Things i get asked...

I thought I would write a little blog answering some questions that I get asked as lot.  Then I told my beautiful fans on Facebook what I was doing and they asked a lot more.  Some lovely, some not so lovely…here’s here is a mix of the lovelier ones

1) Nicholas Thornby asks : love ur work but how do you cope with the people who don't understand it?

I’m not one for over intellectualizing, so I keep things simple.  There will always be people that don’t ‘get’ stuff, I prefer to focus my energy on the ones that do.

2) Amanda Shirley asks: If you had to give up art to do something else, what would it be?

Designing coats, making videos for cool brands or strimming long grass with one of those hardcore petrol powered strimmy things.

3) Er, so how does music painting work then?  (I get asked this a lot!)

I need a few words to explain this one, I do it in two ways

(a) First, Live music painting with bands:  I get a call from a band asking me if I want to paint their music at their gig, or if I love a band I’ll call them.  I go to the gig with my easel and paints, catch up with the musicians then set up on stage, usually next to the drums towards the back of the stage or sometimes right at the front.  

For example this is me with I Blame Coco at Freeze Festival

And this is me with painting live with Buena Vista Social Club at Standon Calling Festival

(pics by Josh Bloomer)

b) The second form of music painting is in my studio: When I’m not painting on stage I paint pictures of single songs in my studio.  I do this for people that want me to paint their favorite song, or I do it because I bloody well love a song and it makes me want to paint it.  Either way, I only paint a song once, so when its painted that’s it forever.  (and yes i need a cleaner)

4) Natalya Fisher asks: Who was the most hardest celebrity to do a drawing for and work with? 

Easy, Black Eyed Peas.  Only because they played for about 2 hours and their not the kind of band you can sway gently to as you paint them live.  This is about 15 minutes after the gig and i was totally shattered.

5) Lee Mitton asks: It doesn't have to be your best work, your most famous subject or sold for the most, but which piece are you most proud of and why?

Bloody good question, so far it has to be Iggy & The Stooges at Knebworth Sonisphere.  Simply because 8 years prior to that I was painting little paintings of music on my kitchen table and had a vision of painting the music of a band I loved, live on stage in front of thousands of people.  I will never forget how people thought i was mad, i will also never forget the feeling and the purple colours of the 3 opening chords of “I wanna be your dog” live at Knebworth.   

I have to say that in a very close second place, is Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, simply because the vibe of the gig when I painted them was so very special, inclusive, creative, spiritual and beautiful

6) Joe Bacon asks: Do you wipe your bum back to front or front to back? 

I had to think about this, but definitely front to back with then one final back to front.

7) Reema Kumari Jadeja asks: If you could be re-born as any other artist, whom would it be and why? 

Tony Hart or Leonardo Da Vinci both of which were important influences when i first started being interested in art at school.

8) Reema Kumari Jadeja asks: How can the Arts fully detach from elitist hierarchical structures and become inclusive?

It can’t and I don’t think it should. Art like anything else in our lives is in some way doused with a conscious or sub conscious elitism simply because its hard wired into human DNA. Without eletism there would be no populism … a world where I cant mix my Dolce & Gabana with H&M is a world I don’t want to live in.

9)  @Bebejax asks: What is the most romantic scene you ever heard?

Interesting question.  I have to say it’s the scene that I’ve heard in my mind for some time and its far too personal to talk about right now.  I will write about it one day.


10) Mr Kench asks:  How long is your piece of string?
About a deuce, deuce and a half.

thanks for your questions... i enjoyed that.  we should do it again some time.

One Love

Kx

2011 Happy Flash

Hello 2012 people, I've been very conscious that i haven't  blogged for a few months i miss it loads so apologies for the delay.   Anyway, so i was just looking through the pictures on my phone tonight in an attempt to pick out some of my favourite moments of 2011 to blog about and i saw this picture.  It's by far my fav bit of art in 2011 (other than my own of course ;o) ... I saw it at Frieze, its called Ajar by Gavin Turk and i happen to think its a totally genius piece of work, it makes me think so much... does it have the same impact on you?

Okay...I'm getting back to my phone and looking through the rest of my pics, I will blog next week with more Happy Flashes from 2011 but thought you might like this in the mean time.


Love 
Kx 

One day in a life of London Fashion Week

Hello hello.  I drove down to see the parents last Friday night to make sure I had a nice chill out because I knew that the next day at London Fashion Week was going to be a bit nuts, and I was right.

