Rubberfish Prints & Animation

Dressing for Pleasure

2011-12-01T06:04:00.000-08:00

I'd heard about this film but never seen it, and oh how it sums up "The Age of Atomage" gentle and polite people sharing their love of rubber, I can quite see how I got to Ms Swat from there. Also the original Jordan (with real bosoms) puts in an Appearance, and her title was I believe Punk Princess, maybe a tad more confrontational than the rest of the participants, but what a time that was, when British Rail (ooer) would let someone travel First Class because of their unconventional dress!

Pleasure from MARC CAMPBELL on Vimeo.

Thank you very much to Robin for pointing out this gem, and for Dangerous Minds for directing us to Vimeo and through his piece on the work of the director John Samson. I thought the quote from the LIDF website summed up his approach to his subject matter very well: "Samson was an extremely compassionate filmmaker who never sought to exploit his unusual subjects. Instead he would immerse himself in their strange worlds; his keen eye teasing out motivations while never lacking a dry yet gentle good humour".

Les Girls

2011-10-06T03:12:00.000-07:00

Not the neatest of painting, you'll agree, I will have to try a smaller paintbrush, and my hands may not be as sure as they used to be, but once I started a felt the call of "The Makings" stirring deep inside me. I think they are too small to film really, if they have to make any sudden moves. I could see if there are bigger pegs available - or use wooden spoons...! or maybe I should hark back to the rag doll I made for a friend (it was a Mag Doll as her name is Magda - gro-o-oan, I'm amazed that it was such a poor joke that spurred me onto such a long winded project... see below!) I also now have the urge to do a Swat Peg - or a So Peg!
Anyway, these Babes, should be dressed, we'll see what happens. Meantime I'm still looking for a cast for our "Pillowman" fairy-tales.

Looked through my pictures of the aforementioned Mag Doll and found a picture I took as I was putting the finishing touches to her. Oh lordy does this mean I have to make another rag doll - or several!

The Pillowman Project Starteth

2011-10-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

Will be starting rehearsals for our production of Martin McDonagh's "The Pillowman" at the end of December (our run is Febuary 6th to 11th 2012) and have been cogitating our "style set". I'd already designed some posters (I will have to have the full set done by the beginning of December for the publication of the semi-annual programme for the IP, so I was getting in there early), and it was only after some talking with my co-director that I realised we could go down the "Wizard of Oz colour explosion shattering the interrogation grey with an exuberance of odd and maybe slightly disturbing toys" route rather than the "black and white Carl Dreyer meets Watch with Mother" route or even the "animated scratchy pen and ink doodles" route which I had been toying with.... animation would have been nice, but will take longer than I can afford at the moment...

anyway, we need a "cast" for our projection, I've put a call out to various friends and I had a thought as I was going to sleep last night - I'd been thinking of fairy tales, lace cushions and bobbins (erm???) and suddenly I remembered Dolly Pegs.

Unfortunately much smaller than I remembered, and the ladies in Mortens (hardware store) concurred. Painting a face on one of these babes reminds me of the buttons I used to paint with my old partner in music, David but I will have to revisit with another set of pictures later. It's going to be fiddly to say the least.

Holly and Ivy

2010-10-08T02:01:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, I worked for a lady making carpet bags ( I would like to say it was in a garret with no heating and she beat me if I didn't sew fast enough - but sadly it was Jimmy Young on the radio, all the tea you could want and lunch was included - very nice). Anyway, her husband, who was a writer and journalist, liked my cartoons and it was his idea to do a Christmas themed book inspired by my sense of humour and his lapsed Catholicism, so "Little Ellen Angel's Bumper Book of Bondage, Blasphemy and Bestiality" started to take shape - now I have to add the title was his idea and the contents may have not exactly lived up to the title (honest), but he did actually take it to his publisher! Gee, I wish I'd been there, but said publisher said he was awash with Dead Cats at the moment... and I don't blame him for using that excuse.
However I did put a hell of a lot of work into this and ended up with a whole load of cartoons that have sat in a box for years and years, and some of these have formed the basis of Rubberfish characters. These two appeared several times in the 'book' and were called Holly and Ivy, who got up to lots of general Yuletide naughtiness and are definitely the inspiration for Ms Swat.

Very First Rubbery Picture

2010-10-08T01:39:00.001-07:00

I found my very first picture inspired by Atomage all those years ago - the style has changed, but I guess the humour is still obvious and the wallpaper is definitely still an interest. Yes, I can see why the editor didn't really get it at the time.

Slimming Garments

2009-12-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

Another bit of sketching/mapping done while reading "The Outer Fringe of Sex" by Maurice North. Wondered if Maurice was writing from personal experience. Is this book a literary equivalent of the "White Coater"? Mind you he refers to "nearly twenty years of investigating this phenomenon of rubber fetishism" (I don't know why I'm so surprised by this length of time as it's how long my own interest has been....erm ....fermenting.)He includes lots of lovingly detailed descriptions of rubbery materials and costume, as well as chronicling magazines ("Macked and Manacled", "Macintosh Monthly", "Impermeable Delectable"), adverts ("Rainwear Model available evenings"), the history of rubber wear and intriguing euphemisms, such as Slim Wear,"Venetian Cloth" etc

It's doing stuff like this, doodling almost, that can throw up good ideas for other Swat friends. This cage-headed lady is something that re-occurs again and again, a variation of here will be turning up in the Swat 'comic book' stories I've got lined up.

Rubberfish Prints Now Live!

2009-12-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

Yes! Rubberfish Prints is now officially online.

After animating Ms Swat and her friends since 1998 on the Rubberfish site, I turned to making these prints for fans and other interested people. I previously sold them to friends, and then bracnhed out into the art fair circuit which led me to show at some galleries. I concentrated on larger canvases for a while and I hope to bring these online at a later date, although I think the shipping might prove a little prohibitive, but these smaller paper prints have a (fetishistic) charm all of their own.

Sketch

2009-12-06T04:05:00.000-08:00

One of a series of sketches I did as notes while reading :"The Outer Fringe of Sex": A study in sexual fetishism; (Forum studies in sexual behaviour) by Maurice North, kindly given to me a few years ago by my friend Tom. The book is a collection of essays on the subject of rubber fetishism, written in 1970.

Rubberfish Prints

2009-12-05T16:34:00.000-08:00

Gearing up for getting Rubberfish prints online at long long last!