Vispo: What Did He Say?

What Did He Say? RTomens, 2025

As in you're unsure of what he said because he mumbled or spoke whilst others were speaking or spoke quietly...

...or as in you can't believe what he said, even though you heard it quite clearly. 

People can talk loud and say nothing, as James Brown told us. Talk today is cheap, if by talking we include online chat. Talk's currency has been devalued by the internet. Once upon a time, talking was actually opening your mouth and saying something to a person nearby. Do you remember when we'd go to bars and talk? People still do that, of course, but in my life it happens far less frequently these days. I 'don't get around much anymore', as another song goes.

Today we talk to people we've never met and will not meet. Our 'friends' and 'followers' or someone who's neither. Some even argue with names online. I confess to having done so years ago, but I've wised up to the futility of that. In a cynical mood, I may even doubt the worth of an online stranger-friend - any of them. People request my friendship frequently. I rarely accept. Only a good shared friend may tempt me. Half the time these people only want you to see what they're doing, having no interest in you or what you're doing - the nerve!

Vispo/drawing: Tired

Tired, RTomens, 2025

Our minds have grown tired...

It's conceivable that even the youngest (adult) mind may grow tired...tired of constantly scrolling, perhaps...tired of thinking about life - even as a teenager!

Meanwhile, at the other end of life, I have a good excuse - the accumulation of years can weigh heavy - memories are a burden! Carrying this mind and these bones around for almost 70 years! 

In Tired, The Walking Man (featured in previous pieces) has given up walking. He has laid himself down for a rest, trying to blank out the chatter of text, of people. He wants peace. He should visit the countryside, where the only sounds are those of the birds.

Vispo: Break Down The Barriers / Normal thinking in the arts

Break Down The Barriers, RTomens, 2025

In the shop 

 

An A5-sized piece for a change. I haven't worked this small for a while. One obvious advantage is that density in type can be achieved more quickly than in a larger space. You may notice that the black is heavier due to a new ribbon. This makes me ponder how much use I should try to get out of a ribbon. Perhaps I should change them more frequently. Then again, I've seen many pieces in books which are light in terms of blackness and it doesn't harm the overall effect. The temptation is always to get as much out of a ribbon as is possible before weakening the impact too much. 

'Normal thought' has to be placed in context, of course. I just liked the phrase when it leapt out of a short story. Normal thinking in one context may be abnormal in another. Normal is subjective, I suppose. Making visual poetry isn't 'normal', but does that make it abnormal? Artists like to think of themselves as not normal compared to those who don't make art. The romantic notion of the artists as 'crazy' outsider on the fringes of a 'straight' society dominated by common people who do normal jobs and rot their brains consuming normal entertainment - hah!

Scratch the surface of some artists though and you'll find they think very normally about certain things. Normal, that is, for the arts. Yes, there are supposedly 'proper' ways of thinking regarding some subjects in the arts community and woe betide anyone who thinks differently. Thinking outside the designated box could get you blacklisted. Ironic, eh? These people pride themselves in being 'individuals', not boring 'normal' people, yet they hold common beliefs that are the expected norm when you're an artist. There are rules in this world of 'rebels', you know. Don't break them! 

It's impossible to avoid groupthink, of course. Unless you're worldview is one-in-a-million on every subject you will find people for whom your ideas are normal. Yet to me, it is still unhealthy for groupthink to exists in the arts. Are artists not individuals? Do they not hold a diverse array of opinions on various subjects, just like non-artists? In my experience, no. Or rather, they may not dare reveal their thoughts on certain subjects for fear of being cast out. 

Breaking down the barriers of 'normal thought' as imposed on us by others, be they ultra-conservative or 'radical', can only be healthy for society and us as individuals.

Vispo: Politics

RTomens, 2025

 

Vispo: Pessimism / How To Create A Visual Poem

Pessimism, RTomens, 2025

I'm not pessimistic by nature but...

...looking at the world one way...

