I'll Tell You What's a Great Album

I'll Tell You What's a Great Album is a single piece of work made up of twenty album sleeves painted on beermats.

In this age of digital downloading, music is copied perfectly and instantaneously, being devalued more than just commercially. Sleeve art is generally overlooked or completely ignored. This piece throws the spotlight back onto the sleeve art, and the images have been produced "long-hand", imperfectly, and with some considerable effort. (Beer mats, which are made to soak up liquids, are awful things to paint on.)

The source for each painting is an album sleeve, with each chosen partly because I like the record, but mainly to cover as many original image types as possible Collage, vector art, printmaking, black and white photography, colour photography, pen and ink drawing, industrial design, graphics, oil painting, and screen printing on paper and on vinyl are all represented.

All references to the album's maker and its title are removed. This is an attempt to bring the sleeve art back to being a piece of art. For the same reason, on the explanatory panel, the people who made the sleeve art are credited, whereas the bands who used that art are not.

Click any image for a better look.

I'll Tell You What's a Great Album is sold.