From the 12th to the 13th of August I was part of a team of new artists and Illustrators asked to decorate the walls of Zizzi restaurant in Cresswell Lane, off Byres road in Glasgow's West End.
As cringeworthy as it is, I've posted the address of the Video invite that we all filmed to publicise the event below - Katy's statue-hug is my personal highlight of the video whereas I seem to be loitering motionlessly around the Botanic Garden's public toilets behind The Kibble Palace - very sinister.
The Gardens are just up the road from the restaurant, as is Oran Mor - the site of Alasdair Gray's ongoing mural of Cistine Chapel proportions. Hopefu
lly not Gray's swan-song, I was lucky enough to view it first hand thanks to a very obliging Oran Mor employee called Gordon, who didn't object to the gallous request. It seemed logical to me that elements of both should appear in what I hoped to do.
lly not Gray's swan-song, I was lucky enough to view it first hand thanks to a very obliging Oran Mor employee called Gordon, who didn't object to the gallous request. It seemed logical to me that elements of both should appear in what I hoped to do.Having been exposed so much to Lucy Mckenzie's work at college - and through her curatorial work Gray and John Byrne - I wanted to adopt a little their decorative, flat, graphic vernacular. I wanted to try painting and drawing with their Glasgow accents so that I could make my motifs specific to Glasgow without relying on visual cliches- difficult for an in-about-comer. I wanted a local Zizzi diner to be comfortable amongst the images, not exasperated by them.
This is some of my sketchbook work to whet your appetite for the project!
Zizzi restaurants always seem to be leading the way when it comes to instilling character into their venues, it's difficult to understand how so many other UK restaurant chains get it wrong when Zizzi get's it right with such ease. Your illustrations look awesome, I can't wait to see the final look of the venue.
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