Demo Pop Art Diaries 14

You Can Pester Me, But, I’m Sorry,

Some Of These Items Are Not For Sale!

A Look Forward To The East London Design Show.

Loz Taylor, Demo Pop Artist, is about to exhibit at the East London Design Show. He is hoping to catch the eye of some serious players in the home furnishings market (Liberty, Harrods, John Lewis, etc), as well as the art market (name any gallery you like that appreciates traceable ideas and a strong aesthetic).

Interestingly, then, there will be some items on his stand that will not be for sale.

Footstool and Cushions:

(An early montage of Taylor’s prototype of the Greyhound footstool)

A “Greyhound” footstool and cushions will be on display at the ELDS, but will not be for sale. Taylor is hoping that store buyers will come and test their quality, and enjoy the experience of sitting on them! A “True Love” rug, which he is hoping to produce on a larger scale, will also be on show.  

Taylor also wants to promote the idea of making the limited issue print of “New York City Beat” into a large floor cushion.

Pester Me

A Modern Day Mona Lisa?

Twenty years ago Taylor found a photo of Tilda Swinton in a magazine and cut it out. Years later he was to manipulate it, add a background and four lines of poetry, and re-launch it as a Demo-Pop Art work called ‘Pester Me’.

Taylor would love to know who originally took the photograph so he could give it a full and appropriate accreditation. He would also like to know what Tilda Swinton herself thinks of it.  The image now is a beautiful and semi surreal vision of a captivating woman, with piercing alien eyes that follow you wherever you go.

Taylor has set the image on a split level landscape, the “horizon” of which deliberately meets the face at the level of the mouth, adding to the enigmatic quality of what could be her smile?  Taylor has also added four lines of equally enigmatic poetry to add further mystery to the pieces already ethereal quality.

At present the canvas image is stretched over pine bars. He has no intention of selling it, or even thinking of a price tag, until such time as he identifies the taker of the original photograph. 

But it will be on display at the East London Design Show. So make sure you come along to see this modern day Mona Lisa.

The “Edie” Dress

Another item on the stand to be admired, but not yet purchased, is the “Edie” dress. Much flaunted on these diary pages in recent times, the dress is to be based on one of Taylor’s Demo-pop Art works titled “Young Blades Are Just So Glam”. The image is to be transformed into a vintage style 1960’s mini-dress. A work featuring a famous model who worked with the king of Pop Artists turned into a fashion dress designed by Loz Taylor, Demo Pop Artist, fitting isn’t it? 

Having said that, the dress itself will be a thoroughly modern construction, a fashion item that is both stylish and practical unlike some fashion prototypes, the Edie dress will be made, and will be made to wear! 

Taylor is currently organising the manufacture of two different prototypes. One is being made by screen printing the image/design directly onto the chosen material, while the other will be transferred onto the material by a textile printer. Although it is by no means a competition, it will be interesting to see how the two forms of manufacture “stack up” against each another.

Edith “Edie” Minturn Sedgwick (April 20, 1943 – November 16, 1971) was an American actress, socialite, model and heiress, who always wanted to be the “It Girl” of her time, and so she quickly became; she was a very ambitious young blade indeed, and was associated for some time with Andy Warhol.  Indeed it could be said that it is because of this that Taylor chose her as the subject for his image, he certainly has an affinity with her, but we both realise as we talk that it runs deeper than that.  Regardless of her associations, specifically with Warhol, Taylor is actually striving, almost unconsciously, to preserve a group of very select icons that all mean something to him personally, whether they are youth or childhood heroes, or figures for which he has great admiration.

Indeed looking at Taylor’s back catalogue of images, we can definitely see a real attempt by the artist to preserve these iconic stars forever in his artwork. His work has often included pieces that feature iconic figures as part of a “bigger” message that the artist was delivering at the time. It is interesting to record here that he chose these particular figures to help deliver those visual messages as opposed to contemporary faces in the public eye at the time the images were created.

Taylor has in fact created a kind of mini Demo Pop young blades gallery! Featuring images taken of these stars at the top of their game such as:

Michael Caine in “A Message From Munich”

Man Ray in “Man Ray Stops Bullets”

Andy Warhol in “Portrait of Andy Warhol”

We talk a little more about how some stars in music, like Amy Winehouse and Michael Buble, devote their careers to keep alive and adding to a certain genre of music, and it put me in mind of when I heard a radio show about Buble. The presenter was talking about when Buble was interviewing to sign with Reprise Records, who handled the back catalogue of the star that set up the label , one Frank Sinatra, when asked why they needed him when they already had Sinatra, Buble was reported to have said “Frank is dead, why let the music die with him?”

I am left to ponder as I leave my friend for this week, if he is not doing just that for Warhol in his absence, not copying, not striving to imitate, but fiercely determined to keep the Pop Art dream alive.

Richard Gibbons 06/11/2011

Demo pop Art diaries 13

Looking back on Parallax

Looking in on the Frieze Exhibition

 Looking Forward to the East London Design Show

I met with Loz Taylor today for the first time since the Parallax Art Fair to find out how things had gone and to ask about his plans for the next big exhibition:

Before Parallax began Taylor went on line to PRWEB.COM to produce a press release which reached several websites under the headline “Gambler Rolls the Dice at Parallax Art Fair”

Thursday 13^th the first private view   

Parallax he tells me was very well attended, perhaps too well as with each stand being compartmentalised there was not too much room to get around so it seemed a little more cramped than it should. But after the first surge the flow improved and the people were able to keep moving.  As the night wore on the crowds even thinned enough for Taylor to be able to stand by his own work and converse with half a dozen or so people and fully explain as only he can, what his work represents.