...it's hard not to be pessimistic.

Then again, as I said to a friend the other day, we now look at the world through the online medium and potentially one can be dragged down a dark rabbit hole of doom! Whereas, pre-PC, we perhaps read a newspaper and not even the news, just the Sports pages, or the Arts (having only glanced at the headlines on the front page). We could choose because it was all contained within one manageable package and not the open-ended internet to which there is no end, no closure.

To avoid too much online news I make visual poetry. I would say it keeps me sane, but sometimes the act of creation can spark a kind of craziness. Mostly, though, it does keep me sane, except for the other day, when I started to lose my mind as it triggered my fingers on the keys of the typewriter. I was typing with no purpose. I was creating unsatisfactory work! Lots of it!

How could I get back on the right track?

Take a long break.

Think again.

Someone recently asked how I created the lines of text in a piece of work. I explained that a wide carriage typewriter was necessary to turn the A4 paper, thus getting the required angles. That was easy to answer. Someone once asked how visual poetry was made. Hmm...how could I answer that? I recall shrugging with a stupid grin on my face. 

Most people, understandably, don't even know what visual poetry is, never mind how it's made. That, dear reader, is why I have not got rich or made a living from visual poetry.

Any tool can be used to make visual poetry, from the humble pencil to software. Here I should say what visual poetry actually is, but that's almost as tricky as saying what Art is so I won't attempt a definitive answer, except to say that in my book visual poetry must feature letters or words. Don't laugh; I've seen quite a bit that doesn't, but is called visual poetry and even gets featured in books. 

All text can be deconstructed and all letters can be singular marks as opposed to forming words. Words can be played with, rearranged to make non and new sense. Visual poetry is ultimately playing with language and the components of language. I consider some of William Burroughs cut-ups to be a form of visual poetry. 

Recently I've been experimenting with a looser style involving marks made by pen or carbon, random lines and squiggles (see above). I've been making messier pieces. Not that I have ever been one for formal precision. This approach challenges the idea that a piece must be visually 'appealing'. Geometry, shapes, some colour, some bold forms all increase the chances of a piece appealing to the viewer. They help to create an impact. Since everyone is rapidly scrolling as opposed to standing in a gallery, to gain attention a piece of visual poetry needs to be eye-catching. If, that is, you want to maximise the chances of being properly seen and appreciated. But we know where that goes. 

Pandering to what one thinks the viewer wants is a trap I try to avoid. Why? Because life's too short (and getting shorter for me) to be worrying about what might get more 'likes', retweets etc. If I don't do what I want now, when will I? If I'm not free to do as I like now, when will I be free?

I didn't answer the question in the post header. I intended to before realising I had nothing to say about how to create a visual poem. 

Sorry 'bout that.

TTFN

Vispo: The Time Travel Business

The Time Travel Business, RTomens, 2025

We're all in the time travel business, aren't we?

Looking back and forward.

Some of us have a lot more to look back on than years to come...

Vispo: Oh No Not Again! and It Ain't Watcha Do / Painting and visual poetry - the use of paint and type

RTomens, 2025

 Purchase in the shop

Is there a dichotomy between paint and type? Anything can be used in a mixed media piece but rarely do typed letters and paint meet. Perhaps they are not supposed to co-inhabit a space. It was never destined to be in the history of art. They argue with each other and paint has the upper hand, being flexible regarding the size of the brush stroke and tending towards the stronger, bolder mark. Type is type. A comparatively puny mark unless overtyping is applied, which requires at least three layers to match, say, one thin line of paint.

I reached for the acrylic paint a few days ago, wanting a change regarding marks made on paper that I would type over. I commonly use carbon for mark-making since it is more akin to type and less obtrusive.  The paint marks are random, expressive; mindful of typing to be done. But it's easy to get carried away with paint. It cries out to be spread around. Sometimes there really is too much paint for my liking. Screw that up, chuck it in the bin. I have made pieces in which the 'marks', shapes, blocks of colour, usually black, dominate the page, allowing only a little room for type, but I think they confuse people. They see neither a 'proper' painting nor a visual poem. 

