To MTV from Nick Cave 1996.

TO ALL THOSE AT MTV,

I WOULD LIKE TO START BY THANKING YOU ALL FOR THE SUPPORT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME OVER RECENT YEARS AND I AM BOTH GRATEFUL AND FLATTERED BY THE NOMINATIONS THAT I HAVE RECEIVED FOR BEST MALE ARTIST. THE AIR PLAY GIVEN TO BOTH THE KYLIE MINOGUE AND P. J. HARVEY DUETS FROM MY LATEST ALBUM MURDER BALLADS HAS NOT GONE UNNOTICED AND HAS BEEN GREATLY APPRECIATED. SO AGAIN MY SINCERE THANKS.

HAVING SAID THAT, I FEEL THAT IT'S NECESSARY FOR ME TO REQUEST THAT MY NOMINATION FOR BEST MALE ARTIST BE WITHDRAWN AND FURTHERMORE ANY AWARDS OR NOMINATIONS FOR SUCH AWARDS THAT MAY ARISE IN LATER YEARS BE PRESENTED TO THOSE WHO FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THE COMPETITIVE NATURE OF THESE AWARD CEREMONIES. I MYSELF, DO NOT. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OF THE OPINION THAT MY MUSIC IS UNIQUE AND INDIVIDUAL AND EXISTS BEYOND THE REALMS INHABITED BY THOSE WHO WOULD REDUCE THINGS TO MERE MEASURING. I AM IN COMPETITION WITH NO-ONE.
MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MY MUSE IS A DELICATE ONE AT THE BEST OF TIMES AND I FEEL THAT IT IS MY DUTY TO PROTECT HER FROM INFLUENCES THAT MAY OFFEND HER FRAGILE NATURE.

SHE COMES TO ME WITH THE GIFT OF SONG AND IN RETURN I TREAT HER WITH THE RESPECT I FEEL SHE DESERVES - IN THIS CASE THIS MEANS NOT SUBJECTING HER TO THE INDIGNITIES OF JUDGEMENT AND COMPETITION. MY MUSE IS NOT A HORSE AND I AM IN NO HORSE RACE AND IF INDEED SHE WAS, STILL I WOULD NOT HARNESS HER TO THIS TUMBREL - THIS BLOODY CART OF SEVERED HEADS AND GLITTERING PRIZES. MY MUSE MAY SPOOK! MAY BOLT! MAY ABANDON ME COMPLETELY!

SO ONCE AGAIN, TO THE PEOPLE AT MTV, I APPRECIATE THE ZEAL AND ENERGY THAT WAS PUT BEHIND MY LAST RECORD, I TRULY DO AND SAY THANK YOU AND AGAIN I SAY THANK YOU BUT NO...NO THANK YOU.

YOURS SINCERELY, NICK CAVE 21 OCT 96.

Congratulations Bjorn!

I've been flatmates with Bjorn for over two years now and I've seen him hurt himself ALOT to do this crazy skateboard stuff. He's had broken bones, a seriously whacked skull (I watched footage of the slam and it makes your tummy go elevators), bijillions of bruises and lots of sad face rainy days...

I love that Bjorn supported his fellow Kiwi bro's and used a Veils song, and I have to say the footage of his Dad just casually handstand skating at the start is radness..Bjorn got a tattoo of his old man doing this on his forearm when we first moved in and it's now one of his board graphics, I think thats such a cool link to where it all began and I bet his dad is all puffed up & proud as punch.

Congratulations Bjorn!

Art Month Artist Insights

My awesomness bestie Emma Morris produced this video for Art Month which happens throughout March in Sydney. Theres a beautiful shot of Craig Waddell considering his work..you see his eyes dart back and forth and it's like being a fly on the wall watching his mind work..I love it...can't wait for it all to kick off..

You've climbed Mt.Cleverest Miss Dilemma.

The Nest

Tokyo off it's head

New friends at Wokimi Record Bar Shibuya, Tokyo.

Tokyo is off it's face.

Suzie Wang

So I've made a new friend in genius Suziie Wang. Suziie stayed at my place end of last year and I stayed at her awesome radness house in SF start of this year. She made me maps and gave me lists of all the coolest places to go. Suziie made me feel like a local.

This is her vid on Professional Skateboarder Ray Barbee and his love of music that has progressed along side his skate career. Suziie created a whole series based on skaters "off the board" for Transworld, all their other pursuits that make them such unique characters.

Watch the other Off the board videos here
http://skateboarding.transworld.net/tag/off-the-board/

My bestie Kansas (actual name Carolyn Richardson) grew up in kansas funny enough...I gave her said nick name when we worked together and bonded over a mutual disrespect for the task at hand. Magazine advertising is lame and is know to have caused bleeding eyeballs. That was years ago and although she left old sydney town and set up in Portland Oregon, she will always be my Kansas. 

I stayed with her in recently and she took some time out from her Art Directing, collage creating, puppy loving, nose blowing schedule to answer some of my questions...anyone that appreciates this type of Art or that has a bubbling sense of humour will love Kansas as I do.... 

Can you talk me through your process in creating your work?

I guess the process begins with acquiring old magazines from estate sales or second hand shops. My parents had a subscription to National Geographic so I used to pour over those all the time when I was little, any Nat Geo from 1970-1990 I've probably looked at at some point in my life. But any old printed matter works for me. Once I'm home I'll start flipping through the magazines and cut out any pages with imagery that interests me with no specific intention for them and when I have a pile collected I can begin to put different pieces together to create a whole collage, once I start on a collage I usually have to finish it the same day or else its probably not meant to be. I have other artistic outlets but collages are always the one thing I feel very free with because I'm at the mercy of found materials.

Have you created an image library to pull from?

I have a folder of collected scraps that I try to constantly add to, I've also started to look at different resources online and have a folder of images I've downloaded, I'm just starting to explore how it feels to print those and collage with them. Recently, I've started to do some collage partially with Photoshop and sometimes that feels right and sometimes it doesn't.

Do you have a narrative to each image?

The best pieces are probably when I don't have any narrative at all because then one tends to appear on its own and thats always more interesting than what I could come up with. For example, my 'pink series' was four collages that all pulled from the same four or five magazines that I picked up at a great estate sale  and the theme that came up was 'time travel', each one has a clock and a set of pilot wings somewhere in the collage. Other times when I'm making a collage for a specific person I'll try to use some imagery that seems relevant to them.


Your work seems to have a running 1950's Americana theme, is that an era your particularly interested in? or just find funny? I think my main criteria is using material printed anytime before 1990, and the main reason for that I think is because I had no control over what the world looked like then. Not that I had much control in the 90's but thats when I became aware of trying to make things look a certain way. Now that I'm making a living as a graphic designer/art director that lack of control feels even more essential. Being American, thats probably what country I have the most authority to reference and have access to but I would love to get my hands on more printed material from other countries!


What/Who inspires your work? Oh boy, the generic but true answer is everything I've seen does, though my grandmother was a big influence on my aesthetic taste in general, the pink in the pink series is from her personal note pads I always used to draw on but what I can always count on to motivate me to make work is the people in my life who I care about, friends and family.


Check her: http://carolynann.net/