Mx.D.P
XD artist, writer, and digital curator.
Their work: Climate Chaos Cruise App, KindPinkNet, and The Abstracted Materialism Manifesto, reflects a commitment to building creative, resilient communities that can withstand geo-political climate chaos.
To envision: an inclusive society founded on creative kindness using the universal language of art.
Category: reflection
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Rhagymadrodd – Beth yw’r Celfyddydau Digidol Mae’r celfyddydau digidol yn cwmpasu amrywiaeth o ddisgyblaethau sy’n defnyddio technolegau digidol i greu, trin a chyflwyno gweithiau artistig. Dyma drosolwg ehangach o brif arferion y celfyddydau digidol, gan gynnwys technolegau a llwyfannau sy’n dod i’r amlwg: Paentio Digidol Gan ddefnyddio meddalwedd ac offer digidol megis tabledi a stylusau,…
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Introduction – What is Digital Arts Digital arts encompass diverse disciplines that leverage digital technologies to create, manipulate, and present artistic works. Here’s an expanded overview of key digital arts practices, including emerging technologies and platforms: Digital PaintingUsing software and digital tools such as tablets and styluses, artists create paintings that mimic or extend traditional…
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I’m currently taking a six-month course at NODE in Berlin. It’s online and practice-based… I’m trying to hone the digital aspects of the global creative network… The PhD proposal is in. I’ve painted a collaboration piece, I’d like to do more of that… I’m planning an Art trip to Scotland and Northern Ireland. In August…
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Is that you Mx. D.P. ??? …well it is and it isn’t, its all of us…
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Using Autoethnographic Abstracted Materialism, 2050:2100 weaponises art and collaboration to resist the void and establish a network of Creative Kindness. My work is driven by the impending Geopolitical Climate chaos of biome degradation, resource scarcity, mass migration and societal collapse. Using up precious resources, I asked A.I. when the Earth would become uninhabitable: ‘Predicting an…
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Well I never did find my sundress, but I did find a roll of red felt and thousands of rhinestones so the costume is coming along a treat! Rhinestones, have become a staple in the worlds of fashion, costume design, and decorative arts. Yet, behind the sparkle lies a set of environmental concerns that no…
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I can’t find my sundress, I have a feeling it was already donated to charity long ago. For me it represented gender dysphoria and the worlds growing clothes mountain. What am I to make my dick and boobs out of? What I did find buried in my studio instead was some tribal belly dancing costumes…
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My art practice is THE NETWORK… The following 3 points summarise the three learning outcomes of my MA. I’ve been enabled to take a long hard conceptual look at the last 2 years… …the rest is all storytelling… 1. Realisation Over the course of my MA journey, I have developed a body of work that…
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I have thought of my problem of ‘Earth Saving’, in terms of ‘Game Theory’. The Players: Collective humanity and the heteronormative power structures making decisions in the game. The Strategies: The options available to each player. The Payoffs: The rewards that players receive. Hetronormative Payoffs: A globalised economy Utility acquisition Money and ‘success’ without empathy…
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ChatBox is a 2023 trained AI model, so this could be an AI hallucination, but I rather think it isn’t. Current estimates suggest warming of 3.6°C is more likely as climate policies are being stalled or reversed. The IPCC also outlines a worst-case scenario where global temperature could rise by 4.4°C by 2100 if fossil…
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First a quick run down of basic terms: LLM (Large Language Model)A Large Language Model is a type of AI trained on huge amounts of text data to understand and generate human-like language. Think of it like a super-smart-arse. It can write essays, answer questions, summarise information, and even hold conversations. GPT-4 and Gemini are…
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Seen: Unseen – What Lies Between’ showing in the Main Barn Gallery of the Mid-Wales Arts Centre until Sunday 11th of May. https://midwalesarts.org My visit was described in on my blog https://mxdp.blog/2025/04/16/visit-the-power-of-ma/ The mid-wales art center is a modern barn set in the grounds of an old farm house. Its was a joint exhibition between…
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Caravaggio’s Death of the Virgin (1601–1606) queered the established religious history painting conventions. It subverted, interrogated, and destabilised normative frameworks and birthed alternative perspectives. Caravaggio exposed the artificiality of religious painting. He made a deliberate and radical departure from the Catholic conventions that had seen the Virgin Mary as ascending into heaven not bodily dying. Traditional representations…
