I have always made a big point of creating an intriguing teaser campaign ahead of my main releases, I want those who follow and support my art to be clued up as to what is coming as opposed to full on secrecy. However, it is a fine balance between giving away too much and too little. It seems to work, and work well but an element of surprise is always good!

So! ‘All Bets Are Off!’ is a dramatic piece that is my unique interpretation of that moment when the ‘Grays Sports Almanac’ (why does it seem so difficult to type that correctly each time?!) is torched in the movie ‘Back to the Future 2’. From my past collections, it is clear that I have a soft spot for the trilogy, and I wanted to do something different from a scene piece as I only released ‘OUTAREACH’ in 2022. 

The pre-requisite for curating ‘Lithium’ was to create a vastly varied body of work that epitomises darkness and light, intense meaning, and pure good nostalgic fun. What this piece does is showcase just that, a cracking contrast to the hauntingly powerful ‘Storyteller’ pieces; ‘Lithium’ and ‘The Power of Love’. Yet, this piece is just as powerful, powerful through the amount of drama and energy that has gone into creating the limited editions and the bonkers original itself. 

If you love the films, then you will love the Almanac and the impact that it brought. It’s iconic isn’t it. Imagine having access to that nowadays! I love the details that came with the book, the futuristic book receipt, and its holographic jacket. Both have been paid homage to with my version. This piece is a celebration of just how much effort I go to with my unique pieces to give the collector something truly special.

You know I love a double meaning in my concepts. At first glance, this piece is quite simply showing the book completely battered and burnt, picked up and framed like any worthy movie prop would be. However, look a little closer, think a little deeper and read between the scorch marks. ‘Greed Breeds Monsters’ has been stencilled onto the Perspex. This is a line that I have used since my formulative years in the industry and is tied to many narratives that shine a light on the implications of greed and the resulting mismanagement of money that follows. Could there be a better example of this than Mr Biff Tannen?!

This is a small detail within the piece that then links to the destructive power of the flames. I’ve melted Perspex before but not to this level! I wanted to create real drama and a tactile quality that could be lost by placing a barrier between you and the artwork through framing.

It was a cracking example of knowing that it could be great if it worked, but also that you could end up in A&E if it went wrong! No lie, it could have ended up like that! Filling a blow torch with gas when it was still on, flames that refused to give up that saw me run to the sink and throw the piece into the washing up bowl! There’s never a dull moment here! But just look at the results!

Bloody hell have I loved every single minute of this one! Of the scene pieces, I had left this until last to create and for good reason. Creating ‘Lithium’ has been many intense months that takes a big toll emotionally and physically, one piece straight into another and it’s been full on to say the least. No violins needed here, there are much, much harder things to do for a living! What I mean though is that you have to really make sure that you are in the correct mindset and also that you have enough time to do justice to something so cherished.

For me there are only really two options for a ‘Fawlty Towers’ piece in my style. It’s either inside the hotel lobby or outside in front of the building and I promise you that I will tackle both! You can easily choose a route for many a reason, but I was adamant that I wanted to showcase the iconic hotel exterior this time. I love a challenge! 2023 has always been about growth but I never thought I would be building a hotel before I’ve even managed a summer holiday!

When you tackle a much earlier subject, before the era of high-resolution images, it can be difficult at the point of research to get the detail that you need as so many photos and videos are of such poor quality compared to the resolution that I work to here. Combine that with the fact that the bloody hotel had a devastating fire, lost its roof, and then was demolished certainly added to the challenge.

Undeterred, I was doing it! So, I chose to leave it until immediately after a short trip to Menorca to tackle it and I must say that was a great decision. With some buildings, I work with existing imagery and rework, for this it was from scratch. Everything started from nothing, building from textures and random details to create what you now see. It took an age; it was a real test but if you spot any imperfections just blame it on O’Reilly!

Speaking of the little feck! The fact that the hotel fell victim to a fire both in the series and in real life and that it needed to be rebuilt, allowed me to link this perfectly with Cybil’s’ favourite builder and set the scene at the point where works were being undertaken by O’Reilly. Has he been given one last try, has Cybil found faith or has Basil told another porky? The hotel looks majestic! Uh oh! Look a little closer and cracks are starting to form, oh hang on, what’s that on the roof? Fire, FFF Fire, FIRE!!!!!! See what I did there?

The relief when the hotel itself was built was massive, to see it come together like that was so pleasing and to add my own take on it made it even sweeter. Hopefully worth more than one star surely?! Everyone has their favourite moment or two from the sitcom, all of the characters are amazing but it for me it is Basil Fawlty, what an absolute lunatic! That scene with the branch and his car is just epic and you know it doesn’t take much for me to find space for a car within a scene so that was always going in, the duck sat in the trifle was a moment of randomness that comes from being engrossed in that mindset. It is the best of British comedy and I have further showcased this by the choice of colour for O’Reilly’s van. Combine the two (the car not the duck!) with the crisp white walls and there’s the Union Jack link. Clever eh! They don’t teach you that in a booooook! 

I will leave you to seek out and interpret everything, brilliant British storytelling at its best – and mine isn’t too bad, I guess! In all seriousness, we probably all know someone who used to laugh their heads off whilst watching Fawlty Towers and we wish that we could hear that once more, so I hope that this piece helps to bring those memories flooding back.

Oh, and I DID mention it, but I think I got away with it!