A charming drawing rendered in charcoal and ink which JCR says was started after overhearing a conversation on a bus.
I have to mention this. It’s more than my jobs worth not to. My employer Mr Alban Low is known for his own drawings based on conversations overheard on public transport. There’s an excellent example of one of these in Freedbook by the way. Perhaps it’s a coincidence. Or possibly being a thoughtful type JCR selected this drawing for Patternotion with exactly that in mind.
“This might just be in accord with what Alban is trying to accomplish” she could have been thinking. I should quickly point out that her finished artwork looks nothing at all like any of Alban’s overheard conversation pictures. It is a unique and remarkable delineation of her own audio-voyeuristic travelling experience.
Nevertheless it got me wondering. Is it possible that over time the intuitive, intelligent and highly empathic contributors to Sampson Low publications might develop between them if not exactly a house style then at least some kind of loose shared aesthetic? Themes, symbols, systems even, whether unconsciously or deliberately would be shared. A clumsy new word “sampsonlowesque” would be brought into use in an attempt to caption this phenomenon.
Inevitably thuggish and undiscriminating minds would miss out on all this and their contributions would continue to stick out like a sore thumb. Yes, I’m looking at you David Bushell.
The drawing portrays a cycle of naughtiness where the characters seem trapped in a cheerful(?) slapstick existence. There’s clearly some sort of physical struggle for superiority going on. At the bottom of the page someone has gained control and sits triumphantly on a rival’s shoulders. Bizarrely the victor is depicted with a giant sick note on his/her head!
PJD
Patternotion is now in the shops, buy your copy here, visit the buy page and receive it in just a few days. AL
