Gallery – Mark Hooley
Date of birth. – 23/04/1975
Where did you grow up? – Watford, Herts.
When did you get into art? And why?
My mum encouraged my brother and me to draw and paint to keep us busy while she did the ‘housework’…not sure if that was what she was doing, or not… but we enjoyed it and used to draw when we got up in the mornings from an early age most saturdays this continued through till lunchtime, on the bedroom floor in our pyjamas creating violent scenes from star wars, gladiator battles, scenes with super heroes, weird boxing egg people…
What sort of jobs have you had to support yourself over the years? Any funny stories?
I’ve steered myself away from ‘real work’ as much as possible, I’ve had to, on occasion break that rule, my longest standing job, that I recently quit, was every Wednesday in Hector’s House being quizmaster of my shonky music quiz…that was for about 4 years and I DJ’d in there before the quiz for about 6 years. I’ve been a KP in restaurants, a Litter Picker [collecting dead rats, pigeons and seagulls off the beach] and had a good stint Cheffing in the kitchen at the George, when it was a bit more scummy and crusty [and fun] and for a little while at Ghengis Khan’s Mongolian Barbeque…that was quite funny… Also a fair bit of painting and decorating every now and then.
What do your parents to?
My mum used to be a masseur, but swapped to be a shiatsu practitioner and teacher. My dad was in the London Symphony Orchestra and then at the Colosseum with the English National Opera playing 2nd Viola. We used to have to go to some Saturday morning rehearsals at the Barbican and the Festival Hall which was a bit boring for us at the time, but I’ve appreciated it since. Also free tickets to the Opera was occasionally pretty cool – some fairly spectacular shows went down. I think the singing is sometimes pretty daft, but I like alot of the music and the visual side.
Has music been an inspiration?
Always – I have music on constantly when I’m working, all the time, pretty much…
What do you have coming up in 2008?
This year should be pretty busy, generally working on more of my own bits and pieces trying to finish some projects – a few kids book ideas, a comic that I’d like to turn into an animation and painting and printing as much as possible. I’d like to get back into portraiture as well. I’ve done a few portraits of kids, but they tend to be from photos, and I prefer to work from life. I have a plan for an exhibition, which probably won’t come til next year – utilising Brighton’s wealth of quality characters…
While ‘studying’ Illustration at Brighton’s University of Art I got a bit sidetracked by the world of clubbing. I used to be in bands back in Watford, but nothing really came together after ‘Jamie’s Shame’ split!! Music whilst drawing has always been an imperative, so doing mix tapes was a natural progression.
I got the boys together to create ‘gogglez’ whilst in my 2nd year and I learned to DJ whilst doing it. I lived with Tom from Evil Nine for 3 years, and shared his joy for the Elecno-Techtro beat business, so got a fair few hints and tips whilst watching him getting it together. My original idea for the club-night was that the environment would be blessed with ever changing artwork, but we had so much fun, I slacked off, only replacing backdrops when they got nicked…which was more regularly than I would have liked…
The Brighton queue jumping lifestyle ensued and I slacked off art for too long, to my regret. I wish I could have been a more dedicated square…oh well…if I could remember the fun I had it would have been less regrettable! The millennium came and I started upping the tempo of my design and illustration, doing regular bits for Brighton based companies like phonic-hoop, Tru Thoughts, d0pe clothing, Stompa Phunk and the like. I’ve always been a bit of a dreamer, so planned on doing things my way; which is only really coming together now, having some space in the newly started studio ‘Output’ – based above BDI screen printers, where I was based for the previous year. It’s all about the space and the people involved and now that I’m able to produce paintings, prints and sit at the computer or do a little mix on the decks, I’m in a much better headspace and have started producing work that I’m [nearly] happy with.
No space is big enough though!!
I try to focus strictly on the artwork now rather than spreading myself too thinly Djing and running my partner’s label Aerosolik records, which neither of us have much time for, so we’ve not released much of recent. Percy Filth’s got a new EP coming out soon featuring Foreign Beggars, Maylay Sparks, K-Skills and J-Sands, which is sounding proper and I’d love to be producing music myself but with a daughter of 3 and my step-kids too, there’s not very much time for that….I live in hope!! But the kids are a huge inspiration for me and a great push to continue moving things forward, and proving that although it may be a struggle doing what you love, it can be successful and well worth the while.
