Print: Visual Field / Seeing visual poetry up close / Buying art / Kemsley annual altered book

Visual Field, RTomens, 2026

Ah yes, the all-seeing eye...

More distressingly, I lost a great pair of sunglasses. Where? I don't know. If I knew where they were lost I might return to the spot, eh? LJ once lost hers. We had walked beside the river Medway to the cafe, where she realised they were gone. So we walked back, hoping they'd be on the path. Nope. But wait, we did sit on this bench. We even wandered into the grassy area behind...and there they were! I spotted them. So...you know...some lost things can be found. There's a moral there somewhere.

My work often looks a bit blurred to me. I used to think it was something that could be corrected in the scanning process. Then I realised it was my eyes! Now I zoom in on the computer or, the old-fashioned way, actually lean in closer - ha-ha. The great thing about on-screen viewing is the ability to widen those fingers and appreciate the detail, eh? Sometimes it pays off. Sometimes I've done it and realised...well, it doesn't bear close scrutiny. 

Nothing compares to seeing work 'in the flesh'. That even applies to visual poetry. Better still to be able to feel the paper and even the indentations made by the typewriter. Buyers who visit do that. I watch them feeling the paper. Others do it, replace the work on the table and walk on. That upsets me. Look, I've poured my heart and soul into that and you just walk away? The nerve! I jest, of course. People who actually buy are a rare breed. Well, it's a luxury purchase, isn't it? I never expect a purchase. How arrogant/naive would that be? Books sell better, for obvious reasons.

Here's a book I altered a few years ago. It's still for sale.

TTFN!

Altered book: The Kemsley Manual of Journalism (inc PDF)

Here it is, the KMJ, created over the Spring of this year when, suddenly, out of the blue, I was gripped by the idea of altering another book. The last one sold very quickly but during the current cost of art crisis it's unlikely that this one will. Still, as John Ruskin said: 'A thing is worth what it can do for you, not what you choose to pay for it.'

Early on I decided that painting black acrylic on the pages would be a unifying theme. Once that was settled, I naturally included collages and print. When I alter a book it's a form of creative cannibalism since all the images and texts are from the original book, which doesn't eat itself so much as I force feed it. It's partly a homage to the book and partly a form of destruction or, more accurately, deconstruction and recreation. I like it to be ragged around the edges so some shreds and threads where pages have been torn out remain as evidence of the process.

On some pages I blacked out all but the chosen fragments of text and elsewhere pasted on fragments cut from other pages. Because it's a recreation rather than a book with added elements, visual themes emerge; in this case, journalism, although much of what the remaining texts 'say' is related to life in general. 

The PDF is available to download here.

Potential buyers, please contact me at rtomens(at)gmail.com

 

Vispo: It Could Happen To Anyone / Armchair Travel / The New Altered Book Project

RTomens, 2023

I like to think that the black dog sitting at the foot of my bed this morning did not exert too strong an influence on either the piece above or my ability in general to retain a satisfactory creative flow - I like to think - but who knows?  I can't see any signs in the work...possibly the tentative formality...the lines in search of lines with which to connect are the result of the need for a pattern...stability. 

It's May 4 - I'm sitting here in The Cave with a scarf on...and you wonder why us Brits are obsessed with the weather - it doesn't behave - it doesn't do what it should! Shouldn't it be warm by now? Isn't it Spring? At least it's sunny - and a small part of me somewhere deep within my noodle is still appreciative of the weather's ever-changing moods here in the UK because despite the resulting dilemma about what the hell to wear it is preferable to, say, hot sun all day...or freezing cold all day, which I think happens somewhere in the world...doesn't it?

Talking of The World, I'm enjoying watching Michael Palin's travel series in which he goes everywhere, struggling with various transport difficulties and meeting all kinds of strange and interesting people. The other night he met one of those healers who perform 'operations' with his bare hands and no anesthetic. I can't recall where he was. Much of his travelling entail encounters with ramshackle trains rolling implausibly over remote lands, such as the Andes. I like watching the journeys, but wouldn't pay for one, being a softie who likes comfort, as opposed to adventure. The trains and the people, though, are admirable...their casual approach and the almost-falling-apart machines creak, groan and wobble but they get there. The raw, earthy nature of old world mechanics appeals to me. 

More raw mechanics? If my typed Vispo is 'primitive' compared to digital methods, it's still a very different thing to cutting, pasting, painting and tearing paper, which is what I've been doing since last Friday. Yes, another altered book project is under way. The last one sold quickly but this time I'm without an obvious publisher to sell it through so we'll see. Someone may want to act as promoter for the new book.  After all, they don't have to do much other than set up a page and take their percentage. below are a few sample pages and since then I've progressed to almost halfway, I'm guessing, although how many pages finally remain is dependent solely on my continued inspiration, of course. 

TTFN!
 

The BJPA, or 'Journal' - Unique art book

I've spent the last few weeks creating this, the 'journal', or The BJPA. Some way into the process I came to the conclusion that it constituted a form of 'cannibalism'. The book 'ate' itself, but only after I had first gutted it completely. My original intention was to retain the hard cover but in the end only a section of it remained, visible through the window of the transparent cover... 