Taylor took six pieces with him to Parallax but the one that garnered the most interest was “Dogs of War”. The artist found it very gratifying when he was able to make the ultimate one to one connection with the viewer he was delighted to see how the aesthetic first led people to look at the pieces and then once “hooked” how readily they took on board the meaning.

In truth I think the spark Taylor was creating by delivering these explanations was having just as profound an impact on him because the delivery of the honesty behind the message on the paper is of paramount importance to Taylor, he believes possibly above all else in the power of his work to Demonstrate the truth in beauty and the innate beauty in truth. 

Parallax itself was according to Taylor very professionally run with empathetic staff who also understood the work he displayed and were more than happy to wear his demo pop badges. Indeed as a gesture of thanks to the staff at the end of the exhibition Taylor left some his prints in London for the Curator and his staff to keep.

                                   Positive Race Riot                      

      

                                          The Prelude

    

Friday 14^th a quiet day for reflection, standing and waiting.

Taylor had much more time on this day to talk at length to people who came by his stand and to hand out badges, cards and catalogues. There was also time to visit the Frieze art exhibition in Regents Park which was happening at the same time. It was the first time he had visited this exhibition and wanted to check it out with a view to seeing what the worlds best galleries had to offer and putting his own work into context. He tells me he saw some excellent pieces but also that there were plenty of exhibits that led him to think that his work would bear comparison with what he saw, he also felt something else … he felt at home.

The exhibition allowed VIP’s first entry, at the hour between eleven and twelve, with civilians gaining admittance thereafter. Taylor and his business partner who accompanied him did not have to queue though, as he had had the foresight to purchase four-day passes for the exhibition in advance. 

Saturday 14^th the day of the second private view at Parallax

Again the day was well attended, and there were plenty of people to talk to. There was one occasion where a group of young women stopped to admire Taylor’s work. One remarked that the image “Positive Race Riot” would look great as a scarf. At this point Taylor’s business partner, Doreen, pointed out that “Young Blades Are Just So Glam” was already going to be transformed into an ‘Edie’ dress, and that this was a direction in which they were greatly interested.

They then presented one of the young women with a set of “Girl Dreaming” cards; she and her friends appeared very touched and appreciative of the gesture and of the aesthetics of the art itself.

Taylor also remembers one elderly lady in particular who, when passing, really appreciated the fun element in his work. It was great for him to see that his work reached out to all age groups in this way.

One important facility that Parallax did not afford Taylor, however, was the space to adequately show off all the 3D work he currently has to exhibit.  It will be a very different story at The East London Design Show. Running from 2-4^th December 2011, at Shoreditch Town Hall, Taylor has a much larger corner area, giving him the opportunity to show all his products to their best advantage, i.e. his digital prints (some framed, others an the art browser he was hoping to take to Parallax), The Greyhound Clock, the footstool the cushions et al. He is also looking forward to unveiling the hotly awaited “Edie” dress, the prototype of which should be produced any day now! It will be a great mix of 2D and 3D works, showing off fully the potential that Demo Pop Art has to live and ultimately prosper in the twenty First Century.

Taylor himself believes that this is the perfect time for his products to be showcased, as the disciplines of art and design are now coming together as never before. And so with only six weeks to the start of the East London Design Show, thoughts are already turning to hiring a van, booking hotels, printing catalogues, choosing works etc, etc. A Demo Pop Artist’s work is never done!

    

      

  

         

  

Demo Pop Art Diaries 12 - Drawing Conclusions

In Which Taylor packs a surprise “Punch” as a Cartoonist

I know I have talked at great length over the past few weeks about the Parallax art fair but I couldn’t let this edition go by without mentioning the cartoon that Taylor has drawn for his blog entitled “Loz Taylor a Warhol wannabe?” normally I would post a copy of it here on my blog but why don’t you check it out at http://stored-images.blogspot.com/

Of course I have known for some time, since doing the early biographical entries of the diaries in fact that my friend Loz Taylor was much earlier in life a cartoonist of some ability having been published in several local papers. He began this part of his career after being granted a paid, youth work experience place doing basically whatever he was good at! He chose drawing cartoons and this kept him in very reasonable style for a teenager whilst he also indulged himself in his other interests of Horse Racing, gambling and other youthful pursuits!

His Cartoons covered several different styles and he loved from the start, that cartoons were totally by definition illustrated ideas, showing that from his very early teens he has had a bias for art that is ideas based.
Running through his cartoon works are two main themes.  There is a keen wit which is softened and distanced from the hard edged and often coarse humour of the day due in part to the young Taylors love of earlier cartoon books such as Punch and the popular American cartoon books of the 1950’s and an equally keen cynicism based largely on his experiences in and around the Methodist Church his Parents used to tend. He witnessed a great deal of hypocrisy there and it left its mark.  It is also important to mention I think at this time that almost all of his cartoons were drawn in either Birmingham or Dudley Central Libraries which provided not only access to an endless supply of works of reference, a great boon to an aspiring artist but also to a haven away from home.

