Prince of Devils

Posted on March 20, 2012 by

Bonjour,

I’ve had a little break from blogging. It’s been nice. But I’m here to fill you in on what’s been going down and happening. Lots. Ok? Specifically, we wrapped up the Mardi Gras Youth Festival with Late Night Shopping – our immediate cabaret for young GLBTQI people at Chez Shopfront (for all good boys and grrrls). It was amazing. We were blessed with an amazing team both on and off the stage. We showcased work from the Necessary Ego workshops and GL@M even performed in our special pre-set for the show.

Very special thanks to our fantastic pros who donated performance pieces, songs and their wonderful presences to the night: Paul Capsis, Jane Grimley, Applespiel, Bella Louche and Ollie Beardsley, I love you.

Here is one of my favourite shots from the night (Bella Louche you have my heart… and [the remains of] my bunny):

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Bella Louche performs her 'Buffalo Bill' routine at LNS.
Photography by Peter Mooney (C) 2012.

I’ve also been doing some commission work for General Pants Co.‘s new ‘Edit’ Men’s line (for RVCA, Arvust and Wrangler to be even more specific). This is exciting for a couple of reasons: a) I made Daniel take his pants off b) I made Daniel take his pants off and c) I never draw dudes! So this was a really nice artistic blowing up of my comfort zones. I also love these brands (and taking my pants off). I did face hair an’ all! Check out the pics below.

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'ru[DIAMOND'
2012
Mixed media on watercolour paper

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'Education'
2012
Mixed media on watercolour paper

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'Pity Fuck'
2012
Mixed media on watercolour paper

And FINALLY – I’m in a show! You’re not going to want to miss the fantastic Anthony Skuse’s adaptation of Goulding’s ‘Lord of The Flies’. Yes, I’m playing a 13 year old boy. Yes, there will be blood and a little light murder (or two). Honestly, this is going to be a very special production. You can visit the New Theatre‘s website to sort yourself our with tickets. I hope I can see you there.

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That’s all for now. I hope you are all happy and out in the lovely sunshine.

Tom x

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Fair Day!

Posted on February 9, 2012 by

It’s happening this Sunday and you’d be foolish to miss out. If you’re in Sydney, come down to Victoria Park and help us create something truly unique. ‘Radio Shopfront’ will be playing for 2 hours and Hair Monster is gonna crash the party. Hope we can see you there!

More soon about ‘Necessary Ego’ and ‘Late Night Shopping’!

Tom x

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Pre-Necessary Ego TONITE!

Posted on January 31, 2012 by
The pre-workshop for Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras & Shopfront Contemporary Arts Centre‘s photo-shoot workshop ‘Necessary Ego’ starts tonight in Manly!

Choose a villain, design a backdrop using projection and drawing, then transform yourself with our gaudy and fabulous costumes in order to be photographed and turned into a limited edition piece of art!!

Check out the details on the poster for more info on how to book a place for the next workshop on Feb. 14th! IT’S FREE!

For more info check out: www.mardigras.org.au/mardi-gras-2012/necessary-ego-villainy-/index.cfm

See you guys there!

Tom x

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Talenthouse/Villainous Things

Posted on January 10, 2012 by

Happy fucking fuck!

Welcome to 2012. Since 2011 decided to bail real quick it makes sense that the beginning of this year is already organised chaos that I have tidily but dangerously stacked in teetering piles around my bedroom/office/rape dungeon. Here’s some of the things on the top of the nearest pile I can see from the bedstation.

1. I NEED YOU TO VOTE FOR ME!

That’s right. More digital love is needed in order for me to break on through to the otha side. At the end of last year I started getting real arty with friend and accomplice Lizi Pratt. I started to produce watercolours – a medium I had once thought best left to Beatrix Potter or even Niamh Cusack who played Beatrix Potter in the ABC’s children show (and who was also married to Constable Nick on Heartbeat… swoon). The watercolours dealt with my usual subject matter – pretty ladies with something a little big wrong. I used photographs from the Vivienne Westwood Retrospective Catalogue and you can see them on my drawing page. Somewhere in the middle of that I found this competition. You design a piece of 7” Vinyl art for a specific band (I chose Florence + The Machine, CSS and The Cure) you submit it and then it could be used as the real deal for a Teenage Cancer Trust exhibition in London and you receive praise and fame from the four corners of the world. I like. Here is my piece for Florence’s ‘Only If For A Night’ – you can find the song below which should be listened to whilst viewing the art for optimum effect.

'Practical Phantasms' 2011 Watercolour and pencil on paper 7" x 7"

To SUPPORT ME follow the hyperlink to my Talenhouse profile. You can use Facebook to log in and then will be notified when voting opens on my individual pieces. Remember to both support and vote!

2. General Pants Co. and Me (A Tale of More Drawing and Frolicking in Henley).

Also – I got booked. General Pants commissioned me to create 3 artworks for 3 different pieces of clothing for the new 2012 line. I got a shirt from Wrangler, a dress from Alice In The Eve and a pair of cut-offs from Lee. Making the photographs and drawings was an incredible experience. I felt like the real deal and had a lot of fun. Also got to get more watercolour and pencil practice in which I loved. The pieces will be released on the 16th of this month so be sure to check out this here blog or my Facebook Page.

3. MARDI GRAS IS COMING.

If you don’t know about the projects I’m running with Shopfront for Mardi Gras ’12 then you need to investigate Necessary Ego and Late Night Shopping. There will be more events and details as they evolve. It’s looking very exciting so if you wanna come get arty in a Lynch meets America’s Next Top Model sorta way then you best sign up because places are filling up quick yo.

I think that’s all for now. I leave you with one of my favourite poems.

THIS IS JUST TO SAY
by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were so delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

Jewels

Tom x

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2011 (A Year In Review)

Posted on January 10, 2012 by

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,800 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

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Oblique Strategies Card #62

Posted on November 20, 2011 by

“Record a cover of a song you heard recently and liked. Record the song in one take. Do not edit out any of your mistakes. You have 10 minutes in total to complete this task.”

=


Tom x

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What Happens In The Country (?)

Posted on November 9, 2011 by

Stays in the country.

Also – this happens in the country (and you can see it):

All work produced by the Map of Me team in conjunction with young people of Bourke and Broken Hill, NSW. Stay tuned for some real glittery and exciting updates for the Mardi Gras 2012 program facilitated by the tall gypsy one. Much. Excite.

Can you believe it’s almost December?

Hell.

Tom x

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