A portrait of George from the Camden Coffee Shop
This is George. George prepares my coffee.
Sometime between 9 and 11am, six days a week, since 1978, George opens up his tiny shop just off Camden High Street.
If you’re early and he finds you on the pavement, waiting for him to arrive, you’ll still have to sit outside for ten minutes. Watching him through the door as he puts on his dust coat, lights up the roaster, filling it with the first batch of beans of the day.
So when you walk in, as George retreats betweens the counter, the shop is already pungent with the smell of roasting coffee.
You can choose from nine types of beans. Nothing else. The most popular one kept behind the counter to save George from reaching over. You can’t buy a coffee to drink, or cups or presses, just coffee, as beans. He will grind them for you. That’s it. Hand roasting daily and grinding on demand. Poured into a rubber stamped brown paper bag. The best coffee on sale in London.
Which deserves a portrait don’t you think?
A portrait of Irvine Welsh
“Irvine Welsh”
Julian Baker
Glasgow, December 2013
From the series “Novelists”
The greatest dishonour the Hollywood studio system has brought us is making the writer unsung. Once storytellers were revered as magi, lore keepers. In a culture where fame equates to a face’s screen-time, some portraiture to rebalance the wordsmith as hero.
New work – Life Support, One Third Inflated
“One Third Inflated” – From the Life Support triptych (panel one)
Julian Baker
London, July 2012
Dog Ear publish “Fumble mouth”
Hand on heart, I didn’t say those nice things about the bookmark that thinks it’s a magazine that thinks it’s a bookmark that thinks it’s a…. only because I knew this was going to happen…
Dog Ear publish my tiny fiction “Fumble mouth”.
I said them because I meant it, and sent the tale in after my post, honestly. So kiddies, just goes to show, no harm comes from saying nice things about nice people making nice stuff.
Thank you Dog Ear.
New work – Life Support
“Life Support” (panel three) – From the Life Support triptych
Julian Baker
London, September 2013
The Pocket
Back in 2011 I was asked to write a piece for the inaugural edition of Rong Wrong – a literary magazine on the nature of language. I never received a copy and recently noticed the web site’s gone offline. One can only hazard that any viewing is now confined to the shelves and drawers of those who brought a copy.
nthposition — the very fine online literary site — decided that they would like to publish it in the absence of other outlets.
Read it at www.nthposition.com/thepocket.php
New work – In conversation with three women
‘In conversation with three women’
Julian Baker
A triptych comprising ‘Male Pattern Blindness’ London, November 2010 / ‘Eye Contact’ London, February 2013 / ‘Bifocal’ London, March 2013
A portrait of Anna Maltz
Anna Maltz
Artist, knitter, activist
I discovered the work of Anna Maltz happening upon an apparent portrait of a family wearing what can only be described as knitted nude suits. The little girl examining her father’s woollen penis. The image was posted uncredited on an internet notice board accompanied by a litany of incredulous comments.
It had to have been the work of an artist – a simple and wonderfully executed concept that throws open all the moral and social contradictions in public displays of nudity. I would see it pop up again in unexpected places, each time eliciting a search to find the creator.
When Sasha Baron Cohen premiered “Bruno” in Berlin wearing a similar outfit a year later I made a concerted effort to find the artist, to express my admiration and congratulate her on finding mainstream exposure. Emailing Anna I learnt the Bruno costumes were not by her.
Artists frequently have their ideas purloined by advertising, take Gillian Wearing’s “Signs that say what you want them to say” and the Volkswagen advert by BMP DDB. In a “creative” industry not crediting a concept is ironic as well as unjust.
It’s probable Baron Cohen was unaware of her work but I would be surprised if no-one in his team had not seen the image, given the similarity in the versions. Five years had passed since Anna exhibited her suits and the emergence of the ones to promote Bruno. It seemed a shame to me that the latecomer and conceptually less brilliant version may become the one posterity remembers. So I thought a formal portrait of Anna in her creation would be in order. I must admit that I may also have had a sneaky desire to try one one for myself.
(Although we corresponded the portrait didn’t happen immediately, since, for a while, Anna thought I was asking her to pose nude. A lesson learnt and now I state clearly when propositioning artists and authors that I’m expecting them to keep their clothes on.)
Featured on the Art – das Kunstmagazin site
www.art-magazin.de/kunst/58933/akt_now_aktfotografie
“Art”, a magazine from Germany has just published an interview with me on their webs site, as part of their “Akt Now” series looking at contemporary nude photography.
It’s in German by the way. But there’s pictures.
Pairing: Andrew Wyeth vs. Noritoshi Hirakawa
“Christina’s World” by Andrew Wyeth, 1948. Tempera on gessoed panel, 81.9 cm × 121.3 cm (32¼ in × 47¾ in)
“Tanja’s World” by Noritoshi Hirakawa, 1999. Silver gelatin print, 33 x 52 cm (13 x 20 1/2 in.) Edition of 10
arthistory.about.com/od/famous_paintings/ss/andrew_wyeth_christinas_world.htm
www.christopheguye.com/artists/noritoshi-hirakawa/w5/unbenannte-ressource1.html
New work – Coupled, Friends #8 (Happy Christmas)
“Coupled, Friends #8”
London, December 2012
From the “Coupled” series
… and Happy Christmas to each and everyone of us
New work – Niagara
“Niagara”
Julian Baker
London, October 2012
From the Skintones series
A portrait of Coppé
Coppé
Musician, TV presenter, martian
Julian Baker
London, September 2012
Pairing: René Magritte vs. Michael Haneke
“The Lovers” by René Magritte, 1928. Oil on canvas, 21 3/8 x 28 7/8″ (54 x 73.4 cm)
“Funny Games” written and directed by Michael Haneke, 1997. 108 mins.
www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=3692
www.imdb.com/title/tt0119167/
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