A Black Sun in a White World

A Black Sun in a White World
Digital Print
2014

A Black Sun in a White World was a book project I worked on a couple of years ago. Originally a limited edition of six books with hand-made covers, containing no text, their contents being a hole burned through the centre of all the pages (but not the cover) using a soldering iron and a small butane blowtorch. I have recently been considering updating and re-working this idea; I want to have a variety of books ready to (hopefully) take to some Artist's Book fairs this Autumn, including some new hand-made books. I am also toying with the idea of creating a sort of production line for my own 'altered books', creating some sort of design that can be printed using print-on-demand services, and then hand-altered by myself to create something more interesting. This is something I have already done to an extent with the book Manifest-O, which must be 'completed' by the reader by cutting along the dotted lines to create cut-out panels.

A New Year, a New Book.

I have completed my latest book under my real name, Speak of the Devil. It is available for purchase via lulu.com here. If you simply wish to peruse the book in PDF form, you can do so here. The images can be seen in an imgur album here.

So, a new year begins. 2013 has been a mixed year for me. I completed my MA studies at the Arts University Bournemouth, but after that I feel like I have been in something of a doldrums for the latter half of the year. Commissions, sales and other work have been slow, inspiration has been frequently lacking, job applications have (as is so often the case) been pointless investments of time and emotional effort. I have started a few projects that have not made much headway, and have felt for the most part somewhat lost. However, over the past couple of months, traditionally my period of deepest winter depression, things have started to pick up. I shall learn my lesson from many past cock-ups and not make any predictions, but I have a feeling that 2014 is going to be a very good, productive year for me, and I hope there's going to be a lot of interesting material coming out.

Another recent development is that I have made a new deviantart account (I had one years ago, when I was a teen, but it has long since gone the way of all flesh). You can see it here. It mainly showcases my speculative illustrations, produced as DS Blake, but there are also sections where you can see some of the work I produce under my regular name. The main purpose of this account is to allow people an avenue via which they can easily purchase prints of my work; I plan to research and expand to other services which allow this sort of thing over the next few months, and I have a few other interesting things on the go.

Here's to a good 2014.