, here's the first:

It was better last year!

A Tumble

2010-12-13T21:52:00.004Z

I have been poorly today. It's been sneaking up on me for a while and today it got me. When I am poorly I am clumsy. I was putting down the blind to go to bed and accidentally knocked Dnendna off the window sill where he'd been sunning himself. I didn't even think about it because he doesn't usually live their. Here is a photo of his little body lying atop the little mound of sand and soil that used to be his home:

I've re-potted him and put him back where he belongs on the kitchen table with a little water. Incidentally, the missing leaves are due, I think, to it being winter; he's lost all but one in the last couple of weeks. We'll just have to wait and see now if he can make it through the winter!

Why I am an Artist

2010-11-21T18:58:00.004Z

I saw Jason Anderson performing in Nottingham, probably in 2006 but I can't remember, anyway, it was the most inspiring concert ever and the epitome of good art. Jason Anderson's words and delivery and reasons for singing what he sings were pivotal in my understanding of why I make what I make and why it's worth it. Here's a video of one of his songs, the Hospital:

the death of me live

2010-10-18T07:36:00.002+01:00

come. bring your friends. show the flyer to people who you think might be interested. see you there.

Idea For a Sculpture I Will Never Make

2010-10-06T20:08:00.003+01:00

After This All is Past. cotton wool, nylon; never

Be sure to come an see my new animation After This All Has Passed in Sisyphus: the Absurd Hero at Core Gallery, Deptford, 21st - 30th October 2010

Quickie

2010-08-20T13:35:00.006+01:00

Here's a quick botanical update before I head off on holiday for a week and a half. To Wensleydale, and then to Greenbelt. I've been meaning to go to Greenbelt since I was 16, 12 years on I finally have a ticket... YESSS!

Anyway, here's an enormous, flowery Coleus:

And here is an ever-more-impressive looking Dnendna (the Pachypodium Densiflorum that I planted at the same time as the Coleus):

I don't know what the guy in the background is, I grew it from a cutting stolen from a dying plant at work a few weeks ago... Any ideas?

everyday friction

2010-08-18T19:09:00.006+01:00

In May, I performed with Heather Jones in a durational piece at the monthly live art showcase ArtEvict:Check it out on her blog

She's got some writing about it there, but this is what it made me think:

"Heather's box performance asks us to examine where one person ends and another begins. For those in the know, the performers' relationship brings this question into the romantic realm of intimacy. But it speaks to a much wider audience. The initial questions of "whose finger" start us on a course of inquiry that encompasses not only the spatial existence of two people and thus the physical boundaries of which we are so aware, but the metaphysical also; boundaries formed by emotion, personality, convention, expectations, all come under scrutiny. The question of who I am divided from or choosing to be-at-odds with or to cooperate with, and in what way? Pertains not only to my existence in space and time with one other, but the existence of all of us simultaneously in one world. To maintain the illusion of an impossible single entity in the box, the performers' movements need to be steady and coordinated, flowing round each other like a dance. We are in this together, we cannot afford to be-at-odds with each other."

I wrote this in my notebook on the day of the performance. Thinking about this today in the light of social justice and anti-capitalism issues (I recently watched the first Yes Men film) I wonder: Are we all in the same box?

