Sparks and Art

 Hey everyone, it is Jack/Noodle and welcome on back to my blog. I’m joining you in August and in my corner of the UK we’ve had my fave type of weather, cool breeze and sun. I sadly haven’t had much time outside to enjoy it as I recently got 4 new coworkers in the form of puppies; their names are Hamish, Hazel, Maggie and Morag. I’ve been loving looking after them and educating them on sparks, I’ve even joked once they’re ready I’ll be showing them the sparks documentary and seeing how they react to what sparks look like. With all this learning they’ve been having to do, I’ve also been productive in my creative life, I’ve been preparing for Sparkstember and I wanted to share some prep and chat about my art through the lens of Sparks. Before we get any pens or paper or a picture to draw from I thought I’d ask; what is everyone eating/drinking? I have just had my breakfast after waking up and greeting my coworkers so I’ve had toast and an iced mocha, chasing and cleaning up after the dogs is exhausting but you have to be consistent and alert to them, we’ve got Hamish the humper so I have to keep myself ready because let’s just say sometimes the other girls get mad if he humps one of them. Anyways, without much delay enjoy the post and please feel free to send feedback. 

(How I feel right now; prepping for Sparkstember, making silly doodles and making for this post)

So I will start with a how I became an illustrator and I feel like my story of how became the way I am now is very boring so please if you don’t want to know and leave me in mystery skip this paragraph. So in high school, I was always doodling and was the kid everyone knew had some form of art supplies or sketchbook, I also once got told off for drawing devil like creatures in my French work because my teacher wanted to use my work as example work for OFSTED (basically they are people who come into British schools and check everything’s working). I was seen by a lot of my teachers as a model pupil, a kid they saw doing big things, the one they’d rely on to feel less bad about teaching 12 roadman wannabes. But alas I hit burnout probably at 14-16 and knew then I wouldn’t live up to anyone’s expectations for much longer, so I began exploring the internet freely for places to exist and found various indie cartoons and that sold a career for me, I’d become an animator. I began scribbling my own characters and comics and making stories and only I would understand them and I’d rarely share my friends or family these because I was ashamed I wasn’t using my “expected for big things” energy elsewhere. I then went to art college which was an awful experience and not as fun as I try and imagine it was but lockdown hit and this is when I began drawing for me to practice and improve my work and find “my style” and I realised I wanted to be an illustrator. After hell of college, I left for a year out of education so I could find a job (I was not successful) and in this year I was volunteering in a charity shop and my manager really appreciated my art brain and I’d doodle with the sticky notes she kept in a drawer for donations and this prompted the bad manager to take away those sticky notes, heartbreaking times. I then went to uni for 3 years and this made me find out I was happiest and at home with traditional illustration and liked to do everything as analogue as possible and I wrote some of my finest pieces of writings there. I also made a handful of friends who were equally as neurodivergent and queer as me. Another reason I became an illustrator was because my mum passed away. My mum was my biggest supporter and ally for my art life, she’d always ask to see my work and wanted to understand it and always told me “be careful” whenever I dressed weird. Before she left the mortal world, she was saying how my summer break could be filled with a Dnd campaign and I could do all the illustrations for us and I agreed as it meant I could explore fantasy worlds. So when I graduated university, I made a deal to myself and her and my best friend, that I would stay creative and never give up. Since graduating I’ve had my market stall, seen below in a pic and it’s helped me find my identity and place as an artist in a scary world of AI. 

(Me at market December last year. I kind of wish I dressed more festive. Also I was on ITV news this day too)

So, where does Sparks fit into my art world? As a creative I’m always listening to something or watching something. I’ve found music is my escape and grounding on earth and has influenced me immensely, I’ve had all kinds of music flow through my working day and I am proud of my varied tastes and choices. I have recently curated a playlist on Deezer for some of my choices as a way to easily enjoy everything I seem to be drawn to, and yes that is a lot of sparks. I also love to listen to Sparks when I’m going to somewhere to sit and draw such as when I’m on a metro to Jesmond Dene, which is in Newcastle. I told my friend, Joseph, that Kimono in my House to me is their Spring/Summer album and that it reminds me of flowers blooming and green leaves. I also say In Outer Space and Angst in my Pants are Summer albums as they feel like something accessible to everyone and you can put it on at a sunny party. Sparks also have a distinctive colour for each of their albums and that helps me as an autistic guy when I’m drawing or visualising them. For me, Gratitous Sax is a bright lemon yellow as it’s sunny and upbeat but underneath that there is pain and anger and the bright colour smacks your eyes with a “yes we are totally okay”, Terminal Jive to me is a light grey as it is classy but it lacks any flavour of its own but it still seems to swirl around me once a month (I am a Stereo and Young Girls enjoyer), Woofers in Tweeters Clothing is a dark chestnut brown because it feels like vintage cars and clothes and warm autumnal coffees. I could go on about each colour each album has but I’d be here ages. I found I’m also drawn to different sparks eras when I’m drawing, Sonja will be aware of this but my fave era for Sparks for their looks and to sketch at is No.1 in heaven era. I adore hipster Ron hair and it is so fun to draw as I can add so much texture and depth to his look without it feeling repetitive. Another note to mention, I enjoy old sparks concerts and will put them on if I’ve got something that will take me awhile to do, whether that’s badge designing, keychain making or bracelets; I will draw myself to a concert and use that as a bench mark to how long I’ve worked and estimate how long I’ll spend on something. I recently showed my dad the Baby, Baby Can I invade your Country live from 2006/2008 and he was fascinated by how they are so political and asked what he thinks the song is about and he agrees it’s about invading places rather than love. 

