thejunkyardprocession revamped | Page 18

July 2013 was the the 40th year since my first gig (for the record Slade at Leeds Uni). Since then I have seen 100s if not 1000s of bands. I have always been driven to draw portraits, usually of the bands I like at the time. I have also always been interested in Tessellations, the geometric shapes that fit together perfectly without any gaps. Of course the master of tessellations is MC Escher. It was in 2010 I had the idea of combining my interest of Rock Music portraiture and Tessellations and came up with the Shape of a guitar which tessellates. I proceeded to cover an A2 sheet with these guitars and then coloured each one in. The end result was "Strummer Axed". Since that first "Tessellation Portrait" I have added Billy Bragg, Ozzy Osbourne, Ian Brown and David Bowie to the port folio. These portraits can take me up to 9 months to complete and I started to draw "Big 'Ed" portraits of family, friends and people I knew from going to gigs, as artistic relief from the intensity of the Tessellations. These became quite popular and I now split my time 50/50 between the two formats. The latest Big 'Eds are from the TV Series "Breaking Bad". Other than commissions, 95% of the musicians I draw I have seen live or they are represented in my record collection. As such, on a couple of occasions, the drawings have enabled me to meet the subjects backstage. In 2013 I had the honour of meeting Billy Bragg after his gig at Leeds Town Hall and earlier this year I got backstage at Manchester Arena to meet Flogging Molly. I have shown my work at Strummercamp and had my work on the Walls of CuvĂ©e Bar Leeds in February 2014. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to show my work at more exhibitions in the future. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/punk.art.1 Email: [email protected] Website: http://paulaitcharty.wix.com/paul-aitch-art 18