CAP

yo!.. jim steranko... innit!

GROWING UP IN NEW GUINEA COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA

when I was 13..

I was captain america..

although my favourite comic was x-men..

docile was iron man..

bruin was spidey..

dave was thor..

bugsy was..

let me think about it..

we went out of school comic-ing..

at lunch times..

we would tour the junk shops for 2nd hand marvels..

eat out from the 'old man and woman's' fish and chip shop..

spend a whole weeks school dinner money..

on monday alone..

I had x-men 1..

but when we played in the yard at school..

I was always cap.. 

BORNE BACK CEASELESSLY INTO THE PAST

I would like to say that 'it started on yancy street'..

but it was x-men 12 'beware the juggernaught my son'..

after that I was hooked..

every craze ends of course..

and I sold my collection in the school yard..

at a profit of course..

but we were collecting again by 1970

this time it was spidey..

all the steve ditko ones..

only the best..

I was 18..

I was still cap though..

 

I used this steranko cap..

in my 'A' level art exam..

steranko's stuff drove me mad..

I could not get enough of it..

I had all the shield stuff he did..

anyway..

 on foundation at trent poly..

I created this..

I was into these flaps..

which opened up to alter the image..

more interactive art..

more use of chance..

ellsworh kelly is in the mix..

stewart lees liked the flaps but not the pop art..

neville smith was my main mentor..

I got some of the flap influence from him..

COMING UP

more on flaps..

king elvis has surely come..

whatever happened to peter the painter?

BAUHAUS BALLET

yo!.. game of chance... innit!

I used to go to the ballet..

royal and rambert..

I also used to collect marvel comics..

steve ditko and jack kirby my heroes..

it never occurred to me..

that some may think that strange..

OSKAR SCHLEMMER NOT

anyway..

on foundation..

we got covered in bauhaus lore..

so I created this painting..

consisting  of 12 cubes..

which people could arrange in any way they liked..

interactive in 1971..

ODD JOBS 

my fine art lecturer..

steve willats..

the first words out of his mouth..

at our first seminar..

"painting is dead"

it's gonna be..

cybernetics, electronics, bulletin boards, messaging and control..

we even had to buy his 'control' magazine

well I was totally underwhelmed..

I came to paint..

I think now that he may have been..

talking about something not yet invented..

but he was working on a version..

of a website..

sort of craig's list..

or whatever..

perhaps I should have listened to more to steve