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Using Autoethnographic Abstracted Materialism, 2050:2100 weaponises art and collaboration to resist the void of climate chaos and establish a network of Creative Kindness. This work is driven by the impending Geopolitical Climate chaos of biome degradation, resource scarcity, mass migration and societal collapse. Using up precious resources, I asked A.I. when the Earth would become…
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A Reflective Examination of Autoethnographic Practice and Networked Creativity: Abstracted Materiality as a Queered Conceptual Practice. While collating the Unit 3 Assessment, I wondered why I intuitively chose to abstract materiality within my process practice? Why did I conceptualise the prioritisation of ideas over traditional materiality? In this blog post, I want to focus on…
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9th May… I am three sessions in, and I can see progress. The bum prints went well; there is gooch and hair. The nipple one is not as good. I am printing on art wrap paper, which is waxy. Also, the gel plate was dirty. I normally like the roughage, but this didn’t pick up…
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Trigger warning: Flashing images, themes of Climate Chaos, War, Death, Global Anihilation, Sex… sadly no rock and roll… some funky music though… A Massive Amount of Community Art Activism and fish… An Agender Penguin, a Non-binary Polar Bear and a Nasty Oily Orca… and a lot of Art… nice… https://youtu.be/dHpbdGRtDKk?si=HUTOS8h3SXGptsHl
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This will be an ongoing blog post about the Queer Curation course with the NODE Center in Berlin – sponsored by the SU- UAL. Wednesday 7th May. I’ve just had the first session of my NODE curation course on Zoom. I am in tears, it was so lovely. 23 people from around the world all…
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It is sunny with a fresh breeze on the beach. It was a perfect opportunity to try out the new painting bench. I started with a couple of layers of Liquitex clear gesso. This has a crystal aggregate that gives tooth to the canvas, and I know from previous experiments that I can lay watercolours…
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Here, I look at some of the images from the sketchbook Our Struggle (German translation: Unser Kampf). They are not finished but its a good start. Select the first image, press on the i icon, and you can swipe through all the images and read the comments as you go along… Select the first image,…
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I always wondered what it would have been like to live in Germany during the first part of the 1930s. I lived in a hotel in Berlin for a few years until the Wall came down. I still have a bit of it in a plastic bag somewhere in the studio. Berlin changed before/during/after the…
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My short courses at the Node Center for Curatorial Studies start this week. Thanks to the SU- UAL for the Curation course. I can see how my Art Practice and art career are moving forward. BorthFfest (Elin says for Welsh accuracy there should be two Ff’s) part 2 kicks off on the 23rd -26th of…
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Does thinking about your art process interfere with that process? …Maybe, but its always facinating to understand why… Like a reveal… Do artists really love to talk about their process? You’d think so; it’s de rigueur in art academia and the white cube blurb. We dissect it, analyse it, share it on social media, and…
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This was very much a working Tutorial, and after our situational awareness catch-up, we got down to the business of the grad show. We discussed the current state of trans politics and how that affects my art practice, my future PhD, its associated art/network, and myself personally. First, you are what you are; none of…
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This workshop is designed for public art, creative connection and representation. It is available for anyone to run: The performance: Pink is made from many colours, including baby blue, to represent kindness and connection and black is an historic representation and pigment development of heteronormative colonial oppressive power structures. That pink can overcome the non-reflective…
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You can’t have a 🐓 wearing a dress, claiming to be a woman and with the right to use a ladies toilet!!! Really? Do you measure 🐓’s in the gents or muffs in the ladies… If someone asked to see my muff when using the loo I would punch the f*cker out! Come on it’s…
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It was an awful drive to the Mid-Wales Arts Centre today… wet and windy over the mountains. When we got there, Prof X managed to navigate the barns, and we arrived at the start of the talk by the exhibiting artists, Dr June Forster and Junko Burton MA. It was an ideal location for an…
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A social media art practice? Is there such a thing? Well, there is one if you are trying to make a global network! I ran a social media workshop looking at strategic approaches to social media for creatives on Saturday, the 12th of April; it was about democratising knowledge. I have begun to see my…
