Savage Art Studio

Goodbye to a Friend

Last week was a tough week in a lot of respects, not least of which was the funeral of an old friend of mine, the artist Chris Carr. Coming from this part of the world I know that Yorkshire men seem to fall into one of two camps, the brash and brassy or the reserved. Chris was definitely in the latter category, a very self deprecating sort of a bloke, such a nice guy that never really saw what the rest of us did, what a truly gifted artist he was. When I first met Chris I was struck by his rather understated sense of humour and then by his skill with an air brush. It was a pleasure seeing him develop as an artist, his later work achieved a photo-realistic quality.

Chris was very much a family man too, I know he thought the world of his wife, Jo, and his son, Noah. He also spoke with great affection about all his family. The turn out at his funeral reflected the great number of friends. It was a very emotional ceremony, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, sung to involve little Noah, brought a lump to many throats. The priest made several very good points: “Do we mourn the loss, or celebrate the life?”, “Are we sad for all the things that were left undone or pleased for all that was achieved?”

All of which is true. I am proud to have known Chris and delighted to have called him friend yet, as an artist myself, when I consider losing Chris at the age of 43, I cannot help but reflect on all the painting he still had left to do…. I will miss my friend.

A dedication to writing? Or obsessive compulsive disorder?

My doctor told me I have a type one personality, I had no idea what that was, had to look it up. Apparently I have a “go getter”, driven personality. I had never really stopped to think, or even considered it, I just do what I do.

I was chatting to my friend and editor, Laurie Sanders, the other day, and came to the conclusion that to a great extent we are work-o-holics, I suspect most driven people are. I rarely take a day off from writing, painting or drawing. I love what I do and consider myself to be very fortunate. I heard an interview with Stephen King, who said something to the effect that he writes every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day and then later in the interview said that he didn’t want to sound obsessed but he did write on those two days too. It made me smile and I said to Laurie I didn’t see anything wrong with it. Laurie knows I usually take my little laptop with me and that I will sit in cafés, or in the car, dentist’s reception, anywhere in fact, writing or doing my edits. The only thing I have to be careful about is the erotic content if kids are around. If there are just adults, I figure it serves them right for being nosey! I take the laptop on holiday, to the irritation of my long suffering wife, but it is who I am, it is what I do. I don’t think Laurie was too surprised when I told her that I took my PDA, which will do at a push for writing if I am going somewhere where the laptop is just too much, with me when I had a hospital procedure earlier this year. There I was on a hospital gurney, waiting, why not do a bit of writing? It seemed perfectly logical to me. Mind you, I did get some funny looks from hospital staff, others just lay there. It made perfect sense to me to get on with a bit of work rather than dwelling on the procedure. Laurie found it rather amusing, I think.

I love what I do.

Oh, by the way, it is my birthday today and I am typing this in a hospital waiting room waiting for my mother who is having an eye test.

Just why do people buy erotic art?

There is a question that came up, and I really would like the answer to it. Just why do people buy erotic art? I suppose I could ask one of my clients, but that kind of questions why they bought one of my pictures, rather than the question in general.

I have been drawing and painting erotic art for a lot of years and have asked myself why do I create erotic art? I feel compelled to the subject, because I feel I have something to say. I come back to it each time trying to say something new, trying to explore the subject from different angles. I paint other subjects - animals, aircraft, landscapes, cartoons - yet I keep coming back to the erotic. I find the topic of depicting sexuality challenging and the search for the erotic compelling. Undoubtedly the view of erotic is very personal and not everyone who would want to look at erotic art wants to actually buy it. So the question again, why do people want to buy erotic art?

I have, as I have said, thought about the subject and would really be interested in the answers. Do we adorn our walls with erotic art to make a statement about ourselves? Is it like raising a flag of what works for me as an individual? Maybe it is an aspiration to a lifestyle or sexual preference? Or just maybe it is as simple as we just like the image? There was a time when it was much less common to see it on display in the home, it was the thing of wealthy collectors. Incidentally, the Queen of England has one of the most extensive collections of erotic art in the world, what would I give to be in that collection? Erotic art somehow seems more acceptable in modern homes.

I would love to hear your views, your opinions on this subject. What would you display? Or maybe, what wouldn’t you display? What would you think if you saw erotic art in a friend’s house? Maybe, in your parent’s house? Maybe, in your kid’s houses?

I would love to hear what you think.

The hopes and dreams of the last thirty years came to pass just the other week. In my late teens, as a writer and illustrator, I started working on a series of children’s stories. Sadly, these never went into print. But I never gave up the ambition to write and illustrate children’s stories. Last year I did a story for Reader’s Eden. I illustrated a story called “Zap”, a lovely little story about a young boy and his cat. I very much enjoyed working on that but it was only ever going to be an e-book. I showed my friend and editor, Laurie Sanders, the book, she loved the pictures and felt as I did that it was a pity it was not going into print. We batted some ideas around until late last year when Laurie and myself started working on “A Very Special Place to Poop”. The humour of the book, title and subject mater hit us from the start. I found myself laughing out loud while drawing the pictures, if I could draw your attention to the page where bears go for a poop, there is a squirrel in the tree and a rather startled looking snail below. It is one of my personal highlights. The humour went all the way through the book, like a stick of Blackpool rock, from the expressions on the animal character’s faces to our E-mails; “Our poop book”, “More poop ideas”, “Here is another poop picture” were commonplace titles and were the source of many laughs during the book process.

We love the book and we hope adults reading it will find it as funny as the kids. You can find the book “A Very Special Place to Poop” at www.amazon.co.uk. I very much hope this is the first of many children’s books Laurie and I will do together.

This book broke a lot of new ground for me, not only my first children’s book in print but it was also the first where I was designer of the book from start to finish. It was a daunting prospect being responsible for each element of the book but, as a bit of a control freak, I do like the control element. Subsequently, I have produced a second book and my current design project is a book on the subject of beauty. I have mentioned it in a previous blog and I hope this book will be out later this year.

Sorry, I should write more often, I guess part of my problem is that I feel like I am talking to myself and that feels like an extravagance. Anyway I am back blogging and if you would like to comment I am sure that will spark me up to write more…
More to come, watch this space……..

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• just have to mention i am in the October edition of Scarlet mag about 7-8 illustration, a full page editorial i am thrilled ric@swage.net #

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• i have to say i am thrilled to bits.. just has a big feature come out in Scarlet mag to see more pics http://www.swage.net #

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• just got back from Barcelona you have to go and see it fantastic place….. #
• working on some desk top publishing for a guy starting his own business #
• now to my own project beauty still looking for contributions if you have a take on the subject regardless of size, age, or anything else #
• we are all beautiful e-mail me directly if you want to contribute to my new book

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