It all started at midday when I met Brad (CEO of Big Machine Media), who not only is a very good friend but also looks after my PR.  After the “Heeeeeey Killllllll” *note New York accent* we jump in a cab and leg it to Spijkers en Spijkers at Il Bottaccio, Grosvenor Place.

Next, cab to Jacob Klimmie, I totally loved his show and the sense of medieval monogamy which was perhaps not representative of the whole show but for me was specifically brought about by the use of dove prints, the perfect classical music that accompanied the show and my favourite look was this spectacular wedding dress.

I had lunch with Brad and new friends Shelly, Steven, Pablo who were a great bunch of characters, they’ve been involved in fashion for many years so it was great to hear stories about early old Galliano and Chanel shows.  Then off to the Fashion Mode shows at The Freemason’s Hall, which focuses on new graduate designers.  First up Lako Bukia…here we are all at her show. (yes thats me with my glasses, which by the way i've managed to lose and i'm well gutted about cuz they are the pair i wore when i painted live with Iggy at Knebworth)

(picture robbed from Style & Then Some Blog)

Next up Carlotta Actis Barone, James Hillman and Florian Jayet.  I really loved James Hillmans work, as it had a real contemporary edge to it and something that I can see myself wearing, I had a beer with him at the after party and he asked me what my favourite look was from his show…this was it.  these trousers are lush eh.

I actually felt inspired by the shows because i've missed being involved in fashion and for a long time I’ve been seriously thinking of designing my own clothes simply because I can’t find a look I like…especially coats, I love coats more than anything.

After Fashion Mode, we jumped into a car and off to sound check for the Fashion Mode party, Brad does the PR for Daniela Brooker who was performing at the party, she's 17 and has already had her tunes played Chris Evans show.  Then off to Shoreditch House for a chill out couple of drinks and I bumped into another New Yorker, Alex Davis  (I have a major soft spot for the New York accent by the way).  Alex owns a label called The Cobra Society which produce totally fab luxury hand made boots (of which Beyonce is a bit of a fan - says Vogue) …for me finding decent boots is a complete pain in the ass cuz of my chunky size 12 hooves, and I sooooo soooo need a new pair….I hope Alex reads this, nudge nudge wink wink kiss kiss cuddle cuddle cuddle :oP

So that was my Saturday at London Fashion Week.  Next i want to hit Paris fashion week, i've never been to Paris (i know, thats ridiculous isn't it) and another reason to go is the below picture!  this was sent to the studio by facebook fan Lauren this weekend from Paris...its a sign eh in more ways than one, so i just gotta go! :o)

One Love

Kx

Things that recently made me happy...

Gay Pride in Manchester (28th August 2011)

The orchid that Pocket Rocket and 2:1 bought for me

This chimney when the sun hits it 

The windows I see when I wake up

My sunglasses shelf (although I need to update my collection)

My new hair style. Slick innit..feat my 'I Love Manchester Tshirt'

Finally figuring out after 6 weeks how to open my utterly shit washing machine! 

My thinking street lamp as a ponder over a cigarette 

Shoreditch House, The Vaccines & how to holiday when single?

Last weekend I painted live at Shoreditch House with The Vaccines.  The weekend before I was painting Anthraz at Knebworth  …Anthraz, Vaccines…see what I did there!...get it??  Anyway The Vaccines sounded great and ….  Oh,  before I go on, I am a bit worried that this blog is turning into a sycophantic ass kissy “oh its great, your great, we are all great” kinda thing, but as you know I only paint music I love…which is why stuff about my painting is always positive.  I will write about some depressing none-music painting shit soon I promise.

So back to The Vaccines, you gotta see them, I simply love “If you wanna” and they played it on Sunday during a very intimate acoustic set, i love acoustic sets because for me it brings the songs back to basics…plus on top of which they are proper top blokes.  You can see loads of pictures from the gig on my Facebook page...This is the boys doing If You Wanna at Glasto...quality tune eh.  

For all you Americans reading this, if your in New York on the 6^th Aug you gotta go to Escape to New York as they are playing the same night as my mates Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros (who i painted live with earlier this year in london) its like two of my fav bands in one night man!  Final thing about last sunday…massive hug out to Jessie and Vannessa at Shoreditch House, for being so very lovely.

