GAS MASKS

These are drawings I made whilst studying for a short period in Amsterdam. They were studies for a performance me and my friend and performance artist Kajsa created under the name KOMAAMOK. (I used the same name for my old blog.) The final performace turned out more like a Mad Max hallucination.

 I found that I had scribbled some text on the page, so that is accompanying the illustrations here.

There is no problem because there is no solution*
(*reversed Duchamp)

I had never seen a fish so beautiful,
before I went so deep,
I thought,
I would never breath again

Repetition is the Pattern of Humanity

O_2 + CO₂

I Think I am Losing My Language

MY LITTLE PONY

As we are on the subject of colour illustrations, here is another one. It was a birthday present to my then housemate Alice, who used to have long pink hair and looks like a little fairy-doll. She also collects replica miniature tanks. She is a really talented musician and also a great model for costumes. The drawing was too big for my scanner so this is photo of a section of the image.

The World Will be Safe Again

COLOURING IN AND PHOTOSHOPPING

I mainly work in black and white, but sometimes I get carried away and try to tackle some colour. These images are the result of some colour madness and one of my first attempts of using photoshop. I don't really use it for fancy editing, its more like a a virtual scissors and glue kit in my incapable hands.

This is a little illustration of how I used to tackle the concept of flirting. Its all about getting the right level of fear in your eyes and a firm grip on whatever stable surface is near.

Can't Flirt to Save my Life

This is me and my accordion. My friends gave me it to me not realising the damage such an instrument can do. Its worth mentioning they were not my housemates. Or they might have thought twice about it.

Is it just me, or does accordion music drive people crazy?

An illustration that started life as a small logo for a food business and then grew an extra head.

Twice the Service

I love my plants. The are good friends. I give them water and a bit of attention and they give me ...bugs?

You said that you would grow!                                     You said that you would water me!

DEATH IN HER EYES

This is a drawing from one of the first anti-war marches in 2002 before the war with Iraq started. This girl was standing behind a fence at the end of the demonstration shouting over and over. She was having her own demonstration. Her voice was hoarse from hours of shouting and her lips a crackled grey white shade. Her eyes were darting around all the people in the march. It was as if she would die the moment she stopped shouting. I had been walking for hours in the anti-war march but suddenly it seemed so small compared to the private demonstration of this little girl with desperate eyes.

Death is Not Just a Word

THE TRIALS OF GLASTONBURY

We went to Glastonbury this year, which was great! We got to experience the bottomless mud-pits with relentless rain and the scorching desert-like state of both fields and minds. And of course some great music! Lykke Li, BB King and the surprise highlight Omar Souleyman, the syrian musician who has released around five hundred albums.

Weather Conditions of Glastonbury

Glastonbury Walking Techniques

WILDLIFE OF WIMBLEDON

This is a drawing I made when I first moved to England nine years ago. I went to Wimbledon School of Art, and spent a lot of time strolling around the streets around Wimbledon Chase looking at foxes leaving bloody trails of chewed fur or the sidewalks and hedgehogs getting their snouts stuck in mcflurry cans as they were trying to get the last lick of ice-cream.

Wildlife of Wimbledon

THE HAIR CUT

This is an illustration of a conversation the other evening at home featuring my partner Jacqui.

THE PHONE CALL

I find real conversations and events really interesting. Sometimes the mundane and everyday boring stuff is more exciting to draw a little comic from than an elaborate made up story. They don't always have to have a punch line or even an end.

I kept getting these strange phone calls, not like people selling stuff or asking me to take part in a survey, but from this guy who had the wrong number but refused to believe me. He kept calling insisting to speak to his friend and started getting almost angry when I was still just me the tenth time he called. I bet his friend had given him the wrong number just so he would stop calling him. This is one of the conversations, word for word.

ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 100/100

This is the final drawing out of the 100 that I did for the project 'Hundred Days to Make Me a Better Person' that was produced by London Word Festival 2010. Its was really good discipline to do one drawing every day. Some of them I really like. And some of them are really a bit terrible. But I did them all. One of them ended up in the Independent on Sunday. It all ended with an exhibition in Dalston with a performance by project initator and comedienne Josie Long and other participants. It was a great project to take part in and even better to see all the things that every one else have been up to.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 99/100

My dad is a musician (my mum is too) and he 'discovered' the Euphonium a few years ago. Its quite loud. But then he used to play the trombone which is rather loud too. Me and my sister would get woken up in the morning by cheerful fanfares. It was very effective. One of my dads trombone colleagues once had a student who primarily used his trombone to scare small birds and insects on the island he lived on.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 98/100

Ear infections is the most evil horror. I had a really bad one a year ago and I shudder every time I think about it. How such a small thing can cause so much pain. Well, at least it looks good for the convention.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 97/100

Yes, I know. My brain was slightly overheated at this point. But it is the ninety seventh drawing in as many days.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 96/100

Number 96 of the 100 drawings. I had to get a last swan in there.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 95/100

I love all things craft. I learned to knit as a teenager and made a humongous fluorescent-ish orange jumper that might still be in my parents house somewhere. I crocheted a dress that I wore for the millenium new years eve. One financially challenged year I made everyone sock puppets for christmas out of the socks from the lonely sock bag.  My currant favorite is cross stitch as it is a great mix of creative freedom and systematic control.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 94/100

Apples are my favorite everyday fruit. They help to protect you from all sorts of dangers. They are also good to throw at people.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 93/100

I started a new business.

What kind of business?

A pistachio transport business.

And how is it going?

Its driving me nuts...

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 92/100

My mum used to fast every year. It was always hilarious watching her face as she was trying to drink a big glass of sauerkraut juice and other terrible fluids. There is a photo from each year of this event. I recently tried the fasting myself and its not totally easy. After a few days of strange juices and teas you feel slightly lightheaded and strangely excited about vegetable stock. You are also prune to arguments about how many deciliters of potato water you are allowed in the morning. As potato water is a raw sliced up potato soaked in cold water that you drink the next day, discarding the potato and adding a teaspoon of lemon juice, the argument is normally revolving how FEW rather than many deciliters you have to drink. 

ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 91/100

Having hobbies can relieve stress.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 90/100

I go swimming as often as I can. I am lucky to live close to the London Fields Lido, which is the best outdoor London pool ever. We go in the morning before work and pretend we are hard core like the rest of the nutcases who swim outdoors all year round. 

Before that I used to go to various gyms to swim and it was always a gamble if you would be able to complete any laps without someone deciding to practice headstands in the middle of the lane. And then war would break out. Swimming pool wars are vicious, calculated and fought under the surface. There is the gentle nudge as you swim past someone. There is the frontal face-kick and the breast-stroke hip-slap. Who said swimming was a gentle and relaxing past-time?

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 89/100

Some things mean summer. And childhood. The ice-cream man is one of those things.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 88/100

Number 88  in my drawing extravaganza.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 87/100

It was getting late in the day and I had to make my drawing of they day. Lets just leave it at that.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 86/100

Yes, its one more of the 100 drawings. number 86 to be precise.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 85/100

Drawing number eighty five.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 84/100

I love driving. Me and my partner got a black cab called Jeeves a year ago that we drive around London. Its giving us lots of joy but also a little bit of misery. But we love him anyway.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 83/100

Drawing Number 83 from the 'Hundred Days to Make Me a Better Person' project.

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ONE HUNDRED DRAWINGS 82/100

Don't play with fire.

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