Physical Graffiti

 Please excuse the Led Zepplin pun but if you have ever saw or owned a copy of Led Zepplins 'Houses of the Holy' then you know that I'm referring to the Giants Causeway, if you haven't  and don't know what I'm talking about then (according to Wikipedia) it is, 'is an area on the North Antrim coast of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption', this description drains it of its romanticism, but you get the idea!

I had the chance to visit it again over the summer when I was back home with my family. While clambering over the stones I noticed that some of them had writing scratched into them, almost automatically I thought this was recent vandalism, day trippers wanting to add their name to a geographical icon in a bid to gain a small piece of immortality but on closer inspection some of the names were dated and they stretched back to the early 1800's. 

This was my favourite carving, look at the beauty of those numbers! It wouldn't
look out of place as a makers mark on a piece of silver or pottery.

Mr. W. L Smyth, I think the LD refers to Londonderry.

The rocks have become layered with names over time

This was the one that first caught my eye, all the Freemasonry symbols that were adopted by the Orange order obviously were a very important part of John Orr's idea of who he was and what should be preserved of him

Mr. J McGarie?

Most of the names are almost illegible now, jusst faint scratches that have been weathered away by centuries of wind and rain but still they still hold on, testament to people's fascination with the place and a desire within them to be remembered.  

Getting back to the Led Zepplin link I opened with I tried recreating Aubrey Powell's sleeve shot for 'Houses of the Holy' but it was missing a few kids and an apocalyptic sky.

Friday Photo

London Southbank, 2005

More to Explore

As I mentioned here before the Explorers club is a year long project that I am working on with Loaf Recordings and Arctic Circle. Each month a specially chosen set of tracks from participating artists is emailed out along with a custom made booklet and the odd surprise treat.

This month sees the release of Edition 8 which features a track by a fantastic band of an amazing song! The Sleeping Years have covered The Go Betweens 'Cattle and Cane' you can listen to it here. I highly recommend it.

I also thought I'd do a little retrospective of the first six months cover later on in the week.

Friday Photo

Regents Canal, London 2008

Interruptions

Ahh August in France, when the large part of the country go and live elsewhere for a month. I too have been away from my solid regular internet connection and have been in the UK, Ireland (North and South!) and The West coast of France. Between 3G dongles, remote locations and slow wi-fi spots I haven't been updating this blog as regularly as I would have liked ( I will never take constant reliable wi-fi for granted ever again, promise), so apologies for the irregularity of it all, normal service will resume with the Friday Photo…

Mentions

Just got a great mention in Design Week for my Tate paper cut illustration for tonight's event 'The Lovers, the Dreamers and me'. If your interested you can read it by clicking here.

I'd also like to say a big thank you to Julie at the fantastic
Famille Summerbelle site for mentioning my work as well, plese check out their site and their fabulous paper cut maps.

Friday Photo

 Enda Fishing, 2007

Arcade Fire

This new Arcade fire album is released this week with, wait for it 8 different versions of the cover artwork. The sleeve design was created by Canadian illustrator and designer Caroline Roberts who also did the artwork for the bands  live DVD 'Mirror Noir'. For the new album she has also produced a great screen printed linen bag (with a great lozenge logo) which would be perfect for carrying your vinyl version of 'The Suburbs' about in.

I have been lucky enough to catch the group live on a number of occasions, the last time was in London on the Neon Bible tour. Here are a few picture I took on the night. If you get the chance to go and see them don't hesitate!

© Damian O'Hara

© Damian O'Hara

© Damian O'Hara

© Damian O'Hara

An Evening Illustrated

 

For all of you who aren't in London or who can't make it down to Tate Britain this Friday here is a little peek of the illustration I did for the free guide to the evenings events. I had a lot of fun doing this one, letting my imagination loose for each of the events!  

Paper Penguins on-line.

After all the late nights and paper cuts the Tate image is on line!
You can see it by clicking the link below.

If you happen to be in London town on the evening of the 6 August please pop in to Tate Britian. As well as seeing one of the greatest collection of art in the world you will get to experience a fantastic night of  music, performance and interventions and all for free plus a free guide to the evenings events (illustrated and designed by me)! Not bad I say!

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/eventseducation/lateattatebritain/lateattatebritainaugust2010.htm

Friday Photo

Magilligan, Northern Ireland 2010

Outer Circle

Just finished another papercut illustration and poster design to promote a series of concerts happening in London, Manchester and Bristol in September.

Legen-Derry!

I was in Derry last week when the news came through that it had been selected as the UKs first city of culture. The atmosphere was electric to say the least and if you have never been to this neck of the woods I can't recommend it here enough (as long as you don't mind a bit of rain!).
For a small city it has quite a lot of talent that has passed through its gates, I'm really looking forward to seeing how it grows and develops over the next couple of years and what sort of events, exhibitions and gigs will be on the cards, a specially commisioned poem from 'Famous Seamus' and who knows maybe an Undertones reunion!?Maybe it's just my wishful thinking...

Friday photo

Magilligan, Northern Ireland,  2010

Friday Photo

Bercy, Paris 2009

We can be Heroes...

I'm off to Ireland for a month which is great, not only do I get to catch up with family and friends but I get the chance to take lots of photos of my nephews and neices. The picture above is one from an on going series called 'We can be Heroes' it's based around kids dessing up. The only downside about going back to the North is the weather but I hear all that sunshine is bad for you anyway!

Ahoy!

This year saw the launch of a joint venture between Loaf recordings and Arctic Circle called The Explorer's Club. It is essentially a downloadable record club where each month a link to a set of exclusive tracks by a wide range of great artists are emailed to subscribers along with some nice virtual artwork, a diary excerpt and occasionally subscribers receive a little extra treat in the mail.
I worked on this series with Pika Pika and this months release features a doodle by me!

Tate update

OK it is finally complete and soon to be appearing at
a Tate Britain in August near you!

Friday Photo

The Powerpuff Girls, Ireland

FSC-US Ad campaign starts this week.

This week sees the FSC-US ad campaign go live across the United States. I'm really excited about this as they have been in the pipeline for just over a year and finally they are coming to light.

This is one in a series of four, each one highlights a different product that has the FSC mark and illustrates some of the benefits to the forest and the client.