Also, a few nice people have mentioned the project on their blogs - check out lovely words and download a free track from the soundtrack, Matt Cameron - ‘River Cafe’.  Have a look at:

Captain Obvious

The Devil Has the Best Tuna

Mainstream Isn’t So Bad…Is It?

I had a trip down to London at the weekend to visit the Candid Arts Trust where the exhibition will be held.  It looks awesome.  It got me very excited for the show.

I couldn’t get to sleep last night because I was thinking about it, so I distracted myself by concentrating on things that have absolute no consequence – like trying to make up a plot for an action movie – that sort of thing always works.

I’ve come to the conclusion delegating and calling on favours is the way forward, I’ve just emailed my friend Chris to ask him to think of something nice to write on the invites. My housemate Elliot is sat across the table making a posh flash banner for people to put on Myspace. My mum and grandparents are coming over next week to stuff envelopes, it’s a regular old workhouse at the Simpson residence.

You can head over to the Myspace page to sample three finished songs from the ‘Almost There’ soundtrack.

Chances are you will only see part of the paintings in this blog, click on them to see the whole thing.

Firstly, the Arts Council - this is really great.  It will go a long way to making the exhibitions a success and hopefully help both the paintings and music reach a lot more people.  To get a nod from them that they endorse my work is a great compliment and a real boost of confidence when I really needed it.  So thanks to everyone who came up with that decision, and to Ailis Ni Rain from the Arts Council for her advice and encouragement.  I’m most excited about sticking the Arts Council logo over everything…here’s the first stamp…

The P&O commissions also sound really exciting.  I’m normally unenthused by the thought of commissions, but this feels different.  I am producing eight large New York themed paintings for a NY style bar.  This means I’ll be heading to NY city within the next couple of months to do research and take a million photographs.  I’ve been playing ‘New York, New York’ by Ryan Adams full blast for the past couple of days, dancing around in my underwear… calm down ladies.

So 2009 is shaping up to be a hectic year, but in the best possible way.  I’m going to really start getting ready and promoting the ‘Almost There’ exhibitions as of December.  But now, time for bed…

 
Almost There - Trailer #1 ‘Answers’ from Joe Simpson on Vimeo.

I’m back into the studio to work on a couple of large commissions that need to be done by the end of November.  It’s strange to be back at it after a month off.

I have a meeting with a big cruise ship company on Sunday, to talk about doing a bunch of paintings for a New York styled bar on board a ship.  Should be interesting to see how it goes.

I’m without the internet at the moment, which is killing me.  

You can find see more at http://www.documentography.com 

A quote from Tom Waits: “Most of us expect artists to do irresponsible things, to be out of control.  Somehow we believe that if you’re way down there, you’re going to bring something back up for us, and we won’t have to make the trip.  This is part of the tradition with artists; the problem with that is that you will have people who will write you a ticket to go to hell.  Go to hell with gasoline drawers on and bring me back some chicken chow mein while you’re at it.“

He’s a cool cat.