Surroundings at these respected establishments were plush; Taylor had a desk to himself, a table lamp, and quiet surroundings with only the Church clock to alert him to the time on the hour every hour. All was very different from the frankly sub-standard accommodation provided by the Church for his family, there was a quality here it was a window into another world.  Taylor paints a vivid picture as he recalls that as he walked into the Libraries he felt he was “leaving the real world and escaping from reality one floor at a time” it was truly a glimpse of what life could have been perhaps a vision for a young man of what his life could be in the future.

Gentle it may be but look here at the expressions on the father and son characters, the acceptance and pleasure on the face of the child seeing the plough pub floating unnaturally in the sky and the father, wearing a slightly world weary expression. Either he is just upset that his favourite pub is floating around in space or, and this is what I would like to think he is just resigned to disappointment in the fact that his son accepts its appearance without question!!

We have all been in conversation with someone and felt that warm glow when something funny we have said has been received with the laughter we had hoped for. It is a glorious affirmation indeed, but to have an idea and then to be able to perfectly execute it on paper as a cartoon is a separate skill. It is a cold black and white medium and you have to immediately take the viewer out of whatever mood they are in or whatever they are thinking about, maybe the worries of the day and transport them to your characters world and make them smile or even laugh, that is no mean feat! The following cartoon did that for me!

This, my own personal favourite of Taylor’s Cartoons is a study in hope and despair, it shows what could be any one of us having got dressed to face the day, we psyche ourselves up for whatever it can throw at us and then we fall unceremoniously at the first hurdle, that split second realization that we have failed at something so unimportant as forgetting our sandwiches instantly removing all our confidence and bravado and reminding us of our infinite fallibility.  Once again I am drawn to the expression created by a simple single line in the third frame, have you ever seen dejection done better?

Above Martin has the sympathy of us all, or perhaps his wife has? Here is a wonderful statement poking fun at the ridiculous nature of certain advertising hook lines. Do you love anyone enough to give them your last Rollo? You might ask instead how likely your relationship is to succeed if, not sacrificing your last chocolate to your loved one could lead to its downfall?? Beware what lies in store for the poor man of the house when an inability to choose the correct wash cycle could lead to a future of self- harming!

Drawing under his usual pseudonym of Laurie, Taylor here surely speaks to many a hen-pecked husband or son-in-law (Or both) just observe the despair in his face and the ultra-dark dress of the wife and mother or mother-in-law who are far too busy gossiping to notice that the poor sap behind them is becoming the first human “Gas guzzler” also note the over long nose of the “Nosy” Mother-in-law, perfect characterisations.

Taylor tells me it has become obvious to him of late that in not releasing all of his work he is restricting what the potential collector can see of his work and in doing so restricting many possible business opportunities also.  Below in “Just can’t face Lorraine” we see what Taylor tells me is his reminder not to hold on to an idea too long without putting it into the public domain. Approximately fifteen years after he drew it and recorded the phrase on paper, he saw the same phrase utilizing the same implication on a bill hoarding!  I have left the explanation of the image to the Artist as thankfully he saw fit to record it at the time.

Below: we see a rare but nonetheless well observed political statement from Taylor portraying his reflection of how he saw life and its effect on us all from the 1960’s to the 1990’s.

Below: Again the gentle side of Taylor’s humour, the hat and lack of hair on the man in this piece possibly giving clues as to the time period.

During his time as a cartoonist Taylor also flirted for a while with the idea of being a comic- book artist in the super hero style (Below) thankfully however Taylor’s humour has since proved a lot more difficult to defeat than the hapless “Hula Hoop Man” We can only hope for the future of the art world that all the people in the City Hall Library were eventually saved, but hopefully by a super hero representative of a more robust snack, one with a tougher hide maybe, perhaps Pork Scratching Man?   

Whilst it is true to say that some of Taylor’s cartoon work does highlight a cynical view of the world, religion and politics this is juxtaposed by the usual character of the man himself who I have always found to be a firmly hopeful and positive individual who propels himself forward with great power and enthusiasm in a world of numerous knock backs and great competition. We are at the end of our meeting now and we have chatted for two hours about what was only a fleeting part of Taylor’s art career, a part that has been put to bed for many years now to enable him to concentrate on his “Fine art” work but I can’t help but smile when I see him pack away the works he has been showing me, they are lovingly placed in individual plastic wallets which are then filed in two large binders covered in his own art work, I know there is a pride in everything this man does, but more importantly perhaps a knowledge that nothing is wasted and that perhaps when the time is right…after all you never know when you may need to produce a cartoon, oh isn't that where we came in??

Richard Gibbons 28th September 2011
     

Demo Pop Art Diaries 11 - A Parallax AF Special

Parallax Art Fair London from Oct 14th – 16th 

An Interview with Loz Taylor

I met with My friend Loz Taylor today and rather than follow our usual format where I ask questions and we have a conversation which I then relay to you in my own words, we felt that an interview style piece would work well as he wishes to give his very specific thoughts on the forthcoming Parallax Art Fair as mentioned previously in these pages. Taylor is very excited this morning and buzzing not surprisingly about his forthcoming showing at Parallax, so I ask him:

Is this the first Art Fair you have done?