I've also been reading Undergoing God by James Alison and he has a lot to say about the need to not view yourself as worthy or good or valuable or powerful over-against an "evil" other who is none of these things according to your system of goodness. I won't go into that now, you'll have to read it yourself. Anyway, what it got me thinking about, and this relates to the box, was the way we relate to each other everyday. For instance, I'm waiting to get on a tube, and I'm in the front of the cluster by the door and as I wait to let passengers off the train some guy barges past me and takes the last seat - I'm annoyed, but only because his selfishness has trumped my own. A similar annoyance overtook me in a local independent supermarket the other day when a lady barged past me and again when I got stuck behind a pushchair clogging the narrow aisles (this supermarket is not for wheel chair users). The problem was, of course, not really that these people hindered my ability to go about my business, but that my attitude to them was of resentment because I felt they had hindered my going about my business. The truth is, we were all going about the same business together, and here I must return to the dance analogy above, as I realised that this is not just about running errands and traveling home on the underground, it's about far larger social structures and boundaries between people that cause friction because we refuse to compromise or cooperate, seeking first our own way - but I wonder if we shouldn't be aiming at one single, graceful, flowing world wide... dance... eurgh my god that's a horrible thing to write. It could look like corporations co-operating with manufacturers for the benefit of humanity, rather than corporations exploiting manufacturers for the good of their own bank accounts. Something like that. Anyway, I think we probably are all in the same box, in a way, and humanity will struggle to advance if we remain in our current state of being-at-odds with each other and refusing to cooperate. I for one would like to be less greedy and selfish, and easier going in situations of everyday friction. So that's that.

Here's a new video, for an old song, using old footage that was meant to be for this video but never got made until now, and I think it might be bad, but it might make up for the previous rant:

Let there be light boxes

2010-08-05T13:59:00.005+01:00

I was commissioned to make these:

you can commission me too: mxtthxw@yahoo.co.uk bleaurgh!

Also, have you seen the new theLost&Found shop at folksy.com? Check it out...

quick update

2010-08-03T06:35:00.004+01:00

I have to go to work today, I got up at 5:45 to make sure I get there on time. Now I have a few minutes to kill before I go - just enough time to post a picture of Dnendna, my pachypodium seedling; he's doing really well, look:

More beauty

2010-08-02T11:26:00.004+01:00

I keep coming across things of beauty today, like this 1895 sculpture by William Story, over the grave of his wife Emelyn Story. It was the last thing William Story made.

I got the image and the Story story from this here blog: Pétanque et Pastis whilst researching Egyptian architecture for another lesson plan... just so you know.

A new discovery

2010-08-02T09:46:00.004+01:00

I'm trying to do a lesson plan for a nursery school art class, teaching self-portraiture to 2 - 3 year olds! Of course, the point isn't that they grasp the theoretical side, but that through self portraiture they can learn about displaying emotions with your face. So the first task is to ask them what they think the person in the picture is feeling - pictures taken from the work of 3 or 4 artists since the rennaisence - but a quick google image search reveals that the primary emotions displayed by sitters for portraits, or artists in self portraits are ambiguous nonchalance, ambivalence or boredom. In a desperate bid to find something useful I typed "self portrait crying" into google and got photos that upset girls had posted on their flickr accounts and morbid, photoshopped drawings by depressed goths posted to deviant art. I tried "self portrait smiling" and was greeted by this lady:

Her name is Zinaida Serebriakova (b.1884 d.1967) and she's a Ukrainian artist, who drew some pretty nice pictures with oil paint and pastels, like the self-portrait above, or this one here:

Right now I can't get enough of them! I'd wax lyrical about them... but I hate when people do that so I won't; just enjoy the pictures and make up your own pretentious spiel!
By the way, I found her at a blog called Hoo Hoo House

Zine Stall tomorrow: featuring NEW MATTHEW JAMES KAY HAND MADE BOOKS ART, or (art) maybe...

2010-07-30T22:24:00.009+01:00

I thought I'd post some photo's of the "stock" I have to shift at the compARTment artist and makers market in Brighton tomorrow, although it's pretty much the eleventh hour now... anyway, my friend Becca is organising a 'zine stall, she beat me at posting a stock photo too. Anyway, here's the inventory:
I am not Obsessive:

Please Print Clearly, Things I Did or Didn't Do, and Diagram Poems:
[no title] and an untitled diagram love poem with leaves:
altogether that ammounts to...:
...a lot of books. All hand made using my kick ass craft skills yeah.

Oh and also I will be singing some songs at some point during the day (the Death of Me myspace)

Some of these books are also available to purchase from theLost&Found shop at folksy.com!

Coming Soon!

2010-07-27T18:30:00.001+01:00

A sculpture by me will be included in this exhibition at the Core Gallery in Deptford:

Keep in touch, and I'll keep you up to date...

the most knitting

2010-07-18T00:30:00.001+01:00

Pigeons are twats!

