well me actually !! and with good reason ...
so prints .....
you know people have asked me if I have a business card ... and when I first started out I used to quite like having them ... they gave me a sense of being ... my name and vocation was on a little card ... and I could introduce myself with just this little piece of card ... and hand them out to just about anyone who wanted them ... but after 10 years ... you print quite a lot of business cards ... I still have left overs from the various sets I have done over the years ... postcard and flyers and posters and hand painted signage ..... when I was last asked ' do you have a business card ' I simply replied ' of course not '
you see with 7 billion assholes in the world and a fair portion of them being self employed .... you probably have about a billion assholes in the world ...all wanting business cards .... a billion assholes ( that's the same amount of people that don't have access to sanitary water ... every year needing reprints and the such ... just as I used to.
all wanting and vying for some version of a percentage off one of the other billion assholes ( the self employed ones ...not the water restricted ones )
a billion assholes ... now I used to do a print set of business cards and postcards every year ... each time with a new image .... to keep the presentation dynamic , and differing .... to show the scope in the latest range of works x a billion assholes all hawking e solutions and plumbing services .... logistics management , and art teachers ..... how many trees do we have left ???
so prints ... yes I did produce a few versions ... in the early days I used to just run them off my dads home printer ...to ensure that my stock lines had a reasonably priced product range ... to squeeze as much cash out of my target demographic as I could .....
later I started to mess around with limited editions and so forth ... with all of the print testings and artists proofs ... a single A 1 image in a limited edition series of 100 ..... when that is delivered ... or comes of the presses .... it surmounts to quite a lot of sheet material ... indeed in a block ... it just looks like wood .... indeed ... exactly what it is !!!
so along my travels I am fortunate enough to come across quite a few other artists .... now most artists would pain to admit it .... that for every 100 prints that you might produce ... say 25 % wont sell .... maybe ever ... and I meet a lot of artists ..... and I see a lot of piles of discontinued ... or unsold prints and I started to do a little calculating ... now even if we had enough materials for housing .... even if we had sufficient housing ... then I would deem this less of an issue .....But I like the woods and the forests and the streams and rivers ... indeed if I am urging to render .... these would be the places I would go to find my solitude and attune my inspiration ... I would meditate on the potential manifestation and consider its intrinsic value , I would think about the people way off back there in civilisation .... my potential customers ( and quite often ... really nearly refuse to return )
So now I do not produce prints at all ..... I will not carry a business card ... especially in this the digital age ... you wanna know who I am ... google it .... better yet ask me ... and make a note because thus far it has been quite the odyssey....
you see the thing that I notice in the weird world of urban creatures we have created , is a common theme .... there is a person out there ... a type of person ... a humble and integral human that when they are asked a question ... they keep there answer short and concise ... and they look you in the eye as they make a claim about the story they took part in .... if the person or story is interesting then the concise short answer will flush out more questions from the interviewer ' you did what ???..... how did that come to pass?? .... where were you when?? ... and of course ... what happened next ?'
then there is the business card guy .... the urban dweller ... the Donald Trump in Training ... these people often don't even need to be asked a question ... they close their eyes and open their mouths ... and quite often recite their own mantras of self importance even if the interviewer has lost interest and gone home ....
but this ... in this modern age of ours has become abundantly clear ....People like Donald Trump need business cards ... they need make America great again slogans and rhetoric ... well advertised ... almost seemingly plausible announcements and advertising ... but like coca cola ... these people are poison .... so that is why I will always side with the underdog ... they tend to be the more interesting aspect !
Coca cola and Donald Trump for president and Rolf Harris Prints from a notable publisher ..... and mountain streams and fresh fruit for life and hand carved loved or loathed ....original articles for art ..... which do we really want to put our faith , our hope , our efforts into ???
so no I am afraid I cannot offer you prints of the works I have suffered to produce .... nor would I want to ... and really wouldn't you rather I leave the woods where they are ... so that we might encounter each other there one day .... and no business cards .. no advertising ... no slogans ... just wondrous and creative humans being , well human I guess x
engage with me on that level .... and should you show an interest in what I am doing ... I will probably respect you a little more ... and want to know a little more about what you are doing ... and what you have done ... and once we have made that wonderful connection ... you will be in a position to say ' I cant afford one of your large originals ... could you do me a print ' ... and I will explain ...probably not quite as much as I have said here that if you want a smaller one .. no problem .... you want one rendered in a slightly less labour intensive way .... and jeez you know what ... I produce these things as diary entries ... I make my own paper ( as paper really reflects the fragility of the medium and I don't need them cast in steel ... or cut from stone ... or mass produced in plastic ... to attempt to offer artificial validity to a body of works ) they cost me nothing but my time ... and they are encapsulating my life experiences they are my diary entries ... and if I see that you desire for ownership out weighs my want to be able to later reflect on that particular creation or occasion ... and I think you might be a nice human ... there is a very good chance that discounts are plausible ( depending on your means ) and if I really like you and I think you are worth my time ... the I might be able to find an old business card here some where .....