“Yes, usually Art Fairs are for galleries to show the works of the Artists they represent, whereas this one is for self-representing Artists to show their works. There is a rigorous selection process whereby Chris Barlow will request a link from an Artist’s website and then decide from what he sees which Artists will be included – I have done shows in Wolverhampton, London and even Slovenia but none of the size of Parallax.  There will be critics, dealers, collectors and a knowledgeable public in attendance, and it will be taking place at the same time as the Frieze Art Fair, so the whole of the Art world will be around at the same time”.

Tell me a little about the digital images you will be showing:

a) Ribbons and razor wire:

 “Yes, this image will be used as an example for the catalogue, as I feel it is a strong piece which depicts the double edged sword of success: for example, you hear of a couple who have been married for years winning several million on the Lottery and it splits them up. Or Amy Winehouse, would she have gone down the same road if not for her success? The ribbons therefore represent the positive side of success, and the razor wire the failure. It is one of my favourite images, and is done in a true Pop Art style, which I am addicted to, and feel is still relevant today”.

b) Positive race riot:

 “Influenced, to some degree, by Warhol, who produced several stark images of actual race riots. In my image ‘race’ is depicted as a horse race and riot as in what would happen if you got a great many riders and horses together at the same time. It would resemble a riot but would be a “positive” thing turning the original negative depiction into a strong positive image. Also there is the very deliberate use of the many different colours to represent mixed race harmony”.

c) Dogs of War:

“Another strong image I feel. I realised that a chess family is composed of six individuals, and related this naturally to the six greyhound racing colours. I designed and drew the image which was then produced in 3D on computer by my artist friend Lloyd Austins. The name “Dogs of War” presented itself to me because of the link between dogs and war i.e. dogs -greyhounds and war – the game of chess itself”.

d) Perfect Score:

“This is a still from a video which I feel perfectly demonstrates the meaning of Demo Pop Art. The dance theme led me to think of Ice Skating and the perfect score of 6. The woman in the video is provocatively dressed in black and white stripes (the number 6 greyhound colour) also the word score has a sexual reference which I found fitted perfectly with the image. Because for me it represents exactly what I am about with Demo Pop Art, I added the words “Demo Pop” to the image, the first time I had done so”. 

e) The Audition:

“One of my very favourite images, Demo Pop is about, among other things, ambition and competition, and auditions are a hotbed of both. The girls in the image are competing against one another, hence the greyhound colours that they are wearing. It is to me a perfect piece of Demo pop Art. I am very happy with the appearance of it. It is cute like a piece of candy!.”

f) Young Blades Are Just So Glam:

 “One of the original pieces of mine to use the greyhound jacket colours. Pointing to the fact that life is of course a race. It represents the bright young things “going for it” and using Edie Sedgwick seemed a good choice as she epitomised exactly that”.

So tell me Loz will there any surprises in store at Parallax?

“Well, I will definitely be taking along a 3D sample of the Greyhound Footstool, which will be going into production shortly, so people will be able to order those. I would like to mention here that I have received a lot of help with the footstool from Sara Macnab, a fashion designer from London, who has been brilliant throughout the whole process of its pre-production. The stool will be available at the Fair to sit on so it will be just the thing for a weary Fair-goer after a long day walking around"


"Also I will have an Arts Browser at the Fair because I want to present a selection of A3 prints to allow people to browse examples of my other work i.e. Power of Radio, Painted Bottles, Kidnap, Servants of Time etc. I intend to show one of each in the browser so that the visitor to the stand can rummage through and discover them. The idea behind A3 is to offer Fine Art prints to people who want the quality image but may not necessarily have the space for A1."


"I may have a few posters as well! I want to make 
some posters available of certain non-catalogue images such as the Pop Art cartoon “couple in the car” or the single girl “Audition” image, things that are on the periphery of Demo Pop Art but are pointing to it, promoting or advertising it if you like, but they work aesthetically and make great posters!”




So what about your catalogue for the event, how is that coming along? 


“I am currently putting together the catalogue for Parallax which will include most of my Demo Pop images, each of which will have a unique reference number. There will be another section on the 3D products i.e. the footstool, the clock, and the rug, and also a section on the posters I just mentioned. I will also include a description of Demo Pop Art and Limited Issue Prints or (LIPS). I want very much for everyone to be able to walk away from the stand with something solid and memorable - people sometimes need time to digest all they have seen and also the idea, the concept of Demo Pop Art. The catalogue will enable them to do this at their leisure. It also provides a permanency, a way to look back to the Art and the images at a later time, and who knows maybe even fall in love with an image or two - all the necessary contact details will be there!”

Any Freebies?


“Yes, apart from the catalogues I will have a selection of free Demo-Pop badges, providing again something solid and eye catching. Strong and colourful mini Demo Pop Art to take away! There will also be fridge magnets, adding a bit of variety to the mix, which I feel has always been an aspect of some of my art anyway.”

What do you hope to achieve by showing at Parallax?


“I want to above all raise my profile as a Demo Pop Artist, to deliver a message that I feel needs to be repeated so it can sink into the conscience of the art buying public. I am acutely aware that before people will collect DPA they need to understand it, and I am confident that with understanding will come a deeper appreciation”.

You’re hoping for a few sales then?