2010-07-07T18:42:00.007+01:00

I put a Coleus out on the windowsill as I have a lot of them and they're taking up too much table space. Unfortunately though, we have a pigeon problem, and the little twats pecked at the plant's leaves:So I've had to bring it inside for now, we'll see how it gets on.

Incidentally the polythene bags tot he left are the pre-natal home of my Aloe Polyphyllas, they've been sitting around for over a week now without sprouting, but apparently they're mysterious and you're supposed to never give up on them so...

In other news; LOOK AT HIM GO:

one down

2010-07-01T08:49:00.010+01:00

So, that's it, shows over and I remove my work from the gallery this weekend, but I realise I've not posted any photos of it on-line yet! Here's the prliminaries, there will be more on my web-site shortly...

The exhibition handout (co-written with Heather Jones) had this to say:

In Not Holding the String, Matthew James Kay collects together a number of new objects for thought; sculptures, drawings and animations inspired by mistake-making, grace, doubt and faith in everyday life, which work together to talk about fear, expectations, uncertainty and hope.

The works on show all appear to be on a collective downer. A little gold tree full of dead bees (Here we Come!) is a monument to finality, standing unmonumentally on a fruit crate – “it happens” say the arrived. The newest piece in the show is an animation of what looks like a man on a tight rope. Balancing for eternity, not moving forward but not falling off, Frighteningly Close to Your Open Arms speaks of hope unaccepted. Drawn from the perspective of looking down at one’s own feet it could say something along the lines of “walk, you are closer than you think.”

In Stand Still a Moment the protagonists stand face to face, or front to back, one shining her light into the other’s ‘head’ to reveal what appears to be a map of labyrinthine tunnels. Similar maps, numbered variations of Negotiating the Tangle, are hung on the walls standing in as cryptic keys to understanding the work. Inspired by the experience of being lost in an underground station, these drawings depict the external appearance of stations as imagined from inside. This can be a metaphor for the whole of life, the process of negotiating the tangle – there’s never any real enlightenment, just doubt-hampered hunches and faith.

The artworks in Not Holding the String stand as markers in the artist’s ongoing exploration of the domestic adventure as a place of frustration. They inhabit a transient place where personal and circumstantial transformations occur in wrestling with the desire for real adventure, balancing our need for contentment and joy with the reality of dissatisfaction and doubt.

That said, my favourite part of the exhibition is in fact... my home-made cable clips:

Soldiering on

2010-06-23T14:10:00.003+01:00

Dnendna is soldiering on impressively and now has two new leaves, I'm excited to see what he's gonna do next. Sadly his siblings all got destroyed by mold, but this week was time to take the Aloe Polyphylla outa the fridge so he may still get some companions yet. The pot behind has an Aloe seed in it. And behind that is one of my self-portraits-as-a-lion. I've been painting them for years, but recently took a hiatus cuz things got too busy. I'll be picking the project up again soon though so watch this space, [or this one]. Anyway, here, look at Dnendna and friends:

Also, check out my super-cool, Marigolds. My friend Becca gave them to me when they were only wee:
Talking of soldiering on, check this out:

World Cup Crazy

2010-06-22T08:29:00.007+01:00

The other week I was in Brighton setting up my exhibition and I saw the following headline out on the street:

Wow! I thought, of all the places for an epidemic of World Cup Craziness to break out, I would not have predicted Sussex. I documented the craziness around us:

Oh look, there's Heather:

Ah man, check out the craziness, the Argus was right! I am sooo glad to be out of Sussex for the rest of the tournament, I don't think I could have hacked all that mayhem... Unfortunately I live in Wimbledon - shit!

Club Not So Fabulous

2010-06-17T19:51:00.010+01:00

I chatted to the Club Fabulous promoter during sound check last night, asked about the event did it get much of a crowd... etc? He said that if the bands all brought plenty of people it got pretty full but if they only brought one or two it was pretty empty. I was immediately suspicious; he said he'd been running the night in Camden Rock since last November (2009) so it seemed strange that he didn't yet have a regular audience.

