Vispo: Thought does not control misfortune / The impenetrability of other people's lives

That's a profound title. I must have got it from a book because I'm incapable of profound thoughts. I almost had some the other day whilst lying in bed. I was contemplating the impenetrability of another person's life with regards to accessing how they live, think, act and it struck me as a vast territory, them on the horizon and between us mountains, perhaps deserts, even oceans, all impossible to cross. That's as far as I got.

 

Punk collage / Me & Paolozzi / Digital collage

Black Spot Fallout Threat

 

Comic strip vispo: Holy smoke, Ev!

 

RTomens, 2026

Vispo: Antisocial / Being antisocial / The self-belief of an artist

 

Antisocial, RTomens, 2026

"Don't be antisocial" someone once said to me. A girlfriend...when we were supposedly being sociable but I didn't find the company agreeable. Instead of being rude, I clammed up. Confronted with either blatant ignorance or plain stupidity I tend to clam up. Or I used to, back when I knew more than two people, socially. 

I'm not inclined towards being rude...actively. But. Yes, being quiet can be rude. I'm a temperamental artist - ha-ha! That's my excuse. No. It's not. I don't have one other than the genes I was born with...if they determine character, which I think they...might?  

It's not that I've ever felt a sense of superiority, you understand...except when in the company of common people who are not artists! Ha-ha! I must stop making those kinds of jokes...you'll take me seriously, perhaps. If anything I play my talents down. Arrogance is not a virtue, after all. Who is more annoying than the braggart blowing his (it's usually a 'him') own trumpet for all to hear. I wouldn't mind if that metaphorical trumpet signalled a talent on a par with Louis Armstrong, but it rarely does.  

Yet bragging, I'm sure, gets people places. After all, who's going to buy a timid, insecure soul? What do they project? Weakness? A lack of self-belief? To sell oneself one must be in promotional mode! Yes, it's true. I have rarely been in a position of having to sell myself, unless you count job interviews and in those, I suppose I did try to be the 'right person for the job'. Unfortunately, most of those jobs were ones I didn't want in the first place.

How does an artist sell him/herself in a world where they feel they don't belong? By 'artist' I mean creatively inclined, which immediately places someone outside normality. Because society may only embrace the successful artist, ironically. The struggling one is of no use. He/she is unappealing! Look at them,trying to make a go of...what? Being an artist? The fool! Their chances of success are virtually zero! A mug's game! So my dear ol' dad would tell me regularly, without ever saying 'mug' because that wasn't in his vocabulary. Instead he offered what he considered to be sound advice, which was to get a trade. It probably was sound advice to a working class boy. Like all sound parental advice, I ignored it.

Vispo for sale: Help! Art! Help!

 

Available here

Mind Games booklet for sale!

 

I have a few copies of my booklet, Mind Games, left over. It's available to purchase on eBay.

The Eternaut by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López.

 

A new arrival. You can read about it here. I had to show the design because books this handsome don't come along very often. Well done Fantagraphics. 

Poetry Day at the library / Visual pooetry? Those crazy kids!

Who could resist a poetry party? I could, actually, except I was invited to take part by Jim Pennington - great interview with him on the Thomas Pynchon site here . He manned the mimeograph machine, running through stencils made by anyone who wanted to take part. Below is one example. I reversed the photo to make the thought bubble readable, although I'm sure, you being so smart, had I left it you'd be able to work out the reversed word. As usual with Jim's demos, people were thrilled to watch the magic happen as their work was rolled out. God knows why but a woman wanted to sketch me and that was mimeographed too. Christ! Do I really look like that? I fear the likeness was incredible. 

The Beast was there for anyone to use and it proved popular with kids. Of course, they would love a weird machine that they'd never seen before; one which, by prodding a letter, it appeared on the paper as if by magic! I was there in a supervisory capacity rather than encouraging them to do anything creative. I could have done that, of course, but preferred to let them do their own thing.

Doing their own thing meant, for one girl, writing this...

...and so visual pooetry was born! I would use the term but it might tempt some people to suggest that, yes, my work is shit...

Collage: Develop Creative Powers / Were you born to make art? / Rhapsody in Video - a very scarce Nam June Paik book!

Develop Creative Powers, RTomens, 2026

Yes, I try, I TRY to develop my creative powers - those latent (dormant?), inherent, even? It can be taken two ways: develop what you have...or...actually develop some where there were none...right? Oh that ol' question: born with art right in you, or develop it through...interests? Parental encouragement? Teachers? Ah, those poor teachers at my secondary school...they did try...but what a disappointment I must have been, to the Art teacher in particular, who could see some talent, let's say aptitude, but could he get me to knuckle down and get the qualifications needed to go to college? What do you think? Yeah, me, the rebel without a cause.

I lean towards the born-with-it idea. Why? What else explains my drive to draw at the age of 10? Certainly not parental encouragement. My folks were not creative in the slightest. No-one in my family was artistic. They watched the telly whilst I drew pictures in the same living-room. So it went. Rush out of school once the final bell had been rung and into Work. 

I haven't made art consistently since leaving school. There were fallow periods when I was probably too depressed about my working life to do anything creative. Still, during Punk I made a few zines. For some reason I was attracted to writing more than art as the 80s dawned. So I set about writing novels and poetry. I even bought a typewriter. My handwriting has never been great. A few poems were published in workshop zines. I read poetry some on stages around the Aylesbury area. And so on.

You can teach Art but can you teach someone to be an artist? What's the difference? Perhaps there isn't one. I used to think being an artist was a lifetime's impulse to create...an overriding urge...a need? Now, I'm not sure. Someone could be that driven artist for just a few years, then stop because...they no longer felt the urge...or a career took over...or family life took over...etc. I make no grand claims to being a 'dedicated' artist. I mean, I don't pretend to be...anything...except a man striving to maintain some sense of equilibrium...against the odds stacked in favour of going crazy when confronted with...everything from daily life to political conflict...and seeing Mars bars gradually shrink in size. I swear, it's not that my hands have got bigger since I scoffed one as a child! 

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Here's an  incredibly rare book, Rhapsody in Video. It's unusual not to find more than one page about a book about such a well-known artist. I've searched but not been able to find any except this one

It's here.

Vispo: I Have Found Fear / Taylor Swift and visual poetry / London Interzone - 3-day William Burroughs event / Comic strip print

I Have Found Fear, RTomens, 2026

I was wondering if Taylor Swift liked visual poetry so I asked AI and here's what it said...

 

My private joke now exposed to the world! Have I no shame? I found the answer amusing; the way AI twisted the genre to fit Taylor Swift. Of course, yes, another medium can provide examples of 'visual poetry'. Tarkovsky in film, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks etc. To my surprise, the reference above to Swift's Tortured Poets Department lead me to the video for the single and her lyric captured below.

Who indeed. She's known some bohemians has Taylor. Well, the character in the song has. Perhaps her reference to and use of a typewriter in the video boosted the typewriter's popularity? Have sales rocketed worldwide now? Do Swifties plague their parents for a typewriter? Would they actually use it more than once? They do make nice home decorations, don't they? That is true. I don't blame anyone for succumbing to the lure of a lovely-looking machine just to put on top of their sideboard. Mine's a bit big, though, for a decorative object. And, let's be honest, too ugly. 

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I designed this poster for London Interzone. I'm not sure how many tickets are left for each day. 

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