Oh No Not Again was created from another piece that was copied, altered, printed in layers and typed on again. Here is it's 'mother', originally called It Ain't Watcha Do.

RTomens, 2025

Purchase in the shop

The drag marks made by the brush immediately suggested vapor trails or, perhaps, comets? Fireworks? I filled the trails with letters, but as you can see, they are almost invisible. This is a good example of the battle between type and paint. To try to draw the viewers attention to the fact that there is type on the page, I added red type too. I found myself trying to fill the spaces between the trails, but the poor old Olympia struggled to make itself 'heard'. Paint was shouting too loudly.

I'm not displeased with either the original or its offspring. The offspring is possibly more dynamic, definitely more colourful, but the original tells another story, one of the battle between paint and type.

TTFN!

How To Write Poetry 2 / Book: To Ease My Troubled Mind - Ted Kessler / Thee Headcoats / Faversham boat yard

RTomens, 2025

'Decide what your poem is about'

Mine are often (not always) about nothing. But then...

are they really poems?

No.

*

When I worked in the bookshop I'd play Thee Headcoats and other Medway bands' music regularly. It seemed to suit the place, the place being a bit ramshackle, rough, raw around the edges. I found this book in the local charity shop the other day...

That sparked a fresh wave of Medway Sound listening again. 

Chatham is a Medway town. It's the only town I've ever visited that actually made me depressed. 

Rochester is good.

Gillingham is great for a walk where the River Medway opens up.

Heading East from the Medway towns you come to Faversham and a fantastic boat yard.

It's the kind of place I'd like to live...in a shack...alongside the creek...

...away from all the big city crap...with men who while away the days patching up their boats...get a bulldog and learn to play the banjo...drive an old Jeep...I can dream of the alternate lifestyle...

Sonic Boom magazine cover art

 

My piece, Back To Reality, is the cover for the July issue of Sonic Boom. Read it here.

How To Write Poetry (1) / Heavy Metal addiction

How To Write Poetry 1, RTomens, 2025

Too much?

Are the drawn lines too thick? Do they overwhelm the typing?

I started a series called How To Write Poetry, based on the AI answer from a Google search. Perhaps I'll make enough of them to create a book. Imagining having done that, I then like to imagine some poor soul buying the book thinking they will learn how to write poetry. As long as they didn't buy it directly from me, otherwise they'd want their money back.

I'm not saying it's impossible for a How To text on writing poetry to succeed in helping to create the next ------  ------ (insert a great poet) but what does that even matter so long as whoever starts writing enjoys it? Don't be a snob! As long as I don't have to read the results...

How To Write Visual Poetry? Perhaps I should have asked that - damn! You can. See what 'it' says. 'It' knowing everything. AI can write Visual Poetry, I'm sure. Hold on, isn't half the fancy digital Text Art I see on X written by some kind of programming anyway? You know, the whizzy, pulsating, shimmering stuff you see. I blame Kenneth Goldsmith. 

So I printed part of the answer on paper that had already been treated then proceeded to type, first the vertical bank of lines running through it, then the double-typed angular lines and some wavy lines at the bottom. It wasn't enough. 

That noise you heard was me thinking (sounds like the rusty cogs of a knackered machine slowly turning). 

Pens! Yes, grab a pen and draw - that's what it needs. I picked out the Pentel N850 permanent marker and started. Minutes later I thought 'Fuck, that's too thick!'. But having started, what could I do? Abandon it? I very rarely abandon work. Carry on. Use some red. It was starting to look a right mess. 

Help! 

There's no-one to help you but yourself!

Spaces filled in on the right-hand side...yes...leaving holes through which some type is visible; I'm sure you noticed. 

How's it looking? Unusually, I couldn't tell. Is it total crap? OK? Good? 

Finally, black down the left-hand side to frame the typed section.

