RIP Ray Cusick

The world lost a great designer this month, Ray Cusick died on the 21st of February. Anyone who visits my studio is instantly greeted by his most famous design the Daleks! Much in the same way as people collect variants of Mini Coopers I collect Daleks believing them to be equally as iconic a design from the 1960’s and their development over the last 50 years can be seen lined up along the shelves.  The instantly recognisable design was devised while Cusick worked as a designer at the BBC.  When asked to design an alien race for Terry Nation’s Dalek scrip, legend has it that he picked up a pepper pot and moved it around the table indicating that the creature would move much the same way with no visible means of propulsion. Thus the Daleks assured their place in popular culture. I had the pleasure of meeting him before the series returned and I recall him discussing how he never received royalties for the design and that he had requested that he be at least recognised as the designer. His work was finally recognised when the Daleks returned to our screens in 2005. On hearing such sad news reporting “Dalek Designer Dies” and “Doctor Who's Dalek creator Ray Cusick dies” at least he finally received his credit as his design lives on.     

© Arfon Jones 2013. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

Monster Memories “Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins”

Happy New Year! Yes… I know it’s the last week of January 2013 and that I haven’t written a single post yet. But the simple truth is that things have been hectic here in the studio, still are in fact. I have several projects on the go, in the works and on the cards! Rest assured though that 2013 is going to be bigger, better and simply brimming over with creative projects. Interestingly, a continuing theme runs through all these projects a subject dear to my heart. At the risk of giving too much away I was reflecting over this reoccurring theme last weekend, what seemed to be a matter of concern for my teachers during my school days. One teacher shared this concern with my mother during a parent/ teacher’s evening stating that my, “Fascination with Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins" was not natural. She was relentless in her futile efforts to deter me from my interest in monsters, aliens and all things paranormal. I recall one particular classroom outburst that resulted in her demanding that I return a (school-approved) book about classic Hollywood movies* back to the library because I was reading about horror. Having expressed her anguish at a photograph of Faye Wray in King Kong and Olga Baklanova in Freaks she claimed that my pursuit of such things was a waste of time, and so I dedicate this post to her. I knew she was wrong then, and it gives me immense pleasure proving her wrong twenty years later.

Perhaps you will join me? I can be found on both facebook and twitter.

* Great Movie Moments by John Russell Taylor (ISBN-13 : 978-1850291336)

© Arfon Jones 2013. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

Morse Code Mitts

Well, It’s the coldest time of the year, time to break out the knitwear! I love knitwear but I can’t knit or sew, so I have nothing but admiration for those that possess the skill. This is the very same reason why I love Miriam McDonald’s work, a regular reader will recall my mentioning her ankle-less socks at this year’s Waltz on the Wye. So imagine my delight when I received an early Christmas present from her today… a pair of Morse Code Mitts! I love these! On the left-hand you find (dot-dash-dot-dot) for 'L' and on the right-hand (dot-dash-dot) for 'R'. As Mim put it, “geeks will appreciate the joke and most other people will simply see a nice pair of mitts.” It can get a little chilly in the studio and my hands and fingers are the first to feel the cold, gloves can at times restrict movement, but not with these! My fingers can move freely in them so they are a welcome edition, and I thank her dearly for her kindness!
Check out her blog for more details about them and a free knitting pattern!

 © Arfon Jones 2012. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

A Franktastic Christmas reminder

I understand that a fair few of these can be seen up and down Oldham St. in Manchester. Never the less I shall readdress it! All proceeds raised at the Franktastic Christmas party event will go towards erecting a statue of the late Frank Sidebottom in his hometown of Timperley. The event held at the Night and Day Cafe, Manchester on Saturday 15th of December promises to be an evening of music and celebration Frank Sidebottom style! Featuring music by The Stags, The Freshies (with Harry Sievey) and Hank Sidebottom and the Hellrazors’ (Rockerday Johnny & Bale and Frank Sidebottom’s long lost elder brother). Please check out the link and buy tickets and help get the statue up in the New Year! Thank you! Thanks to Gaz for providing the photo.


