My influences

Someone said to me the other day.."your work reminds me of.." its not something I have ever seriously considered so it got me thinking that I should make a little list.

I am happy to receive suggestions

So in no particular order

B Movie Aliens.. especially the Blob. I think my brain has been absorbed by the Blob !

Paul Klee

Kandinsky

Max Ernst

"Miro"

Jean Dubuffet : The best mess on the planet.

"Basquiat"

Velvet Underground & Nico. Musicians have been copying them for decades.. but they all miss the point. It was Andy Warhol that made the difference.

Marc Chagall

"Kids Art": They don't need to pontificate about art.. they just do it.

L.S.Lowry

Theo Major.. I met him. The guy was totally extraordinary.

Andy Warhol (obviously)

Leonardi Da Vinci.. any guy who invents helicopters before there were Business Execs deserves respect.

Random Urban Scrawlers.. I like the folks who scrawl something like "u are a nob"
rather than the glitterati of Street Art. Just don't do it on my wall.

Wallace and Gromit (I have an accent like Wallace and also like a nice piece of cheese)

Gaudi (not sure why or how though..but I feel the need to "respond":) You know the worlds gone backwards try building a Cathedral today !

Tom Finney

My wife..

Max Ernst (again)

Cheap adverts on the TV. We have a cracker at present by a bird who thinks she's a stunner but isn't telling us to visit Accrington market.

Marcel Duchamp (I don't understand why)

The Queen.. (because she has always been there for me)

Marcel Duchamp (because I still don't understand why).

JC..

Richard Ashcroft.. it is a bitter sweet symphony

Bill Gates.. some folks just want more and more of everything. But Bill decided he had enough and before he popped his clogs wanted to do some good in the world. But I could be wrong.

Simon Cowell.. somebody who is hated by so many must be doing something right.

Youtube... the source of all wisdom,old music vids and frivolity.

Urban decay.. nature is boring.

Suburbia.. probably our most significant contribution to the world. The Renaissance produced Da Vinci.. Venice.. etc. 20th C produced Suburbia, Hiroshima and Henry Ford.

Soxy Fleming.. she threatened never to speak to me again if I didn't include her.

"Shameless"

Anything Italian..
Venice for instance.. here's some mud why don't we build a beautiful city on it ?

(to be continued)
P.S. I'm actually quite surprised how few REAL artists I'm influenced by.
I find many "Artists" boring, self important and up their own backsides...

Thank you and goodnight !


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US Open Tennis

I was contacted by a US artist saying he saw someone at the US Open Tennis wearing a T shirt with one of my designs on it. I've not really sold that many T shirts so I am curious about this.

If any of you folks regularly watch the tennis can you keep your eyes open.. apparently it was one of Stanislas Wawrinka's coaches.


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Too much information

Everywhere we look we are surrounded by piles of useless information.. and small print.. should we read it all to make sure we don't leave ourselves ill informed or worse ? Ignorance is no excuse when it comes to the law.

You know if I don't fill in the paperwork and get my image copyrighted it might be stolen.. and if i don't get my vehicle licensed it might be towed away.

My meter is constantly turning.. how many units have been used today ? How many vitamins or calories do we need to be happy ? And the TV tells me everyday we need to know about events in Emerdale, Afghanistan, the Big Brother House, and Tibet ?

They released hostages in Columbia yesterday and it rained before the pound rose against the dollar. What's the score at the US Open ? In case I am asked ? I must recycle because the planet is dying. My interest rate has gone down ! The lovely female weather forecaster tells me I need to know there is high pressure over the Atlantic.. the traffic on the M25 is bad today and there are delays after an an accident involving a 71 yr old which is causing long delays for anyone waiting to use the bathroom.

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Just sold a 7ft x 4ft print..

To Gainesville in Florida...which is now officially my favorite US place (today). Its the largest POD print I've ever sold.. FAA are going to need one of those big US trucks to deliver it.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/white-city-andy-mercer.html

I reckon they've paid over $600 dollars for it.. amazing for an unsigned work. I figure it must be for restaurant.. or an office. I've sold quite a few of these to commercial clients. I think we can safely say its going to be a centre piece.. somewhere.

Thank you buyer from Gainesville.. for a similar amount I will fly over and sign it !
Sent a signed version of the same print to New York a couple of weeks back as well..

I can tell the kids they are eating tonight !

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Best of the Day at Zazzle

This work is the Best of the Zazzle..
http://www.zazzle.com/city_sun_2_print-228393176674849214

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Sold 4 prints last night

Last night I sold 4 prints to an Urban Planning Consultancy in Brisbane Downunder.

It would get a bit boring if I announced every sale but when a decent sale comes along I think it provides a decent opportunity to let folks know that I do sell works regularly around the world.

So if you live in Brisbane and you spot your local urban planning consultants office.. tell him you don't know anything about planning you've just come to admire his collection of "Andy's work" !

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Rogue image search engines bypassing watermarks..

A few days ago I posted about a new type of image search engine effectively giving away artists images. There appear to be a number of sites involved... and the list is growing. These site appear to be deliberately avoiding the images that are watermarked on POD sites and picking up on thumbnails and sales pages where the images are not protected by watermarks. So this is not a case of a search engine accidentally finding our images.. it strikes me they are deliberately bypassing the copyrights and watermarks protecting our images.

It would seem they are basically using our images to generate Google advert income using a network of referring sites.. which don't make it all easy for anyone searching to get to the original site where your image was posted.

For more detailed information I've posted about this in some detail on the Red Bubble forum.

POD sites need to be reviewing their image security...

Please spread the word !

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