Burst Bubbles (2001)
April 11th, 2009
“So sick n’ tired of people trying to burst our bubbles!!!”, Alert writes at the end of this bubble-style “Raws Alert” piece in Nottingham. Seems my aspirations were violent lime green and he was mainly dreaming of sausages.
Rare occasion when I timed myself painting – the evil bubble-burster character in the middle took me 12 mins.
First SHOK-1 Spraypainting (1985)
April 9th, 2009Although I started in the summer of 1984, all the streets I had done up until this point were with marker pens. Apart from a ton of ugly tags everywhere, I actually used to go out and do big pieces at night fully filled in with marker pen! Dry old Berol Magnum 800’s too with no ink flow at all. It would take forever.
This was the first time I got my hands on spraypaint. My friend got the cans so we ended up doing his design rather than mine after some arguing. It says “Crime”, painted in generic car paints from Halfords.
We started around 1am in the morning if I remember correctly, in the underpass of a park where we used to hang out causing trouble and generally having fun. There was some stress towards the end with a do-gooder who had to be warned off but in general it went well for a first ever attempt.
Although it looks like absolute dogshit now of course, I can’t even begin to explain the absolute excitement I felt at seeing this the next morning. It looked like it was hanging in mid air in front of the wall like a cartoon that had come to life, a filthy illusion. I didn’t own a camera for quite a while but someone took this picture for me.
It was the beginning of a long journey. Here I am at the time of writing – click to view
Revival Pressure SHOK (1995)
April 8th, 2009
Part of a massive canvas myself and some friends did at an event.
I used to like doing these pieces made from different bits – I often had too many ideas I wanted to try out to base a whole piece on one.
Reads – “SHOK”. Jelly style “S” (this will become the organic style a few years later), the “H” is a box of cans tipping out, a gangster apple for the “O” and a straight letter “K” with a crumpled paper background.
Scratch SHOK (2000)
April 7th, 2009
Painted at Scratch club in King’s Cross, central London. Characters spell the letters. Ran out of paint towards the end hence the unfinished microphone etc.
Organic Canvases (2004)
April 5th, 2009An organic letter “S” and a hexagonal abstract. Taken on phone camera hence horrible quality.
Mix N’ Match SHOK (2000)
March 30th, 2009
Canvas, 5 x 10ft.
Cryptic Raw (1997)
March 29th, 2009
This is a painting I made for my brother. It’s a little abstract, I wonder if you can work it out …
SHOKIN’! (1991)
March 28th, 2009
This was a bit of a seminal piece for me. This idea of making one big thing up out of lots of symbols and having a sort of disjointed narrative is the main idea that kept coming up for me over the years and eventually became my organic idea.
They say every artist has one main idea that they have to find and refine, I think this is probably mine. Looking at it now, it’s sort of like a really crude childish Rosenquist or Rauschenburg, not that I’d even heard of them at the time.
Anyway, from left to right: an “S” made from glass balls with characters and symbols in, an “H” made from spraycans and a joint, the “O” is a drunk character, his can of cheap alcohol makes the back of the “K”, then war comes and completes it in the shape of a gun (I’d just got back from Brooklyn), the “I” – peace is king in the form of a pack of rolling papers with a crown for the dot, and lastly an abstract “N” made from lots of smaller ones.
Also in this piece, you can see the light fading effects I developed having studied Scribla TCA’s fills back in the 80’s and my jellies – those are really early precursors of what would become the organic style.
Patchwork SHOK (1995)
March 27th, 2009
A proper Frankenstein’s monster of a piece made out of other pieces chopped up and reassembled.
Mutha’s Pride SHOK (1995)
March 26th, 2009
Freshly sliced bread style “SHOC!” complete with the bread knife. A real mutha for ya, yeah.