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My sketchbook exploration of 2050:2100 is going well. My physical pain is not going well; my sciatica has switched legs. How the f*ck does it do that!!! Thankfully, after years of being a long-haul airline pilot and high-altitude mountaineer, I can fall asleep anywhere… sadly I still wake up in pain; it’s not helping my…
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I got an email today. You know, the kind that makes your heart skip before you’ve even opened it. I was shortlisted; there were three places, and I was number 4! If you are confused and think this is the NTU PhD, no, this is an opportunity for an online course paid for by the…
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50:00 Is it Pink? It is partly inspired by the 1915 exhibition, ‘The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0,10’ (pronounced ‘zero-ten’). It was held at Marsovo Pole, Petrograd, from December 19, 1915, to January 17, 1916. Organised by the Dobychina Art Bureau, this exhibition marked the debut of Suprematism, an art movement characterised by geometric…
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This is the title for my new body of work that I hope to show at the Grad show. I’m collecting all my supplies of black and pink materials to make the work. The Sketch Book. I am testing my ideas before I go big… its going well so far… the music is a collaberation…
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Basically, the Earth is F*ck. I can categorically say that after 3 years of reading scientific data. I was talking to a climate change student last night, and their university offers them mental health counselling as part of their course; it’s that grim. Mass Migration, Resource scarcity, Unpredictable climate chaos, and climate breakdown. But before…
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I had a great conversation with JK at the low-res about my plan for the grad show. It was well thought out, used the durational artwork Identity Flags 2024-, incorporated the inspiration of the Leigh Bowery exhibition… I love a costume… especially a naughty one… It faced out to the world… Then I came home…
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…the world is full of ableism, and this trip was all about that… I had a fantastic time at the low-res; even the aerobatic flip on Prof X out of the black cab and landing on my head didn’t dampen my spirits, although it did cut short the trip by a couple of days… you…
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When a friend said how remarkable I am doing and how I manage to land on my feet when faced with challenging setbacks… I replied instantly… I don’t see them as setbacks but as an opportunity for a new adventure… For the first time since my temporal turn, I thought I was really excited about…
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The interesting part of an autoethnographic art practice is the minutiae of self-examination. On Friday, I had a meeting with my prospective PhD supervisors. As always, it was a Wow moment. The stuff we talked about can’t help but affect my art practice; it is impossible for it not to. Pain is an unwelcome companion…
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I’m having a shit winter; I have done nothing but write funding statements, blogs, proposals, and reports (this is not totally true, but it does feel like it at times)… FFS!… is this the life of an artist… Well, yes and no, if you want to save the Earth, probably… and for any artist to…
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At the moment, I am surviving, but I can’t say I am thriving. The bloody cats are killing me… up five times last night. I don’t think two chest-fed kids were this much work, but I’ve probably forgotten, and I was a quarter of a century younger and a lot, lot fitter… In other art…
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It’s been another tough week. When the going gets tough… the tough get going. It is Sunday, I am bloody exhausted… Monday – was hard. Registering Dwain’s death, I knew it would be painful; my son Eddie went with me and watching his face was difficult… he was shocked when I had to pay by…
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Now, we can start to understand what it all means—what will happen next and what opportunities were created. Already, one of the volunteer team members has a new job and is looking at funding opportunities to create something with a local gallery. That’s the power of connection and the network. Big Wave has another project…
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Well, I was chatting to my daughter about grief; it’s not easy, is it? Grief is like layers of an onion; you peel one off, and there is more underneath, raw and smelly, making your eyes water. I’m not sure I like onions… Gwyl Cariad is in its final week, and lots is going on.…
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The streets of Aberystwyth are alive with art, music, and community spirit as Gŵyl Cariad pilot festival transforms the Aberyswyth seaside town into a canvas of creativity. All though I am MIA I have been following the action and getting regular sit reps! As the first week draws to a close, the festival has already…