“Yes, of course! Sales mean that the Demo Pop Art family can be developed still further from digital prints to the transposing of my images/designs onto 3D objects such as chess sets, clocks, rugs, table lamps etc, and then even further into fashion and jewellery. Also, personally, sales validate what I am doing and are personally gratifying. I am not afraid of being commercial and producing “Business Art” there is no stigma attached to it any more, this is the 21st century and the current generation of artists and collectors are completely at home with the concept”.

Will you be looking at other Artist’s work?


“Absolutely, this is a great opportunity to see a collection of artworks from all over the world, and also to measure the standard of work present. I am sure it will only serve to help me make better art in the future. I am also looking forward to meeting with other artists.”    
             

So, what’s next after Parallax?


“The East London Design Show: I am looking forward to the ELDS and to showing my design work. I should have samples of the cushions and a properly manufactured “Greyhound Clock” by then!”

The East London Design Show (or ELDS) is an annual event that brings together the best of the UK's independent product, interior and jewellery designers, all under one roof and will take place at Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London in early December. For more info visit:
http://www.eastlondondesignshow.co.uk/info/





 

Demo Pop Art Diaries 10

Is the Picture still the same even when the people taking it have changed?

The Relevance of a Pop Artist in the 21st century: A Personal Opinion.

I am not meeting my friend Loz Taylor this week as he has a very important meeting involving his other great love beside Demo Pop Art - Horse Racing - and although, as we have seen, the two worlds can be compatible, he has not yet found a successful way of being in two places at once! Therefore it is left for me to ponder a subject matter for this the latest in my series on Demo Pop Art.

In putting together these articles I often, as you know, quote from Pop Art legends such as Warhol, Lichtenstein and the like, and I am often conscious that even though Lichtenstein only passed away as recently as 1997, I am constantly quoting from dead Artists, Artists that popularised their movement 40 years or more ago. I can’t help but ponder then whether it can be as relevant now to base art production on today’s Popular Culture, since that “mass” is taken for granted as being our main means of production and celebrity culture has become so commonplace it appears available to us all for far more than 15 minutes.  Indeed a contestant on big brother or the apprentice can have very realistic expectations of their own chat show series and having their weddings photographed by Hello magazine!

But I think personally that when Warhol was referring to the picture never changing, even if the people in it do, I don’t think he was referring to the physical change of the subject matter in subsequent years, but more the capturing of a moment in time as proof positive that it existed. He loved that the photograph preserved an exact and perfect beauty, regardless of how that perfection may fade in time. Indeed all through his productive phase he used photography and printing techniques as a way of “capturing” the present as a portent to the future because for all his obsession with the here and now Warhol was an astute and intelligent man who could not have succeeded in the way he did without an eye on both the present and the future and what was to come. He was also a romantic who would have wanted some form of preservation for not just his work but the times in which he enjoyed creating it. I have observed this as a recurring theme when delving into the background of Pop Art and Pop Artists. It is interesting to me as a non-practitioner of the visual arts to note the drive of these men and women was to exploit much of what was around them and that which was “Popular” by taking the subject matter they wished to use out of its original context and mix it with other media or objects to create what they considered to be relevant Art and yet instead of breaking away in some new form of surrealist movement to propagate their ideals they all felt an overwhelming urge to in some way copy and therefore preserve the very things they were taking out of context. In other words the subject matter of the piece became just as important to the fame or infamy of the piece as the artistic idea it was trying to purvey.

The difference with Warhol though is that he was not concerned about leaving intact the connection between his work and its subject matter for all to see indeed in his later years his work became almost like that of the Royal Portrait painter except rather than being commissioned by Royalty he sought out his subjects Marilyn Munroe, Elvis Presley, Jackie Onassis, driven by his own deep fascination with Celebrity culture and mass media. I truly believe that Warhol enjoyed creating images that although augmentations of the reality were no less an homage to it for that. In short what Warhol was doing in his silk screen print work and his “normal” photographic studies was leaving for posterity a trace element of the truth behind his beloved popular culture.

 Marilyn silk screen print

                   

Elvis silk screen print

                                                                                           

                                                                                                        Jackie Onassis silk screen print

So, yes it is now 64 years since Eduardo Paolozzi  first used the term “pop” in his work “ I was a rich man’s plaything”, 15 years since we lost Lichtenstein nearly 25 years since Warhol’s departure and my question of the relevance of Demo Pop Art seems to be answering itself as I write. Is it necessary in 2011 to create “time capsules” of the now for the future whether in their existing or some altered state….No the media now exists to preserve anyone or anything in a million and one ways and for all time and incredibly Warhol’s screen printing techniques are now available as an I phone app! (I feel he would have somehow approved) so you can transform the appearance of your friends (or enemies) for fun. However the salient point here is the need to retain the relevance of creating that trace between beauty and truth in the time which is yours and yours alone.

                                             Eduardo Paolozzi’s I was a rich man’s plaything.

Some may feel when you see the vast array of Warhol merchandise that is out there at present that it is a “cheapening” of his legacy that he has become in many ways the victim of his own predictions that when we repeat the same thing over and over we get acclimatised to or de-sensitised to it. It is my belief however that in knowing that it would happen he was already planning for it and that the incredible growth in the mass production of his own images and the still huge demand for them shows just what an extraordinary visionary he was.