Put it to one side.

Get on with important stuff, such as listening to Venom...

As well as being addicted to typing Visual Poetry, I'm now addicted to Metal. It's never been fashionable. Never 'cool'. Now I like the fact that's it's neither. It was always there, since the 80s, being ignored by me. Gradually though, over the last year or so, I've been seduced by it (Metallica first, then Pantera and others). A few weeks back I bought A History of Heavy Metal by Andrew O'Neill in a charity shop. That did it. It's a humorous take but for a novice like me, informative too regarding bands I'd never heard of before. After all these years of listening to music, it's great to start enjoying a new (old) genre.

TTFN 

My latest booklet: Back To Earth / My Trumpet, Miles Davis and The Art Rut

Back To Earth...back to reality? Heaven forbid, reality being so...(insert appropriate text according to outlook).

24 pages of art so relatively slim by my usual standards but as you know, it's all about the quality, not the width. And it's full of quality visualisations from the typewriter - it is! I'm blowing my own trumpet because no-one else is going to, are they? Or are they? Perhaps out there in the online universe someone is, at this very moment, blowing my trumpet for me. Heh-heh. I tried blowing an actual trumpet once. You can imagine how painful it sounded. I've nothing but admiration for anyone...no, not just anyone, anyone who blows a trumpet in a style I enjoy. Like Miles Davis, of course, but you know what he did, he started playing fast and smart Be-Bop in the commonly recognised hip style of the day, but never one to rest on his laurels, two decades later he could be heard yelping, squealing and barping (not a real word, is it?) along with his cutting edge crew of musos moulded to his own sound/vision. 

Dare I say (yes I do) that I have an affinity with Miles Davis with respect to my typewriting? Pretentious? Perhaps, but I thought it, now I'm committing it to the screen. I mean, like him, I'm always looking for new ways to say something with my visual poetry. I'm not saying one should always 'make it new', just that I like to move on and around themes, ideas, methods. I revisit some, expand others, test new ones and so on. We all know the Art Rut. An artist hits on a style then does it over and over again. I don't care. Carry on. It's not always to the detriment of the work. It creates a familiar style and as with, say, Warhol prints, if you like that style, it's good.

I suspect people like the familiar. Yes, in the sense of finding the avant-garde difficult, but also familiarity with an artists's style because it's instantly recognisable therefore somehow comforting...reassuring. The problem with an artist varying what they do is that the viewer, liking one style, may not like another and therefore gets grumpy, disappointed. Oh well...

All that said, I've been told I have a recognisable style. I can't second guess how others view all my work. I was, however, just a little disappointed, thinking 'Oh no, I'm predictable!' I can't tell when I'm making all those marks on all that paper...I don't get an overview, just something like one when, as happened recently, a collector visited and I had to go through the boxes, choosing a selection. Then I look back and sometimes think 'Damn, that was a good one!' If a piece really strikes me as great, I might think 'I should do more like that'. Sometimes I try but, you know what? You can't go back. In my case, perhaps the typewriter used broke forever and has been chucked away. But more...profoundly(?), it seems to be impossible to actually do it again because I've changed, somehow. 

Anyway, here's my latest booklet, inspired by science-fiction, all quotes coming from old sci-fi mags. If you'd like a copy, it costs £10 and is in the shop. 

TTFN!

Vispo: Who's To Judge? / Crime and Dissonance Ennio Morricone comp

 

Who's To Judge?, RTomens, 2025

I am the judge.

Dense lines in the corner, but first the circles/globes on 'poles'. Initially empty save for the words, then filled with black lines and finally coloured in red ink.

You can be the judge.

*

Twenty years ago, when it was released, I was initiated into the other side of Ennio Morricone courtesy of the compilation, Crime And Dissonance. Previous to that, like many, I only knew his classic spag Western soundtracks. That's what he'll be remembered for more than anything else. Naturally. Squint Eastwood's sharp shooting Man With No Name was bound to continue reaching a wider audience than the many Italian horror and crime films bearing the maestro's sonic touch. Crime And Dissonance covers all the ground Morricone would explore, much of it genre-twisting, from modern classical to 'jazzy', 'avant-garde', even groovy Pop moods. Essential.

