This evening, Aaron and I attended a Paul Davis Lecture In Kentish town London, with the tickets at £10, it was a bloody barg!
It was based around typography, but we found this was very loose, he mainly spoke about his work, his routine and how clients he has, react to his work, that he produces for them.
He's always been an image maker I've been interested in, likening him to David Shrigley is mostly how I've referred to him in the past. Infact this was asked during the lecture and he just shook his head and said that him and David are actually doing some work together at the moment which should be really good! He really didn't enjoy being compared to another artist and being asked if he's kind of copied him though!
He began by talking about his work and how images he makes come about...such as, relating feelings to what's going on in the world, also creating image through things he overhears and reads: blogs, newspapers, magazines.
He mostly said that his work is there too take the piss and that through: 'being quite free, people will laugh'.
An interesting piece of his work which he spoke about was, 'Hate her sleep', which a bit of it is pictured below. In his recent work he's been exploring with flow charts and some are based around this idea of insomnia...I think they work brilliantly as they seem to be thoughts that we've all had at some time in our lives, the frustration of not being able to sleep and a partner being asleep, you some how feel jealous and hate towards them. I think the simplicity of the image and the difference in line is really nice in how it looks to the eye, but also the idea of these flowing thoughts and comments, really draws you in and makes you want to read it all, you kind of get really nosey! It must be pretty comforting to any insomniacs out there!
Another interesting thing he said about himself, which I'd like to take up as well as 'design', is that he see's himself as a 'recorder', rather than a photographer, he takes photos to remember and to record things he sees.
What I really find I like about Paul Davis is although he produces mostly negative imagery, it some how makes me feel positive. One of his books which title makes me smile is: 'What happens is good'.
Clients.
He commented on projects he had undertaken whilst showing us a slide show as examples of what was produced, he spoke about wine labels that he was commissioned to do and said 'we got paid very well, which is rare these days', it was a scary thought to have whilst youre sat there in a room with someone you idolise, for them to say that they don't get paid well, makes you doubt yourself and the prospects of making enough money freelancing? Another comment he made was about scraping by but he just enjoys what he does.
He also commented on how it's good to collaborate with others and how it really amazing and rewarding when you hand your work on to other artists that do different things. He used the example of illustrations he's done which were then given to animators to put together the advert, he said the idea of him just doing his own illustrations and then to see them played back to him like that was mind-blowing!
In regards to clients, he commented by saying, do what you want in response to a brief, it does however depend who it is you are working for and whether you trust them/what your relationship is like with them. He also mentioned that 'an Idea can be structured OR Random', through over-hearing things, it becomes random. Drawing through 'remembering' is also a good and random way of working.
He's in the process of trying to get his own Gallery...
The lecture was also nice, in gaining an understanding of how other artists go about dealing with a professional project. I've been thinking about the professional project we've started over summer and are briefed on as soon as we get back to college.
Even got this free signed poster at the end and had a chat with Paul, he's pretty laid back and was a funny guy.