© Arfon Jones 2012. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

Sir Patrick Moore CBE HonFRS FRAS (1923 – 2012) : The loss of an inspiration and friend

This is a very difficult post to write as I lost an inspiration and friend today, Sir Patrick Moore, CBE, FRS, FRAS passed away peacefully at his home in Selsey at the age of 89. This blog post will undoubtedly be lost amongst millions of other tributes being left for him as his influence carried across the entire globe. Tributes left by eminent Astronomers and scientists, men who have walked the moon and observed it in their back gardens will be mourning his loss. Sir Patrick had been on our screens since 1957 so he was a reoccurring, enduring figure on our screens as I grew up. During the 80’s and 90’s it seemed that he was either telling me about the Universe on ‘The Sky at Night’ or telling me how to cheat at video games with ‘Games Master’. Between these shows I would read his books trying to make sense of the night sky.  When I was at college and working through the night on a project I would often catch ‘The Sky at Night’ and treat it as a well-earned break I would then go outside to take a look and marvel at it all. In my 20’s I finally wrote to him and received a reply the following day. Several other letters were exchanged before being invited down to his home in Sussex, this visit became one of many there after. All the times I saw him he never let me down a true down to earth gentleman that lived up to my expectations and I feel truly honoured to have met him and call him a friend. Always supportive of my work I was fortunate to be able to work with him once, illustrating one of his books and our last endeavour was arranging my surprise marriage proposal to Beth in his garden last year. Looking up at the night sky has become all the more poignant now as I think of his legacy. Thank you Patrick for your inspiration, guidance, wit, generosity and friendship, I will miss you.

EDIT: 12/03/2018 I found this clip on my phone of Patrick speaking at the Autographica 12 event at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, London on the 25th of October 2008



© Arfon Jones 2012. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

“what’s in a name?”

William Shakespeare once wrote, “what’s in a name?” well if your name is also your website address, it’s very important, If someone misspells my name they will not be able to find my site! Arfon, (yes it is Welsh it means "Across from Anglesey" which is a coincidence really because I do just that) is not a name that people from outside Wales find easy to pronounce. Throughout my life I have had people drop the ‘r’ and call me “Afon” and after thirty something years of it I have learnt to live with it. But as the world continues to grow smaller my name continues to baffle people, so much so that I thought of addressing this with a recently abandoned business card in which a pronunciation guide could be located on the back of the card, Arfon Jones* Artist /Illustrator *pronounced “Arr-von”. But it’s not so much the pronunciation that’s the problem here it the fact that some people write my name as they would (try to) say it, either missing the above mentioned ‘r’ or bizarrely calling me “Afron” why this happens I have no idea… But either way it’s not ideal when it’s a website address. But what can I do? It’s my name, it’s located at the bottom of my work. I have no middle name, and Jones is the reverse of Arfon, in that it’s a very common Welsh name! Because Arfon is an uncommon name (if you are also called Arfon be sure to say hello at the bottom of this post!) I wasn’t given a nickname I could use instead of my real name (well one that I would wish to use on my work anyway!) I am known simply as Arfon... So how to combat this website address problem? Register the variations people use and redirect them to arfon.net? No, that would be costly! I know I shall write a blog entry about my name, writing it seven times, highlighting it each time and point out that it can also be found on my logo in the hopes that people will pick it up…

© Arfon Jones 2012. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.

Charity Auction

Around 10 years ago I volunteered my services to a charitable group by offering free artwork for their worthwhile cause only to have my offer declined, then having criticised my style they approached an ‘established’ artist who gave them a half hearted computer generated image. To say that I was disappointed would be putting it mildly, suffice to say it made me wary of offering ‘free art’ to charity. HOWEVER, I have been deeply moved by the work and efforts done by the Chernobyl Children's Project (UK) a charity that provides support for the children and their families in Belarus, most affected by the Chernobyl disaster.  Their hard work and dedication inspired me to want to help in some way, so I painted ‘The Cooling Pond’ to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster back in 2011. It featured in the Voices from Chernobyl art exhibition held in Los Angeles and now I am donating it to the Chernobyl Children's Project (UK) charity with 100% of the proceeds going to this wonderful charity. Helping children with disabilities, cancer or diabetes and delivering humanitarian aid to them and their families. It is now listed on ebay, so please check out the link and place a bid on it, the sale ends on the second of December so lets hope we raise a great sum in time for Christmas!

© Arfon Jones 2012. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.