Well, the first four bands played and their friends generally left about one drink after each band finished, but the bands themselves all stuck around, which we were pleased about. Until we got onstage to plug our instruments in. They then busied themselves clearing their gear off the stage for us and promptly left. Four bands at once! Which left Marc and I onstage in front of our girlfriends, pat and his girlfriend, the sound guy, the bar man and three men who were having a conversation at the bar but not paying any attention. So much for the 25 EPs I brought along to give out, nevermind, we still have them for next time...

Anyway, realising that we weren't going to get paid for this one or re-booked whatever happened (we had to bring 15 people with us for those privileges - which is like trying to succeed at Farm Town without pissing off your friends), we decided to have some fun. Our banter was resolutely sarcastic, particularly when I found myself promoting our myspace page to room full of already "friends". Marc did actions to Evangelical Boy, made lion noises in I Can't Save You From Robots, and sang back-up in All The Same Mistakes. It was pointless but great fun - particularly when a crowd of teenagers walked in half way through our last song, we played a couple of extras, especially for them and they danced.

This is the closer - Cedars of Lebanon:

The lessons learned:

never play last, particularly at a mid-week gig, and especially if it's not followed by a club-night to retain punters
never play gigs for promoters that don't do any promotion
research the reputation of a night and promoter before agreeing to play
network with the other bands, even if you didn't like what they played, they're more likely to stick around if you show you're interested in them as musicians and can say something enthusiastic about their songs

And here's some photos of the whole debacle, taken by Heather Jones but cropped and adjusted by me because, as you can see, we were mostly unlit - notice the patch of bright light at the back of the stage pointing to where the drummer's left knee would be; very important to light the drummer's knees well!

the Death of Me

2010-06-16T12:57:00.005+01:00

So, we're playing a gig in Camden tonight, at "Camden Rock". Should be good, it's the first outing for the new line-up of matthew james kay on mouth & guitar and Marc B (threadbear/TMTWNBBFN) on bass & 2nd mouth:

Come down and drink, dance, sing-along, get off with strangers, pick up a free the Death of Me EP, whatever... you know!?

For the uninitiated among you, it goes like this:

See y'all there!

Dnendna

2010-06-14T19:14:00.005+01:00

I spent the last week or so in Brighton setting up my exhibition at a&e Gallery. When I got home I was half expecting Dnendna to have grown into a substantial baby tree, or at least for his brothers to have sprouted... No such luck, although Dnendna does have this little spike thing on top which I think may be new leaves growing:

Exciting huh!

Oh, and the little guy in the back is a well-meaning Coleus. I have a bout ten of them and no idea what I'm gonna do with them all!

botany 1 0... er... 2

2010-06-04T13:27:00.005+01:00

On the advice of the guy that sold me my Pachypodium seeds I have removed the seedling from it's polythene bag and am instructed to treat it as a cactus henceforth. As a beginner botanist, I have only a vague notion of what this means: don't water over winter, water in summer but wait until the soil is dry between showers. So that's what I'm doing, it's soil was dry when I took it out, partly due to that fleshy little succulent trunk...:

...so I gave it a little shower. My housemates said I should name it, so now it's called Dnendna. I was reserving that name for my first cat, but, momentous occasion that this was, it felt right to give it to the Pachypodium baby.

In other news, work for my exhibition is almost finished and I am preparing to go and install it next week:

I've been drawing underground stations this week for a new series of works called Negotiating the Tangle the beginnings of which will be on show at a&e, along with sculptures old and new and a couple of animations on nice old tellies. Flat screen is such a commodity!

botany 101

2010-05-30T15:11:00.008+01:00

So, I was supposed to write this a week ago, that way the story was gonna progress gradually and be an exciting, adrenaline filled, botanical adventure. But I didn't and the first significant event in the story has already happened. It's annoying but the excitement over rules that! So here's 2 installments:

1 - Sunday 23rd May 2010

I have planted 11 Pachypodium Densiflorum seeds. I'm apprehensive as the literature states that they must be kept at temperatures exceeding 25ºc in order to germinate. Never-the-less I have planted them in pots of sand (that I nicked from the park over the road) mixed with cactus compost, and sealed them in polythene bags by the kitchen window... like this:The plan is that the polythene bags will create a greenhouse effect and store heat so that they stay hot even when it gets cooler in the kitchen. To help them on their way, I will also provide them with a hot-water bottle on cold evenings because I can't afford a heat mat.