Also here’s the Deezer playlist link if you ever want to hear what I’m listening to: https://link.deezer.com/s/342UJuIKutNslOn7DPKeT

(Started a sketch on Ron) 

Sparks have always had a close relationship and understanding of the community of the artists in their fanbase. From Russell visiting Tec Tec's art gallery (how I wish I visited because yes I totally want some trinkets from them) to Sparkstember to speaking up about Adobe's AI and the need for moderation and changes to how Adobe works. As a fan and an artist, this makes me happy cry as I know if I ever felt let down by the lack of jobs or choices for a creative now we have AI rising faster than we can blink, I’d just look around and here myself singing “Lord Have Mercy”'s chorus. For those unaware, Sparkstember happens every September and everyday is a new album so we have a theme or word to create or do something around, it isn’t just for artists; you can participate if you’re: regular guy, musician, poet, writer, photographer, dancer, cosplayer, Steve from Tesco or even yourself. I love making art for this month as it’s less energy and less pressure on me to have something well written and formulated cooked. This year I’m going to attempt to do something for everyday but I will like to mention how next month I’ve got dental work happening several times and I may either post late or merge several days together or miss days out. But, do not fret I shall try and annoy my dentist and friend and dad with some sparks stuff because I will be recovering and trying to keep myself busy and happy. Sparks and AI, sparks have in the last year or so expressed their standing point on AI (or Artificial intelligence) they have had to sometimes come out and say Meta is silly in labelling several posts man made as AI modified/created. And in recent times, they’ve had to protect their album artist who is a collage artist from the fact that her work was labelled as AI when she was using adobe stock library for her cut up images which made the design. I’m with Sparks on the, Adobe needs better regulation and needs change, I had to use Adobe at university and I didn’t like the £200-300 subscription fee going basically on nothing and just funding and letting them use my work to train its AI so as soon as I was done I cancelled Adobe. A lot of creative jobs ask for you to know how to or have Adobe suite as it’s an industry standard mostly because Adobe chewed up most its competitors so you’re basically forced into using it. I would now like to end this section with a thank you to Ron and Russell (they probably won’t read this). Thank you Ron and thank you Russell, for supporting and cheering on real creatives. I also want to thank my friends in the creative community in Sparks fandom. Thank you so much. 

(Ron gets some depth, yes this is all done by hand in biro pen. Yes I’m also heds so this hurt like hell)

 

Lastly, I want to share my joys within the creative community of Sparks as I did thank everyone in the paragraph above, but I don’t think that’s enough and I think a lot of creatives go unnoticed or breezed over because we aren’t all loud extroverts and we all mostly prefer our quiet lives with a mug of hot chocolate or a sandwich. As a creative I adore dressing up and this year for Sparks in Glasgow, I dressed up as Russell and got my teddy to dress as Ron for the angst in my pants album cover, I was so so happy when people got it (even one guy mentioned me in his tumblr post and I cried at 7am reading that, thank you dude). Superted is my emotional support bear too and he’s been in my life since I was a month old and really enjoyed meeting everyone, it was also his first concert so he got thrown in the deep end when we got to the front. I also want to say I love meeting other creatives in the sparks fanbase too, we are all equally awkward and silly and funny and I am so happy to have met the ones I have and I treasure the trinkets I get from everyone. One of my favourite things to do when I’m going somewhere is to draw or to discuss my art, for me my schedule isn’t my dream life where I wake up 4am and have a mocha and watch the sunrise and go for a walk and write silly poems about a lost lover and then spend the next 6-8 hours in a studio locked away and trying to make my magnum opus. I also want to thank every creative who has been supporting me as I develop and grow as a person, a lot of people get shocked when they hear I’m 23 and this week at my eye test they asked and I went “I think I’m 23” and they found that funny, always have that baby face to help me out. I also want to say to everyone who got a bracelet or keychain from me, thank you. I may next time branch out into prints because I think I’ve learnt I can’t do keychains as well as I do bracelets; I make bracelets because I am a maximalist in how I look day to day and I love sharing that vibrant style with everyone so I hope you treasure whatever I gave you. And to all of us creatives still fitting the AI demon which haunts us all, thank you for still fighting and staying tall and strong. 

(Oh look I finished the drawing) 

I hope you enjoyed this short piece, I haven’t really sat down and wanted to write for so long as I got overwhelmed by my life and everything coming and going. I would like to give a few shoutouts before this post is over; firstly to Jenna aka my best friend who was demanding I return here as she loved reading this world I’ve created and used it to help her write essays and also she missed when I was a powerhouse in my writing; and lastly to Joseph who has a radio show and he recently spoke about me and I wanted to say he is a very silly nerd and thanks for letting me infodump to you about any of my hyper-fixations/special interests. And now thanks to you for reading, I will probably say what I always say which is “don’t worry I’m returning” and then I disappear for months but I’m going to try and utilise here when I’m recovering from dental care, I am getting teeth out and fillings done and probably will need partial dentures so I’m going to sit and eat soup for 2 months and probably do some deep dives again. 

And with that boring update, thanks for reading and I’ve been Jack/Noodle and you’ve been my wonderful readers!