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There’s something profound about the way Keanu Reeves talks about pain. Not as something to be conquered or eliminated, but as a shape-shifting companion in life’s journey. In one of his most touching reflections, the actor shared his perspective on pain and resilience, offering wisdom that resonates with anyone who’s faced life’s harder moments. ‘Pain…
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What started as an idea to link creatives of the world to battle climate chaos, to give access to artists that would otherwise be marginalised and to make ‘Cool Shit Happen!’ Gwyl Cariad the ‘pilot’ festival is about to kick off! This week is installation week, and it’s been amazing watching the enthusiasm and excitement…
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Coming Out: When Gender Finally Makes Sense I’ve spent nearly six decades being called “she.” Six decades of checking the “F” box on forms. Six decades of being someone’s daughter, sister, wife, and mother. Six decades of thinking there was something wrong with those other feminine women. Me trying to perform feminity, but looking in…
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It’s report-writing time now. The overall view is people need more information. They need clear guidance, and they are legitimately worried. Extreme weather has marred the two public in-person workshops, which is rather appropriate. The best experience for me was with young adults with delayed learning difficulties. In many ways, they were the most verbal…
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Well, it exists. It’s not up and running yet; tomorrow will be a test day. It took until mid-afternoon to find the top of the tripod connector…. After a lot of swearing, I remembered I’d used it on the 360 camera for the ‘Happens’ transmission… My tech assisted in taking my picture – one I…
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The more I work on this piece, the more I love it. I’m on Red Notice at the moment, and nothing is working body-wise, so obviously, it is time to make an animation! Back irla (in real life art), the collage has 2 of the fluorescent paint coats out of the recommended 3, and as…
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The Alfie and Neville collage is coming on a treat, and the great thing about Christmas is there is always lots of shiny waste… perfect for climate change instillations. I’m thinking the animation will be using the collage as digital cut-outs with a little AI for some of the groups characters! The collage is getting…
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Gender dysphoria is a funny old thing. You never know when it’s going to come and f*ck with you! When I first came out as non-binary I had mixed reactions from those I care about. I think most queer folks experience that when they come out. The overwhelming take was, well you are the same…
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I thought I’d reflect on the Miro feedback, I will listen to the what worked for me later… (with a box of tissues) Reading the Miro comments was fascinating because some of you understood my practice, and some didn’t! This means that, in real terms, I haven’t fully explained it. That’s pretty important for me!…
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I am writing this on my new iPad with a keyboard. I don’t like buying new tech; it’s not good for the planet, but it seems it is good for me. When my heart stalls, my touch screen doesn’t work… it thinks I am dead. Managing my enviroment is a day to day struggle. This…
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A 3 minute film all about my art practice. https://youtu.be/7_8TJBQgmio?si=afdGtwaxTyMnVzMN
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Learning Outcome 1: Where did this start? What happened? Where are we going?… I started in unit one with this diagram, and I’ve circled in red the areas that have changed. I acknowledged in the first unit assessment that my practice would change. My Art Practice is The Network. A network is rarely fixed; it…
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Walton (2024) asks ‘Is AI Art Less Carbon Intensive Than Human Art?’ They are looking at a paper by Tomlinson et al. (2024) that proposes that the carbon emissions of image and copy production are lower when we use ai opposed to when a human creates it. Already in this blog, I have done what…
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As always, it was a productive combination of discussion with liberal amounts of questions and answers. Art, for me, in the last 4 years has been a constant stream of surprises of self-discovery and unexpected outcomes. Nonetheless, I am now starting to see Art as some form of nonlinear energy transfer, a Schrödinger like theorum.…
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I went to a workshop run by Sue from Marmaladecat. It was all about printmaking and collaging into a concertina work. I had enjoyed the book-making/paper-folding at the low res, and I had taught concertina sketchbooks on the beach, which, along with collage and printmaking, seemed an ideal way to spend an afternoon. I, of…