Vispo: Zig Zag Wanderer

Zig Zag Wanderer, RTomens 2025

Buy it here

Captain Beefheart, right?

I did zig zag and wonder where to go next with this one having initially created the zig zag lines. Later, I added the inked straight lines, just a few, which turned into a lot. Then I left it, unpublished, for a few days. I kept looking at it, not totally satisfied. This morning I added even more inked lines. Perhaps I got carried away. Whatever, I was happier with the result, so I sent it out into the world.

Have a look in the shop. It's only money, not even cash, just a number in your balance. You won't miss it but you will own an original piece of visual poetry! 

Three Vispo Pieces / How Much Art? - SSD

 

Wait And See, RTomens, 2025

Buy it here

Nothing Means Anything Anymore, RTomens, 2025

Buy it here

Anti, Anti, Anti, RTomens, 2025

Buy it here

My Shop Is Now Open!

 

Me, Me, Me, RTomens, 2025

I've just opened a shop. 

More items will be added over time so I recommend bookmarking the page because one day you might walk in and see that piece which screams 'BUY ME!!!'

Yah never know!

My work wants a good home. I hear it whimpering from within the boxes 'Please get us out of here...please.'

Thanks for looking.

TTFN

Vispo print: Shutdown & Cancelled / Mind Games booklet / Book: Least Wanted - A Century of American Mugshots / Vispo: Wrongthink, Understanding A Sentence, Now I'm Just A Number

 

RTomens, 2025

Some of you will recognise the Faceless Man from the cover of a booklet I made last year called Mind Games. There are still a few copies of the latest print run left if you'd like one. See here. I added 'Cancelled' to his face this week. Just 'cause I felt like it.

Most of the faces featured in Mind Games came from this fantastic book, Least Wanted  - A Century of American Mugshots...

I didn't know it at the time when I got it for a fiver in a charity shop but it's now out of print and pricey online. It's turned out to be one of the most cherished books in my collection, not only because I've used the images but because it's such a brilliant book. The character in the middle row, for instance, is featured in a piece called Wrongthink, which I made on Friday.

RTomens, 2025

Here's another...

RTomens, 2024

The text is by Wittgenstein. The piece is called Understanding A Sentence. Geddit? Of course you do. Here's one more. Title: Now I'm Just A Number.

RTomens, 2024

Be careful out there or you'll end up having your own mugshot...for a mean tweet.

TTFN!

Vispo: Normal Linguistic Exchange

RTomens, 2025

Yes, and we wonder...what is 'normal'?

"How are you?"

"Fine."

The truth can be too much to reveal, can't it? You may not be fine at all, but who is the right person to tell the truth to? Best friend? Partner? Wife? Husband? Sometimes, not even our nearest and dearest merit being told the truth. They merit a lie, because...the truth can be painful, upsetting....etc

Sorry, I didn't mean to be 'philosophical'. It just happened.

The piece above is the result of an almost painful process...by which I mean it was...awkward...not easy...quite...obstinate in its refusal to manifest itself. Other times, most times, the flow takes hold and bam-bam-bam! Normal Linguistic Exchange is...ugly. That's OK. I think it has an ugliness about it, although beauty is in the eye of the beholder, eh? I paused in the process more times than usual, for longer than usual. Would lines drawn in pen help? I added them anyway. More carbon marking? I increased the density of the blackness in the outer sections. The inner shape looks like a bird...on water...damn it! Perhaps you don't see that. I wish I'd never said it. Now you will see it.