Okay, I was gonna finish the blog here, but some depressing shit just jumped into my head and I did promise some depressing shit to you right.  Here’s the kafuffle, I need a holiday, big time.  Problem is three fold (1) I hate travelling alone (yeah I’m soft like that) (2) I’m single i.e. no woman to sit on a beach with (3) all my mates are not single.    So upshot is I’m confused and was considering OSHO in India for a chill out or/and contrasting it with a Krav Maga boot camp (hard core Isreali military police self defence shit).

So, any suggestions on what to do in such predicaments would be gratefully received or failing that if you happen to know the following lovely ladies.. tell them to give me a shout if they want to relax on a beach for a bit, Katie Melua, Adele, J-Lo, Anne Hathaway, Claire Forlani, Jenifer Aniston,  Patricia Arquette (in her True Romance days), Emily Blunt, Keira Knightly, Denise Richards or Rachel McAdams…have you seen “Time Travellers Wife”, I watched it the other day and Rachel is in it, soppy I know but, I’m not ashamed to admit that I do have relatively regular romantic film tendencies.

Speaking of Denise Richards, I read in GQ this month (by they way Dylan Jones if you're reading this i have a great cover concept) that Charlie Sheen got paid over £1m per episode of that programme he used to be in, that I never watched and cant remember the name of….crazy shit that.

Catch you soon.

One Love

Kxx

Painting Anthrax & Turbogeist at Sonisphere...music to bite your tongue to.

That pic on the left is me this time last year after i just painted live with Iggy at Sonisphere 2010 and became the first painter to paint live on stage at Knebworth.  This may not be much to some, but to me it’s a proper big deal.  The reason it’s so important is because I started painting noddy little pictures of music about 8 years ago, as I sat at my kitchen table and dreaming of painting music for bands on stage as an artistic representation of their music from that specific performance.  At that time everyone I knew (apart from a very special one or two) thought I was a complete muppet.

This weekend I painted at Knebworth Sonisphere for the second year running,  during the Anthrax gig on Friday and Turbogeist on the Sunday.   

Painting Anthrax was awesome, they’re one of those childhood rock bands that i was nuts about, I mean I remember drawing their logo at home and and school.  One of the beautiful things about what I do is being able to look back through the important music in my life and then paint that very same music live, its quite a privilege.  This is the final painting, which Anthrax described as a “messterpiece” (I’m soooo robbing that word when people ask me to describe my work from now on).

Sunday I visited my twitter mate Jeremy in the Gibson Bus, I’ve never felt like I’m a good enough guitarist to own a Gibson but I may just have to practice more and treat myself.  I’m gonna head down and see the Gibson studio in London soon which I’m proper excited about.

I left Gibson and legged it to the jagermeister stage to paint with Turbogeist.  When I met the guys I was surprised that they had seen the vid i posted two nights before, which was just a piss take vid (although i do love Adele and Sonisphere), but for those of you yet to experience the lyrical genius that is me singing (pretty badly) about Sonisphere in the style of Adele’s Someone Like You, here it is.

Back to Turbogeist, they are shit hot, FACT.  I was painting next to Josh on drums, who I have to say was smashing them to bits which had a big influence on the painting.  I didn’t see the performance because the music pinned me to the canvas, but I do remember turning around having a mutual affirming nod with Jimmy as he swigged some tequila between songs, I also remember Luis coming over mid way rubbing his hands on the painting and then continuing to play the guitar… which added a bit of colour to his Fender.

The other thing I remember distinctly is that that Turbogeist caused me to almost bite my tongue off, Van Gogh may think he was pretty 'ard cutting his ear off…but you try biting your own tongue off and I’ll be impressed!

It happened during the guitar solo of the last songs, i was well into it, and for any of you that’s seen me in action, you know I get into it when I’m in my little zone.  The end of the solo was marked by Josh smashing back into the song as I landed from a jump at the same time, which was the exact point I forgot to move my tongue back far enough, it proper hurt, I proper screamed but noone could hear me.

 

To wrap this rather long blog up, I leave Sonisphere 2011 with fond memories and that’s all thanks to everyone at Sonisphere and Kilamanjaro (particulary Stuart and Steve for looking after me), the bands and their management, the stage crew, Alison, Martin (from Degeneration Films) who was recording the weekend and of course Guy Levy on photography.  


Theres loads of pics and a vid coming to but in the mean time come and say hi on facebook.  I for one am off to listen to some humpback whale music for a few days as a come down to my weekend of metal.

One love

Kx

Jude and I, our first song.

So, as i mentioned in my last blog, i happened to spot a sad looking guitar in a dodgy 2nd hand shop in manchester...and i had to have it.  Facebook Fabs' suggested names for him (yes a guitar has to have a name)...and i decided to go with Jude which was suggested by the lovely Nadine (@daysofjune on twitter)...and to make him even happier I wrote his name on him in Swarovski.