It is with exactly this belief and also (having researched the genre) with the knowledge that there is a distinct lack of non-conceptual and non-traditional art out there at present, that I can foursquare place Demo Pop Art in the frame as the 21st century representative of the Pop Art tradition and say YES it is entirely relevant.
Having said that then I need to clarify my reasoning and that is the very thing that should have been obvious to me all along. It is that very “traceable element” not that Taylor does not use contemporary imagery, he does, and not that he does not in certain works then re-hone that imagery and extrapolate or modify it by adding his own connotation, he does this also, as in “perfect score” for example, but it is the fact that his images have the same perceptible and observable link to some solid theme or concept as many major Pop Art Works.

                                                                      “Perfect Score”

Of course it could be argued that Warhol himself was not a true Pop Artist in that he spent a large part of his productive era replicating pre-existing items rather than going down the more traditional metamorphic path of say Richard Hamilton’s “Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?” below.

Richard Hamilton (24 February 1922 – 13 September 2011) 

The fact that Taylor also produces purely aesthetically pleasing pieces as part of his portfolio only seems to add, for me to the enigma that is the link between the two men. However I am not intending here to make crude and sensationalist comparisons between Warhol and Taylor, apart from anything else the time that stands between them removes any possibility for this.  The media and Arts landscape is very different now and many of the things Warhol foretold have become stark and often alarming truths not only is fame now commonplace but it is also infinitely disposable.

Taylor is operating in a world that is now changed irrevocably the innocent eyes that were startled and sometimes blinded by the assault of Pop Art’s bold imagery are now steeled and cynical and they cast a doubting glance on any art that big money hasn’t shown them is good art.

However there are many links of course between Taylor’s work and that of the Pop Art pioneers, but I believe there are even more between Taylor and Warhol, not only artistically but ideologically. Taylor considers his Art to be contemporary and meaningful but also that it should be aesthetically appealing. He employs modern imagery to present his own thoughts on the world and it is important to him that the themes he illustrates can be traced back to something solid and meaningful he also believes that Art should be available for the masses to collect but more than that he has the same ideology regarding producing his work as a business and employs the same work ethic with a view to making his art and products successful in the market place.

Of course there are also major inherent flaws in this comparison the most notable of which becomes apparent when you compare what their individual works are meant to convey when viewed by their audience. When you view the works of Warhol of course you have to keep a certain context in mind, that being that he was making a strong statement about what was then a burgeoning world of mass production, consumerism and celebrity culture reminding the world how available it all was regardless of who or what you were and it is difficult to look at them coolly in isolation and perhaps it is a mistake to do so.  But I feel it is true to say that primarily, instead of finding his own individual and unique subject matter, though at first he tried to, in reality he perfected his own unique and individual style instead.  At the suggestion of his friends he painted the things he loved i.e. consumer products, celebrities, money etc.  He replicated and then sometimes remodelled what he saw and because of that from then on he stood apart from the main stream of Pop Art.  In short the message in a Warhol piece is in essence what the image itself is saying, his Campbell’s soup cans or Brillo boxes are brilliant symbols of the time and the society that created them, but they are still representations of something already conceived and designed elsewhere.

 Warhol’s iconic Campbell’s soup can.

However, What Taylor does in his best work I feel is present an image that instead of itself being an entirely complete message it is in effect a conduit, channelling a strong idea or a theme and delivering it directly to the viewer. The difference being that the idea or theme is often something that is not necessarily within the piece itself but can directly be traced from it. Less direct, more subtle. Yes, he uses imagery from his own world and his own time and in this way he provides a genuine continuance of the Pop Art genre, but unlike Warhol, these images have a deeper meaning individually rather than as the kind of mass statement Warhol was making.

So here is an interesting question to leave you with. If we accept that the previous paragraph can be accurately said to describe the qualities of both Warhol and Taylor, then I dare to extrapolate the theory even further and ask…Does Loz Taylor and his work “stack up” as an extension of an Art form from more than 40 years ago? Or does in fact Andy Warhol have more in common with 21st Century Demo Pop Art than with 20th Century Pop Art?
         

Demo Pop Art Diaries 8

Systems and Codes: 6.0, 6.0, 6.0 the number of the Beasts.

When, in his youth Taylor found himself embroiled in the world of horse racing for the first time, his primary interest fast became finding a code or system to make as much money as possible out of gambling in order to escape the perceived “hell” of being stuck in a “dead end job”. He believed that this would allow him to make money whilst also allowing him to continue indulging in his favourite pastime.

Of course he soon found out, like many before him, that finding a successful new system was easier said than done.  The problem is he tells me that “Even if you design a system that works they only have a finite life span as they are ‘closed off’ as soon as they are discovered”. Also there are too many variables in a sport as dynamic as horse racing to expect it to fit into, as Taylor himself puts it a “straight jacket” of a system.

However as Taylor searched tirelessly for a system he found that as in the words of Thomas Jefferson, (or any of the many golfers it has been ascribed to) “The more he practised the luckier he became” and that as a happy by-product he developed an extensive knowledge of the form book very quickly. Taylor soon realised that this was the ‘real system’ and the only one that seemed to work long term, finding many more winners were produced by going through this process than with any system he had produced thus far. One interesting character trait that emerged from this time was that Taylor developed a distinct strength for recognising patterns in everyday things not only in the world of sport and gambling.