“Boxing Bears” [limited edition screen print]
A nice little experimental piece on some off cuts… from the original sketch that I did as a painting. It’s part of a series of various Bear things…don’t know why really. “Panda Cop” and “The Trapeze Twins” included.
I do love a bit of the old half-tone though…got a bit into squirting the hardcore chemicals onto the screen which gave a wicked splashy effect – one that I’ll definitely be doing more of. You need the goggles and masks on really for that though!
I like my prints to be individual rather than all precisely the same. It’s the process of printmaking I enjoy – I don’t do it to try to be exact, unless I’m printing for a client.
” Butterfly + Bear” [limited edition screen print]
This is my first CMYK print, although instead of using Process Cyan, Magenta and Yellow inks, I changed the colours to suit my idea…I like to be experimental, even if I probably shouldn’t be…This was originally a painting I did for my daughter’s room. I had to explain that the Bear is friendly – quite a lot of kids seem to get a bit confused by the cuteness combined with the claws and teeth, but I say: that’s frikken life man, get used to it!!
“El-P live at Digital” [limited edition screen print]
It’s an excellent excuse to get to see some quality bands doing gig posters, but the scene in the UK is not great. It’s definitely on the up but you have to be extremely dedicated – there can be problems with management or merchandise or even the band – if things aren’t sorted properly. This arrangement with Digital (Brighton Club) is a bit cheeky, the club and the band get some, then the artist hopefully sells the rest, without upsetting anyone! El-P’s dude gave me a 7” in return for theirs, which I was chuffed with!
“Ian Brown live at Digital” [limited edition screen print]
I was gonna draw something monkey-ish, but decided to go cut’n’paste mad with this opportunity to produce an Ian Brown print. Don’t know if he likes it or not – I hope so. I’m happy with it. I’m moving away from the gig posters – would love to have the time to do more, but even getting out to the gig is sometimes hard work!!
The BRAG group are all getting a bit more involved with some digital gigs now.
I’ll be doing a Simian Mobile Disco print very soon to force myself to go and see them!!
“MagnetBoy -Flaming Sambucas #47″ [acrylic on canvas]
There’s loads wrong with this painting, but it’s one of my favourites.
Sadly I sold it…but it’s part of a comic book idea, so I’ll probably re-create it at some point, somehow…Drunk-Kid aka Booza and MagnetBoy getting themselves through some close shaves with the power of luck and peculiar hands….
“Large Attack” [limited edition screenprint / painting]
This is a new bigger version of my best selling print so far.
It came from an idea I was working on for a kids book, which I need to finish up…
I started worrying it was all too violent, so I produced some paintings to get it out of my system…which didn’t really work…this comes from the original sketch, rather than the painting. Rough and ready. Painted splashy bits between print layers so each one is individual, and then I can charge more money for them!!
“Oxjam at the Hope” [limited edition screenprint]
What better way to help some charity than with tough-guy robots?
Nice to support the local scene too. Didn’t get to the gig, but I’ve done some work with Largo, designing their logo and wanted to do something totally different for them…even though they still had to buy their own posters!!
“Evel Kneival” [mixed media on canvas / digital design]
Wanted to do a tribute to this dude, as I’d love to be fearless, but tend to feel the fear almost every day! I couldn’t give a what kind of a person he was – he had an action figure made of him that was nearly as bendy as he was…that’s pretty effing cool in my book.
I took my time painting this, then photographed it and finished the design on the computer, so it can become a full colour print soon…
.
“Percy Filth EP” [limited edition screenprint]
I printed these as well as 500 12” sleeves – our Brummie boy Percy has been making wicked beats for quite a while, but sat on things til he found some MCs he really wanted to work with. A great debut EP with lovely white vinyl.
A big job for a little independent hip hop label – especially since myself or BossMan Jez have no time to run the label!! Looking forward to the new EP coming out soon.
As chuffed as I was with this sleeve – I won’t be hand printing the new one!
“Powder Room” [acrylic on canvas]
I still like this painting, which can’t always be said for my work.
It probably helps that I ripped off a classic image and kind of made it my own…
I’d prefer to use life models but it’s a bit simpler to find a tasty image and splash paint all over it.
This was commissioned by Audio and is still there, but will be replaced sometime soonish with some work that’s quite exciting…wink wink!
God she is beautiful.
It is the best time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to be happy. I have read this post and if I could I want to suggest you some interesting things or advice. Maybe you could write next articles referring to this article. I desire to read even more things about it!