So, since last week Jude and i have been spending a lot of time together, so far we've written half a song together. Here is the first couple of verses for your reading pleasure.

We'll keep you updated on how this develops, i have a feeling that Jude and I will be booking a studio pretty soon :o) 


One Love
Kx 

The things I've loved recently...

Manchester.  I love Manchester. I love that people call people 'Love' in Manchester.  I love that Manchester has made me call people love when I’m in London...and at the end of text messages.

One Love (my monthly music painting installation in London).  It was One Love #13 on the 23^rd May. I painted two great bands, Buildings and then Orlando Seale & The Swell who were both fabulous.  Check all the pictures out on Facebook.

I spotted a very sad looking guitar in the window of a 2^nd hand shop in Manchester, I loved it immediately, so had to buy it.   He is about to be named by Facebook fans and made much much happier (yes it is a He).  

I’m loving my photography buddy Charles Moriarty, he shot me recently…I really love this picture, I will be running a competition with some of his other other shots so keep an eye out!

I’m loving Double Denim.  Hell yeah I’m rocking the look a lot.  I'm gonna start a Facebook Double Denim appreciation society or such like and take pictures of people i spot double deniming hahaha

Love my Bose headphones, I love the Bose sound. I also love cleaning my ears with ear buds, so Bose get double love.

Finally, I loved Cliff Richard's tshirt (yes you did read that correctly) that he wore whilst singing a version of Devil Woman (love that song).... 'I'm Nearly Famous', quality.

One Love.

Kx

Memories make Resurrections

Sorry its been so long since I blogged.  To be completely honest I’ve had a deeply upsetting few weeks and couldn’t bring myself to write anything.  I experienced the loss of someone who was, for a very long time, an incredibly important person in my life…so it totally slammed the brakes on everything else in my head and heart. 

This experience caused me to think lots about death, living and love.  I’ve realized that I’ve found solace in wonderful memories, because these memories brought about an inner presence.

You may know by now that I’m a big fan of Paulo Coelho and Eckhart Tolle, both of which have Christian references and talk about how important it is to live one’s life with a connection to the present moment, the universal oneness that people are starting to realise more and more.  With that in mind, as I’m sitting on the train surrounded by chocolate on Easter Sunday I think about what today really celebrates, the resurrection of Jesus. 

Whilst I’m a Christian, I wouldn’t say I’m particularly religious, I know that’s probably not the best thing to say today of all days, but I do know that Jesus said he came to help mankind live 'abundantly', and that he lives 'within us'.   For me these are two critically important life messages irrespective of your religious views.  The first being, to make your memories living your life with that connection to 'oneness' (which is tough i know!), the second thing which I’ve realized recently is, our memories of the people we’ve loved and lost are actually their resurrection and as long as we have memories, they are not lost at all, they are celebrated and alive within us.

الحب واحد, 一愛, jedna ljubav, ایک محبت, jedna láska, en kærlighed, een liefde, ibig isa, un amour, μια αγάπη, एक प्यार, ein ást, satu cinta, Is breá amháin, un amore, いずれかの愛, 하나 사랑, jedna miłość, um amor, o iubire, одна любовь, Оне Лове, ena ljubezen, moja upendo, หนึ่งความรัก, bir aşk, một tình yêu, un cariad...One Love.


Kx

Someone Like You

I’ve been listening to this incredible song by Adele pretty much all day and had a rare moment with it a few hours ago, just shows the power of music i suppose.

The piano is like a button that, when switched on make both sides of my throat swell and pulsate, my top eyelids get hotter and sting my eyes slightly.  It feels like my corneas are now tear police at a crying riot holding back the tears that are being shoved forward violently by the music creating a build up of pressure, that occasionally gets to the point where my vision is blurred and i cant see the keyboard. 

My brain doesn’t quite realize there’s tears trying to get through because I’m a geezer and I don’t cry easily, but my heart knows very well what's going on because it is beating faster as each emotive lyric resonates deeper and deeper sparking flashes of memories that have been locked away dormant for a long time and when they wake up they jolt me making my lips hold each other with an awkward nervousness as if they were two people about to kiss for the first time.

Every line of the song wakes up another memory, every jolt puts more and more pressure on the tear police, until the moment finally arrives and the tear police think “fuck this”…and one tear gets its freedom.