Taylor mentions with reference to his image of the chess set that for example many things in sport can be referenced by the number 6 he realised that a chess set is broken down into six component parts (rather than as most people would perhaps see it as two sets of teams of sixteen) i.e. rooks, knights, bishops, Kings, Queens and of course pawns. Also he reminds me of the six sides on a dice and the six jacket colours of his beloved racing greyhounds which he brought to life on the face of his clock which he designed always in the knowledge that to make it work it needed to be broken down into components of six.

Dogs of War, Taylor’s Chess Set Design. 

There are many more references to the number six in sport we could have explored but at this point in our conversation Taylor is keen to tell me that he is also very interested in exploring win/lose sequences, how they occur, and wants to incorporate this and also lottery based codes and matrices i.e. 7x7 =49, into his art in the near future.

 Taylor acknowledges that producing his daily speed ratings column for Attheraces.com, and making sense of it in the process, is all about recognising patterns within the form of the horses. Also he informs me, with the typical enthusiasm he always shows on this subject, “you can examine an environment in which a horse has not raced before in order to “project” what may happen during the race”. This use of imagination and thought projection is one of the many things that inextricably link the art to the sport for Taylor.

I reflect as I write that it is ironic in the extreme how the two worlds of art and racing now not only co-exist, but provide a type of positive cross- fertilisation.

When, as we have seen from previous entries, Taylor spent a good many years thinking that, out of seeming necessity, his pursuit of success in racing and gambling and his love of art needed to be forcibly kept apart!  

Taylor tells me that he believes there are very many codes, sequences and associations such as in “perfect score” that he has yet to use in his work, and he is looking in the future to make as many connections with these as possible. After all as Marcus Du Sautoy says in his BBC programme “The Code”, “All things are connected”.

“Perfect score” described by Taylor himself as a perfect example of Demo Pop Art “demonstrating” the associations between the perfect performance score of 6.0 with the perfect score sexually and linking these with the black and white greyhound racing coloured “uniform” being worn by the dancer.







Taylor was certainly no mathematical genius at school; he scraped by but did not have the correct mental discipline at the time to hold the necessary formulae in his head.  He, like myself, came to appreciate the beauties and practicalities of mathematics after leaving school when it starts for many of us to make sense, when we can apply it to something meaningful.

Above, Taylor’s  ‘Greyhound Clock’. A Mathematical Triumph! See Taylor’s blog for a detailed description of the calculations used in its design. http://stored-images.blogspot.com/










Other things of important note that I really should mention in this Entry are:



Parallax Art Fair 2011

Loz Taylor will be displaying his Limited Issue Prints and new 3D Demo Pop designs at La Galleria, Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, LondonSW1Y 4UY  from Friday 14th October 2011   to Sunday 16th October 2011. 

This is a fantastic annual event showcasing both established and emerging international contemporary artists and Taylor is at present working hard on putting together a catalogue listing most of his works.

Demo Pop Art Label

Also over the past few weeks Taylor has designed a label for the production 3D works, footstool, cushions playing cards etc. it features the greyhound jacket colours and perfectly portrays the feel of Demo Pop Art.

Next time on Demo Pop Art Diaries I will be exploring with Loz Taylor the impetus currently being put behind Demo Pop Art as a brand and it’s perceived impact on the market place.   See you then and thanks for reading.

Demo Pop Art Diaries 7 A Retrospective Part 2

Loz Taylor From the Sporting Life to the Good Life!

At the end of part one we saw Loz Taylor leave school, go to college and look around him for work that could sustain him in body and spirit. During one of his regular visits to what people of a certain age still call the “Labour Exchange” Taylor was offered the chance of an extra £10 per week if he were to do some form of work experience, pretty much of his choosing. So he informed the member of staff that he had always had an ambition to become a cartoonist and she acquiesced. So for a while Taylor became a cartoonist and indeed had several of his cartoons published in a very popular local paper called the Black Country Bugle under the pseudonym of Laurie.

Taylor’s college years were full of new and enlightening experiences, as he immersed himself in all things artistic, including graphic design, photography and working from life models. Of all the unclothed women he drew during that period, he particularly remembers an older lady called Viv, whose husband thoughtfully used to bring a heater into the studio to keep her warm. Perhaps this was an early sign of how important even then, the reality behind the art was to Taylor. 

One of Taylor’s earliest life drawings.

 

Taylor also experimented in graphic design, where he touched on advertising and also screen printing.  Taylor shows me an early collage work where he was asked to take a letter from the alphabet and “morph” it into something else entirely. He chose the letter ‘W’ and transformed it into a flame and match design. Taylor also created a work at this time that he called the ‘Three Fools’ in which he depicts three “Foolish” self characteristics i.e. the gambler, the drinker and the artist dreamer, with his head in the clouds. He made three planning stage drawings and then decided to finish the work in one of his favoured methods of the time - collage.

“Three Fools”

  
Taylor also tried his hand at self portraiture in a “graphic” style whilst at college.

The “career” as a cartoonist did not turn into a lasting one, but it did give him a fair amount of free time during that year to indulge himself in one of his great loves – horse racing.

He was though, still in turmoil as to which track his life would go down. Was it to be racing or art? He wanted desperately to do both but could see no future in either. So worked up did he get over this that on at least three occasions he ritually burned all the copies of the Sporting Life he had accumulated up to that time. It is certainly true to say that this quandary was a powerful “de- railing” factor in the young man’s life.  