Something about a book imposing itself upon itself appealed. Each page is an original page printed on with others from the annual. I became intrigued by the effect of contents from one page superimposed on others. As such, it did not allow the usual freedom when creating prints or collages; no blank space on which to create a composition utilising as much or little space as desired. The pages themselves dictated the background and I chose the subsequent density of each image...

As is my way, so it often seems, I created something which does not easily fit into a category. It is not an 'altered book', nor is it a 'new' art book of images. Perhaps experts in the field would categorise it quite readily. 'Artist's book' is close, I suppose. Either way, it is a one-off. The pages weren't scanned beforehand (only the few shown here) so no PDF version can exist. It consists of 54 pages and will be available for sale soon through one outlet. More news on that when details are finalised.

Three Vispo/Concrete Poetic (huh?) pieces/ Spiritual idiots as Art(ists)-lovers

"But you must be spiritual," a friend says to LJ. Because she's an artist, he means. The same day, an FB friend posts that he's had to unfollow a few people because they insist on posting 'spiritual' memes. Unfollow? I'd unfriend them, but that's me and that's why I follow so few people on Facebook. Not because they post 'spiritual' memes, but because they're either total bores of have OCD which manifests itself right there. Piss off.

This Spiritual Artist crap has gone on long enough, as long as the you-must-be-able-to-draw shit and all the other antiquated plain wrong artist myths. people crave spirituality these days like they crave religion - "Please give my life meaning because otherwise it's a totally insignificant life I'm leading here when all I do is listen to shit music and watch awful films along with the dregs of humanity called 'celebrities' on TV - help me, Lord! I need to believe!" Try doing something interesting you wankers.

I've never looked at a piece of art and seen or felt anything 'spiritual'. I'm not 'religious'. I won't kneel before any icons or ever visit the church of John Coltrane because it's backed by God-botherers, obviously. Now, about Coltrane, A Love Supreme may be fueled by his spirituality so, well, whatever gets the job done but it's never caused me to feel anything but pleasure, although not as much pleasure as I get from the music he made before he got religion. I'm assuming he got religion late, though I don't know and don't care...

...retards relishing the romanticised notion of the artist as 'seer' probably still think we all dream of a garret in Paris (I wouldn't mind) wherein we starve and suffer mental turmoil over paintings which usually fail to express what we feel in the very depths of our tortured souls. It can only be non-artists who believe any of this crap, surely. But hold on, there are plenty of dabblers of also want to believe, or even do believe, that their paintings of storm clouds over mountains express something 'spiritual'. Of course. And plenty more who, when not painting portraits of friends which reveal the very nature of their souls, commune with nature, sitting under trees (having hugged them) in order to...er...be spiritual. Yes, my friend, it takes all sorts.

Let's aim lower. In fact, higher. Let's keep it at ground level, devoid of 'spiritual' crap and stuffed instead with shit, snot, glue, vomit, boredom, emptiness, anger, joy (if you must)...anything but pseudo-spirituality. Let's render visions of total aesthetics, even. Draw a straight line. Draw a crooked line. Better still, get the computer to do it. Be minimal. Be maximal. Be totally abstract. Even Be Yourself, whatever that means. We're all our own people, it's just that some folk suck up too much from others to form anything like a true Self. Fuck originality. You'll lose. No, you'll make yet another novelty idea. You might get into Frieze! Go ahead. Make something good or bad. Make something because for as long as you don't some arsehole is filling the world with shit you hate. It's your duty. If you don't make something They will, all of them...look...filling the world with kitsch digital art, landscapes, sunset photos, street art, Goth art, soft porn blah blah. You know the saying: If You're Not Part Of The Solution You're Part Of The Problem. 

Vispo/Book Art: Synthesis / Artists who can't draw?

Synthesis, R.Tomens, 2018

"He can't even draw!" she said over the phone.

Hold on, this is the 21st century, isn't it?

The way some people talk about art, I wonder sometimes.

Unlike the broken narrative of avant-garde cinema or literature, where the radicalism is obvious, as are the reasons for many people rejecting it, visual artist's need do very little to upset conservatives. Conceptualism will provoke alarm, naturally, but there are so many other ways that I don't have time to list them. That's just a print! (Ed Ruscha). Why has that goat got a tyre around it? (Robert Rauschenberg). Etc. Oh, and as for art made on a computer or even (horror) a smartphone...forget it!

As if the art world (it's out there somewhere, I think) isn't riddled with enough snobbery and elitist gate-keeping, the public are worse. They should be free from prejudice yet remain shackled by both ignorance and conditioning which takes the form of a historical imperative based on the classical status quo. Books must have a recognisable beginning, middle and end, as should films. And art, quite obviously, should be made by people who can draw.

Money London: The Destruction of the Flaming City

'Flaming

(Britain, colloquial) Damned, bloody.

I wasted three hours in that flaming traffic jam!' (Wiktionary)

When making this piece a few months back I had no idea that it was soon to be the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire Of London. The page is from the book, The Heart of a Nation. I've posted the original page and book cover beneath my alteration. The adjective 'flaming' is rarely used in Britain today and whilst realising it's usage here may not be appreciated by many people it is what makes the piece work. It was shown in the Hunger exhibition. Money ruins everything, the saying goes. I don't fully believe that, but there's no doubt that the drive to monetize every inch of land in London in order to attract the rich and house the middle-classes is causing the destruction of this city's soul.

 altered book, collage,