#arrowsofdesire

Sketchbook 16 started before sketchbook 15 but (because 15 was volume two of 14) I am archiving them in this order because this work is unrelated to the Rudeboy stuff. This book records the time around circa 2007-2008 AD (although records were less accurate after the Romans left Britain) it is called the Book of Forgiveness because each book is titled in response to the first words of text in each book. The books of the Old Testament are titled like this, for instance Genesis, (where our words like genetics and generation come from) is a corruption of the first three words from Hebrew “Bereshith”- “In the Beginning...”. My work follows similar rules. Thus have I heard, the Bodhisattva Pete Jones was teaching ceramics to a great multitude and described the material response to handling as “There is a point of maximum and minimum forgiveness - hearing this many listeners achieved spontaneous enlightenment. This quote from him is the first text in the book on the inside cover with Saint Sebastian. Following that is the cover itself, several line drawings and postcards collected from my trip to London with Bahooba and a list of frightening diseases that Dr @stephenbrotherstoneart was working on cures for. #sketchbook #journaling #drawing #nostalgia #archiving #ideasdevelopment #2000s #saintsebastian #memories #queerartist #liverpoolartist #arrowsofdesire (at Toxteth, L8) https://www.instagram.com/p/CgrQl8iMYKC/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Back to 2020 This set continues with more delayed documenta from The #arrowsofdesire show in London some time earlier and under the benediction of the saints mentioned yesterday. The first page are details from two of the standing Sebastian figures that were shown and at the bottom is the shield (based on a flattened version of a Roman scutum made from a closet door). The arrows, suggesting it was Sebastian’s shield, had passed right through it and it was called “That Which Cannot Protect You” on the surface was written in loose prose an imagined account of his trial and condemnation. It was transported to London by Saint @starrursula . The next page was at the V&A where there is a stunning silver reliquary containing a fragment of one of his bones. I went there to make prostrations and met a Spanish curator there who told told me she was from a village which venerated him as a patron Saint. She seemed perfectly ok with why a queer Buddhist might come to venerate a Catholic Saint, told me a lot about her life and took this photo for me. The next page was the small private shrine with flowers and incense and little sculptures for moments of quiet contemplation built by Saint @manko.sebastian at the back of the #horsehospital . The fourth page was a close up of the two saints who welcomed me to the exhibition and took me out for breakfast the next day. In the middle of them is a smiting warning from the Lord⚠️ and the last page is the lay out of some of these close ups #sketchbook #archive #saintsebastian #arrowsofdesireexhibition #victoriaandalbertmuseum #reliquary #intaglio #intaglioprint #printmakersofinstagram #pilgrimage #prostration #londinium (at The Horse Hospital) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb8SjDfsFES/?utm_medium=tumblr

This set continues with more documenta from The #arrowsofdesire show in London under the benediction of the saints mentioned yesterday. The first page are details from two of the standing Sebastian figures that were shown and at the bottom is the shield (based on a flattened version of a Roman scutum made from a closet door). The arrows, suggesting it was Sebastian’s shield, had passed right through it and it was called “That Which Cannot Protect You” on the surface was written in loose prose an imagined account of his trial and condemnation. It was transported to London by Saint @starrursula . The next page was at the V&A where there is a stunning silver reliquary containing a fragment of one of his bones. I went there to make prostrations and met a Spanish curator there who told told me she was from a village which venerated him as a patron Saint. She seemed perfectly ok with why a queer Buddhist might come to venerate a Catholic Saint, told me a lot about her life and took this photo for me. The next page was the small private shrine with flowers and incense and little sculptures for moments of quiet contemplation built by Saint @manko.sebastian at the back of the #horsehospital . The fourth page was a close up of the two saints who welcomed me to the exhibition and took me out for breakfast the next day. In the middle of them is a smiting warning ⚠️ and the last page is the lay out of some of these close ups #sketchbook #archive #saintsebastian #arrowsofdesireexhibition #victoriaandalbertmuseum #reliquary #intaglio #intaglioprint #printmakersofinstagram #pilgrimage #prostration #londinium (at The Horse Hospital) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKgtLo2BZxF/?igshid=1qunvpslsx7gu

This little set was also prep for the collagrsphs I was making for #arrowsofdesire while I was deciding on direction. The first two are chemical etched with the copper masked by a sharpie drawing of #saintsebastian The lines drawn are protected from the mordant and anywhere left without line is etched away causing recesses in the plate that ink can be rubbed into. The second one has a layer of dimple colour that turned out to be too clumsy so I reverted to black and white. The third page was an idea for an arrow with s golden halo followed by two of my favourite pages from this book of experimental samples. In terms of intaglio collagraph the possibilities for textures that hold ink in different ways are near endless and the discovery is such good fun play I was hooked. Two further pages of experiments describe slightly more subversive play with Baldwin’s Intaglio Ground which is not an ink but is too beautiful a burgundy wine type colour not to notice. #sketchbook #sketchbookdrawing #sketchbookpage #drawing #archive #liverpoolartist #queerartist #intaglioprint #printmakersofinstagram #acidetching #intaglio (at Rose Lane Liverpool) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEj54jknUwt/?igshid=1oixzf2lw0bfr

An oldie while I wait to get some Chaotic Neutral vinyl to shoot for the website. Matthew Good Arrows Of Desire on limited edition VIP white vinyl and the Special edition Europe double disk cd. The car on the front is a 68 firebird which I had to do some photoshop gymnastics to recreate the burnt out view on the back. It turned out great and used the back image for the single covers. #matthewgood #arrowsofdesire #vinyl #music #firebird #tbt