2 - Sunday 30th May 2010

After a week of keeping the kitchen window and door closed as much as possible, warm hot-water bottles and endless checking upon I have one pachypodium seedling:I'm hoping that more will appear this week. And of course, I will keep you, the rest of the world, posted.

the new sculptures sneek preview

2010-05-18T18:31:00.004+01:00

here we come*

i didn't want to be the one left holding the string*

*all titles subject to change

not holding the string

2010-05-18T11:18:00.005+01:00

e
I've been invited to exhibit at a&e Gallery in Brighton next month. So on top of all the other stuff that I don't have time to do, I am making a whole bunch of new work - let's see what happens! come on down if you're free... the press release says this:

At a&e Gallery matthew james kay's sculptures, drawings and animations come together to compose this exhibition inspired by occurrences of mistake-making, grace, doubt and faith in everyday life. Employing the stuff of common experience, the artist documents his experience of being human, a quest for the mysterious lurking in the mundane.

Steering clear of definite meanings and prescriptive individual interpretations, Kay's work invites the viewer into a dialogue with the exhibition as a whole. Kay's assemblages are reconfigured items of the artist's own domestic life, left over paint from decorating, a ripped innertube, the bees that mysteriously appear (dead) in the living room each spring, a shoe rack there just wasn't space for, an ill-kept bonsai, tokens of affection. This ephemera/detritus comes together to create new objects for thought- disused props that take up the role of protagonists in new narratives.

The artworks in Not Holding the String stand as markers in the artist's ongoing exploration of the domestic adventure as a place of frustration and a process of becoming. The works inhabit a transient place where personal and circumstantial transformations occur in wrestling with the desire for real adventure, balancing our need for contentment and joy with the reality of dissatisfaction and doubt.

The exhibition is open to the public 12 - 27 June 2010 Friday to Sunday 1-5pm. The gallery is located at 38 Cheltenham Place, Brighton, BN1 4AB [view map]

All the details are also at matthewjameskay.com with a whole bunch more stuff, you know... alright.

Warning Lights In Part

2010-04-10T16:46:00.010+01:00

This week I have (liberally speaking) made a whole bunch of stuff: The last thing I made this week was a journey, just from Harlesden to Wimbledon having been to see Love Ends Disaster! in Kilburn last night with Heather and Marc B. and Dr. Pain. The journey was uneventful but LED were good. Earlier this morning though, I made a discovery... I was at a house that Heather is house-sitting - or more accurately cat-sitting in - and found a money plant or Crassula ovata (also known as a jade plant apparently)that had not been watered for a very long time, so dry was the soil that it had shrunk away from the sides of the pot and failed to hold the plant upright anymore. I took it to the kitchen for a good soak and discovered on route that it had started putting out roots from all over the place - it would appear that if the plant is left in dry soil it doesn't just give up and die but uses the energy conserved in its fleshy leaves to seek out water - how cool is that! Look, here's a photo of it:
Also...
I have spent the last couple of days soldiering on with the music video for Quartershade's Warning Lights single. Here's the sequence I've been working on:

And now I'm feeling dissatisfied with the layout of my bedroom and am planning what adjustments I will make... I'll keep you posted... as if you care!

Exhibitionism

2010-04-06T16:46:00.009+01:00

After a frustrating and discouraging period of nothingness, I suddenly got two opportunities thrown my way at once: 1 To exhibit a sculpture in [Details On Request]'s Launch exhibition and 2 To sing my songs at Laura & Lauren's April Fools Arty Party.