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So, I haven’t written an accessibility rider. But I should. I have avoided it because it means I have to confront my own physical limitations , and I simply don’t want to. Organising Gŵyl Cariad, I’ve had to see accessibility from the ‘other side’. I know how hard it is to get sh*t done as…
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Over the next few weeks, my art practice will look like a never-ending stream of reel-making for the Wales Climate Virtual Conference, digital marketing course in London, funding proposals, spreadsheets, meetings, report writing, sorting out camera tech et al. My art practice is The Network. To make an art network work, you need the above;…
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I am so chuffed to get the funding from the Welsh Assembly Government for the Climate Workshops. More paperwork to do! CIC bank accounts are interesting. I miss in-person banking! Supplies to make and order! Avocado stone ink, anyone! Climate week starts on the 11th of November, so I will be doing a social media…
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Big Wave is off to London (well me and ‘Betty’ the mobility scooter are) I’ve been asked to share my Exciting news! I’m thrilled to say that I’ve been awarded a bursary from the Arts Council of Wales to attend a digital marketing day hosted by the Arts Marketing Association at the BFI Southbank in…
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I am writing this straight after the Thursday session. 17th of October – I was unusually quiet in this session mainly because I was having an epiphany. I have always detested the obsession with ambiguity within Contemporary art. I see it as a capitalist product of making art more suitable to sell. In a conversation…
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Well, the funding statement is in, so we will see what happens. Funding applications are hard work and take hours to prepare. I hope we get some funding but it won’t cover the cost of the online workshop camera rig and kit (more on that in future blogs no doubt) If I want to run…
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Using the paintings I’ve been working on using the watercolour, ink and alcohol ink from recycled markers. I am developing a workshop for the Climate Conservation initiative in Wales and to launch the Gwyl Carrid – Festival of Love in Aberystwyth. The paintings: Tides of Love was my favourite so in Contemporary Dadaesque splendour I…
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A sentence from my PhD study statement says, ‘Crip theory rejects the normative medical model of ‘dis’-abled. Crips are disabled only as a result of societal barriers and attitudes.’ After Borthfest this year, we had a debrief and asked interested parties to come and say what worked and what didn’t. One of the fantastic folks…
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I started a Tiger sleeve on Dr ‘Tiger Sue’ this summer. She had interviewed me for her PhD on tattooing. This is not her sleeve, but a ‘trad’ cat I tattooed last week, which was cool… Today, I gave a second interview to Alex Rheinhart Assistant Professor of Management and PhD Coordinator, Department of Management…
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It is an expression of what can’t be said… However, I have to find a way to say it as I am writing a Manifesto for Big Wave. Manifesto: Big Wave Art Network of Creatives. We are the catalysts of change, the architects of innovation, and the champions of a new era where we…
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So, I got the finished tattoo art up in the studio… on the walls, the cupboard, the hallway and even the ceiling. After saying I would probably never tattoo any of these designs, a regular saw the boar and devil on the ceiling and has booked to have them tattooed on his sleeve in two…
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This project started as a tidy-up when I swapped the studio around. I found sheets of tattooing designs that reimagined 120 years of tattooing. I had drawn these in lockdown on Procreate and had printed them on Blockinford St. Cuthbert’s Mill 300gsm cold press watercolour paper. A handful I had painted, but these had not…
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And turquoise, yellow, orange. green and a really vivid pink… The 4000 designs live in Procreate, but others were put on paper during lockdown. Many I painted, but I found loads in a draw during the studio swap unpainted, and I thought I would finish them. It’s been a lot of work and, at times,…
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Amid a tattooing summer, I have my eye on my Art life. BorthFest will come around sooner than one thinks, and a new festival earlier in the year in the neighbouring town is starting to build on the creative network. Tomorrow’s meeting with Sally will look more deeply at funding and setting up the CIC…
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Been a busy time, great to see my dear friend at his meet the artist night with Aberrations and Ceredigion Museum in conjunction with The British Museum. Every day is a learning day, and I know I have so much to learn, especially about BAME and colonialism. I grew up in a racist culture and…