Guilt is an extremely powerful emotion, especially for the young and impressionable, and can be felt for many reasons. One of the most emotive is when we feel we are not meeting the standards and criteria set for us by society.  A young Taylor felt that pursuing a form of gambling as a career was taboo, and that talking of becoming an artist would be dismissed as fanciful. It seems odd now that racing (and poker) enjoy a “sexy” more positive image, when back then, a young man, standing at a bus stop with a copy of the Sporting Life under his arm, would have been looked down upon and dismissed as work shy.

It almost goes without saying though that Taylor wore his badge of shame (The Sporting Life) with pride, although inwardly it also brought him a considerable amount of stress and anxiety. Indeed it is true to say that in these early days of his fascination with betting, racetracks and fast moving quadrupeds, even his new found partner Deb had her concerns.  However when she saw the strength and extent of his intent, and the deliberate and calculated form it took, she came to understand and accept it. 

The next step in Taylor’s merry- go- round post school existence was to take a Kalamazoo computing course. He knew from the off that he would never make a computer programmer, even though part of him realized that it was where the immediate future lay. What he did do however quite typically was make the racing obsession “fit” into what he was being trained to do at the time, inventing a racing game program using Cobalt that was a great hit with his colleagues. Taylor soon moved on though, little realizing what a great friend the computer, and in particular the internet, would be to him in the not too distant future.

Whilst still on the computer course Taylor managed to get a “proper” job as a circulation assistant with a local newspaper the Express and Star.  In Taylor’s own words he was a glorified paper boy, collecting the accounts from newsagents and delivering the papers for them to sell on.  The boss of the Express and Star loved horse racing, and the pair soon struck up a friendship, sadly however the friendship did not have sufficient substance to allow his boss to let Taylor “shadow” the papers racing correspondent!

Without the additional excitement that working closely with the sporting pages of the paper would have brought, Taylor found the job in his own words “a complete drudge”. Still it took the powers that be there, two years to discover that he was not a team player, and had no enthusiasm for the cause of paper delivery and account collection. So they demoted him to….just delivering papers! It is no surprise to report that Taylor took little time in leaving. Finding himself needing work again, to pay the bills on the flat he and Deb were renting, he decided to go self employed – as a window cleaner. 

Taylor: “It’s what the West Brom striker Jeff Astle did when he left football. And if it was good enough for that great man, then it was certainly good enough for me.”

Taylor was now in a kind of limbo, waiting for an opportunity to fulfil his artistic potential. Constantly processing images and ideas in his head, and storing them away for later use. This was to lead him, as I have mentioned before, to call his art business “Stored Images”. It was approximately 1993 now and halfway through his time cleaning windows.
Then, one day, Taylor bought and read the very first edition of a magazine called .NET.  He read the magazine from cover to cover, turned to his partner, Deb, and said, “This is the future!” She read the magazine too, and was soon in total agreement.

Taylor’s “Sacred” Coat of Arms and Raison D’Etre

In the early 1990’s e-mail was what a Yorkshire man received through his letterbox in the morning, with the world wide web more closely resembling two children with a piece of string and two baked bean tins! An exasperated Taylor would talk to friends in the pub about the possibilities f the internet to almost universal blank stares. However he found a kindred spirit at home in his partner, Deb, and they bought their first modem and acquired an e mail address, and Taylor soon found his way onto an early racing forum.

At about this time, Taylor wrote two books on ‘pedigree handicapping’ at the request of an editor of Raceform Update, for whom he was writing a weekly column. Taylor was also producing “speed ratings” for sale via the internet, which he could send out all over the world with very little cost and no boundaries.
It seemed that the computer and the web combined were making his career in racing easier and easier month by month. But frustratingly technology had still not caught up with Taylor’s artistic ideas, with the available print technology still falling far below the necessary standard required for what Taylor had in mind.

In the year 2000 Taylor got a job working exclusively for an internet racing company called At The Races (ATR.com) and he concentrated all of his efforts on making his new association work and continued to build his career.

In 2006 Taylor bought a small storage space in Dudley from “Storage King” to both store his art works and to create new pieces. He used this space for about eighteen months and then moved to Princess Alley in Wolverhampton, a real step up this, to a real art studio, where he met and socialised with other artists for the very first time. Included in their number was Lloyd Austins, who was later to create the 3D modelling of Taylor’s “Dogs of War”.

Eighteen months after his move to Princess Alley, he was on the move again, but was this time to settle in the studio he inhabits to this day, in Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton.

The Makers Dozen Studio -

Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton 

Now there was no conflict between racing and art. The technology was in place for Taylor to transfer his art from his head to the paper (or canvas) and he had made a success of a career in racing
This was also the time of the “mini big bang”, as Taylor likes to call it, an important moment when ideas about art and chance were allowed to explode, yet collide and interact with each other at will. 

My friend Loz Taylor would tell me, I know, that he is just starting out on the road to real success in “Business Art”, and I would not argue that. However, I think, if nothing else, these diaries are highlighting quite a long road already trod by this erstwhile “paper boy”. But I will leave the last word to a man who made a pretty good living by teaching others how to be successful, Mr Dale Carnegie. When he wrote this, he surely must have had Taylor in mind!

“Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, are the qualities that most frequently make for success.”

Here are some of my personal favourites among Loz Taylor’s work:

Paris Flickers and Young Blades Are Just So Glam

Mann Ray Stops Bullets (Negative) and Crime Scene