What it all looked like:
1 "Zion is a sculpture, partly made by Matthew James Kay and partly made by the contribution of nature. The cardboard mountain is left to deteriorate and change by the elements as Kay gives up control over the sculpture to the environment and lets the work take its own course." Amber Ablett 2010

Laura and Lauren's Arty Party

Photography by Lee Gentry

On My Knees Under God

2010-03-12T20:48:00.006Z

The other day I watched Darwin Deez singing his glorious little pop songs and unfortunately stayed to watch Little Comets sing their drivel! I also went to see the Céleste Boursier-Mougenot exhibition at the barbican, and it's brilliant. I'm not sure I agree with all the "these birds can rock" sensationalism, but they certainly do make a very enjoyable noise/installation. In between times I got round to making my first all new artwork since uni finished. I drew the following 166 pictures (here repeated a few times to make 996 pictures):

I was watching it back once I'd finished and listening to music at the same time and thought it went very nicely with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by Flaming Lips and also with City of Glass/Cowboys by Love Ends Disaster!. Oh, and the title is a line from my song All the Same Mistakes. Phew, all done!

oh.. of course

2010-03-01T15:50:00.005Z

I now have another blog, this one a portfolio of illustration work that doesn't fit on my artist web-site.

The blog is here:

Small Film #6 @ Tra'La

2010-02-22T19:24:00.009Z

I spent the last week editting together this little animation - I say little, although it actually has no beginning or end, it just repeats to infinity so that's pretty big - and then I helped to set up the exhibition it went in: TRA'LA Presents; "Dead Time and Negative Space."

Here's what the show looked like, (a bit):

Mine's the telly, the eggs belong to Mike Barrett, the little Incubator is Rachael Allen's

and the mirrors, modeled here by Heather and Dave, are interactive sculpture by Eleanor Shipman. You can read a review of the exhibition on the TRA'LA blog too, here: clickety-click!

All The Same Mistakes

2010-01-23T12:33:00.004Z

Today I am uploading something never previously available on the internet (AAArrrrggghhh WWOOOOOOO!) A recording of a song I finished writing about a year a go, that I've played at a bunch of gigs but never actually got round to recording it at all, but here it is for your listening and viewing pleasure, and I sincerely hope that you find it pleasurable!

Waving at You

2010-01-18T11:16:00.004Z

So, to get to grips with my new ukulele, I have been learning other people's songs, this time Waving at You by the Mountain Goats. It felt like an appropriate song to sing so I sung it. I must say right now that I think the Mountain Goats are probably the most influential artist in my life over the past few years and the way that their/his music has comforted, inspired, challenged and counseled me has in large part defined my own approach to and beliefs surrounding the role of art making. Shunning creation as a culmination of academic research and the art object as a cypher for an already cryptic theoretical study, I have come to understand the work of art as a means of sharing experience that we might help each other learn and grow and bear up under the weight of life. So, thanks John! Anyway, here's the video:

the devil's on the run

2010-01-04T11:10:00.007Z

theLost&Found started off life as a budget free gallery with a strong DIY ethic; the strongest in the world, some people said. Opening in an outhouse at my erstwhile home in Loughborough, the gallery evolved into a nomadic curatorial practice inhabiting studios, outhouses, churches, anywhere that would allow me to exhibit other people's work. Following the recent economic downturn and a hectic schedule, theLost&Found has become an online gallery of the things that I make. I had a few blogs on the go with the intention of uploading a weekly comic strip, a weekly music video, a weekly review of everyday life, a weekly critique of someone else's artwork. But the sheer volume of work that would require alongside a full time job and commissioned art projects and exhibitions has led me to scale down these seperate projects and condense them into one blog of generally creative stuff that doesn't fit on my portfolio web-site.

So with the introduction out of the way, here is the first entry: I write and perform music as one-man-band the Death of Me and having received a ukulele for Christmas I learnt to play a couple of other people's songs just to get used to wiggling my fingers in a new way.