TTFN

 

Vispo/Collage: That Memory / Punk collage

RTomens, 2025

A small piece (you can tell by the size of the type, can't you? Of course you can!). This was even more the result of rapid improvisation than my usual work In other words, I started with the squiggles using carbon paper, which means working 'blind', not being able to see where the marks will land, exactly. Suddenly they called out to be framed, which gave the type a definite space to be placed in and the type was very random, as were the marks at the top, which took on the impression of 'rain'. A base was created at the bottom, with no idea of putting anything on it until I noticed the cut-out figure lying on my desk amongst other cut-outs for collages yet to be made. I drew around him to see what could be done around the figure. Nothing elaborate...the 'Os' seemed to want to cluster around him and the straight typed lines created a kind of movement. The title comes from text in the figure.

It so happens that I've been wrestling with memory of late - nothing new there, I suppose. My recent talk at the Warburg Institute took the loose form of a retrospective, starting with collages made during the Punk rock era. It didn't quite go as I hadn't really planned, of course, but leading up to the event I dug deep into the archives, finding a lot of 'forgotten' art. 

Here's a collage from 1977, possibly my first ever. As you can see, it's a basic scrapbook-style collection of band images. It's a miracle it's survived this long...the same could be said of me.

RTomens, 1977

As I tried to say in the talk, the spirit of Punk is important to me. Don't worry, I don't walk around Camden Market wearing a leather jacket with 'PUNK'S NOT DEAD!' painted on the back, sporting a green Mohican haircut (that would have to be a wig in my case). I've no interest in seeing a band from those times (one surviving original member) either.

No, I mean, the spirit of DIY and the Punk aesthetic. That's DIY as applied to Art. But hey, don't all artists do it themselves? Some get others to do the actual making, as you know, but what I mean is that Art should be of 'the people' in the sense that Punk at it's best was a grass roots movement. No college course necessary. No qualifications. Some might call it Outsider Art, but even that's become an officially sanctioned movement.

I didn't start out with this philosophy. I just made art. The idea of writing, reproducing via Xerox and distributing was reborn during Punk, but instead of music-based zines, I copied and stapled together my art. I didn't attempt to get into Art collage, already having built up a strong aversion to any form of education since I was a kid at Junior school. 

Without wishing to bore you with my life story in Art, here I am, over 50 years later (I started drawing around the age of 11) making 'stuff'....mostly typing, these days, but also some prints and collage. Whilst the network for exposure has expanded to infinite proportions online, I don't work very hard at that. As another artist said to me the other day, for some online exposure is a full-time job. Good luck to them. For some of us creating is what's most important and we do as much online promotion as we can stand.

So I pack away the crusty old Punk collage...and carry on...

TTFN

Verse verso at The Warburg Institute / Vispo: Don't You Ever Give Up?

For one day only, I broke into the world of academia for the Verse Verso event. Others showed and talked about their work far more competently than I could...no matter! It was good to engage with those who took an interest in my table.

Here's a new piece I made this morning...

RTomens, 2025

 

Event: Verse Verso: Visual Poetry and Artist Books at The Warburg Institute

 

I'll be talking on Friday at this event. You can read more about it and an interview with the organiser here. 

I've not talked about my work in public before so I'm a bit nervous and fearful of ending up sounding like Andy Warhol, minus the knowing, deliberately evasive aura, being the clever sod that he was. Instead, I'm in danger of sounding like a mumbling idiot. 

My new booklet, Back To Earth (pic above) will get its debut appearance, being hot off the printing press. It would be logical to discuss that...but...I'm not known for demonstrating Spock-like logic. Talking of science fiction, Back To Earth has a sci-fi theme; the texts all being culled from old sci-fi mags. 

It struck me yesterday that I've been writing science fiction for over 50 years, my visual poetry being a continuation of alien themes i.e. 'alien' language and especially the alien nature of visual poetry to the uninitiated. In a sense, I am trying to 'decode' my ideas as they appear 'in space', the space on the page. The creative act is as mysterious as any fantastical fictitious creations. 

I'm sure I'll muddle through.

Meanwhile, here's another page from Back To Earth...