In lieu of his upcoming show 'A Shot Across The Bows' with the Dead Sea Mob at 55DSL's gallery space above thier store in London this week I caught up with artist Tom Newell while he was adding to Canoe Inc's office wall. I'm personally a big fan of his illustrative style, and along with this amazing wall I'm excited to see the show on Thursday night at the 55DSL store. Tom's a super nice guy, and all our North East readers better check out the Dead Sea Mob show at the Pure Gallery in Whitley Bay next month. Check out what he had to say after the jump.
Firstly, Hi Tom how are you?
Busy! I've just got back from the art shop that I work in part time, and now I'm bubble wrapping a totem pole that I painted on. It's getting shipped out to Berlin tomorrow to appear in the Pictoplasma Festival.
I guess a good place to start is to ask about the upcoming show with The Dead Sea Mob at 55DSL's gallery. Tell us about that.
It opens this Thursday night (24/3/11) and we'll be installing the show and painting a load of stuff directly into the space over the next few days.
Who are The Dead Sea Mob? And when did you become an official member?
We're a group of artists who are planning to hit up a few live drawing events and gallery shows over the next few months. We kind of floated together through Twitter, where we found out about each other's work. I got myself keel hauled in as the fourth member a couple of months ago, and I can't wait to see how it all goes with the maiden voyage next week.
I met you whilst you were in the middle of vandalising Canoe's office wall, and it looks all the better for it. How would you describe the imagery?
I'd already featured the Native-American skeleton chief character on the totem pole that I was working on last week. I'd been in talks with the folks at Canoe about messing up their wall for a while, and I'd always had it in mind to do a take on their chief head logo.
How long have you been drawing in this medium, and where did you develop your style from?
I've only been concentrating on a more illustrative style for the past couple of years. Before that I was doing more conceptual stuff on my Fine Art course. I got back into drawing through doing gig posters for bands that me and my mates were mucking about in, and after that I put out my own comic. I suppose my style has developed through a love of skateboarding and Hip-Hop imagery, comics by people like Charles Burns and Robert Crumb, and gig posters and album cover art.
You've painted walls, canvas, skateboards and mirrors. Which is your favourite and why?
I'm really trying to find time to put together another comic at the moment, but I'm looking forward to doing some large scale stuff with the DSM, and I'd love to do more skateboard graphics.
I love your poster work too, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?
Whenever a band gets in touch and I'm into their music, I try to sort something out. I always do stuff for my mates' bands when I get the chance too. I've even done the odd bit of guerilla gig poster producing for artists that I've really wanted to work with. I did one for (MF) DOOM and one for this girl Anika who is produced by Geoff Barrow.. neither of them ended up getting used for gigs though, so I wouldn't recommend that tactic!
What's next for Tom Newell? Aren't you going up to the North East soon?
Yeah, The Dead Sea Mob are anchoring in at Whitley Bay's Pure Gallery next month for a full on group show of all new work.. Can't wait. It's been far too long since my last chip stottie!
Related Links:
Tom Newell Blog
Tom Newell Twitter
'A Shot Across The Bows' opens Thursday night, 6:30pm at 55DSL's flagship store at 10A Newburgh Street, W1, London.