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I am a self-styled Contemporary Dadaist. I try to make art without making art, without creating more waste and consuming more resources. I try to use up what I already have and reuse everything I can. I have, like the planet, finite resources. My art practice is networking and weaponising art to Save the Earth…
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As always, during my four years of academic fine art, I have returned for a summer of tattooing. I give talks on tattoo history and especially the changing nature of tools and techniques. This year will see the start of licensing for tattooing here in Wales. This will be a test bed for its rollout…
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I’ve had flu for over two weeks, or is it COVID-19? I have no idea. As a household, we are a plague house. We all have it. I am always busy; I probably have ADHD… I know that it’s more nuanced than that, but.. I have ‘managed’ my neuro-spicy nature by always being busy and…
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When organising an event, please think about how knackered I am going to be! I’ve lived with a dodgy heart for years now, and I certainly have a dodgy body… do I recognise that? Well, not enough! By the time Monday evening rolled around at BorthFest, I was properly knackered! The last thing I wanted…
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Blimey that was a lot of work! Two Weeks of Tech: A Cross-Discipline XD Artist’s Journey. In the realm of XD artistry, the pursuit of ironic materiality, acquisition of new skills, and exploration of unconventional art forms is a constant endeavour. My art practice extends beyond creating art. It aims to foster collaborations, generate innovative…
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I love thinking, and it turns out that art takes a lot of thought… Thinking is one of my last great pleasures, along with food; Mateus rose and masturbating to the vision of a young Brad Pit dressed as a femboy or in that leather skirt in Troy and George Clooney in ER… I know…
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I am knackered after the Interim Show and Low-Res. However, I am back at it… we are Fisting the Oil Companies next, and the gel plate meditation is perfect for thinking space… I am using the Trans flag colours of Pink for gurrls, powder Blue for boys and white for those… well, me, those in…
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Well, by Mid-way through the interim exhibition/ low-res, I was laying in bed looking at videos my coursemate Madeline Kay had sent me… It’s all about pacing…this always was as much about logistics as art, about friendship and connection… about coping with physical disability and my ability/inability to look after my body… My minders have…
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I am currently sitting here in tears of frustration once again because I do not have an assistant for the Low-Res programme at C.S.M. Student Finance Wales has set aside £24000 a year for an assistant, but they have never paid out a penny because I have never had one available. My coursemates are willing…
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Learning Outcome 1: Formulate, describe and implement a challenging and self-directed programme of study, relating to your Study Statement.(Assessment Criteria: Enquiry) I formulated this program overlayed on the course calendar. It’s pretty full for the first 20 weeks because that’s what’s already or is about to happen. The rest of the units are deliberately vague……
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This is a living document for the next few weeks until this project is complete. You will need to check back for updates: The animation is complete and has been entered into the ARTS SU LGBTQIA+ History Month 2024 Film Call Out 2024 Film screening at Close Up Cinema, Shoreditch, I doubt they will accept…
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I’ve just finished the visual drawings for this animation and put them into the edit suite. There are 103, but you can bet that number will change by next week!… I’ve put in some mind-numbing hours with 2 am finishes all week, as once I am on a roll, I have to keep going, or…
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One person connected is the next link in the network… It is the possibility, the thought planted…If you are reading this, you are now part of the network… The mycelium network, in biological terms, refers to the underground network of fungal threads called mycelium. Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a…
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This is becoming a bit of a working document so I’ve put the link for the blog post about how this project started. https://dpmatthews.art.blog/2023/11/10/hu-cow-titty-milk-dairy-rebellion/ Kye Rowan is a Non-binary blogger who designed the non-binary pride flag in 2014 to symbolise individuals who identify beyond the traditional male/female binary. The flag colours are yellow to represent…
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I haven’t used the group’s reflective questions as yet. I hope in my blog post that I do reflect on my work and practice, but I thought it would be an interesting exercise to use them to compare and contrast the two films together I made over the winter break. Both were rendered in colours…
Mx.D.P 