Right at the start of the year I was invited to take part again (my 5th time) to the highly successful Secret 7" exhibition. The exhibition each year showcases up 700 pieces of art work adorning 7" record sleeves from local and international practicing artists, illustrators, and Graphic designers. Each artist is asked to design a cover of a single from a selection of 7 singles from the great and good of the music business. At the start of November each are auctioned off and the proceeds benefit a charitable cause. This year the auction was for the first time on Ebay.

Sadly this is the last year of the exhibitions ending on year 7. Makes sense hey! So as you can imagine I was more than happy to take part again. One of the great things of being an artist, is to be able help out a charitable cause. This years benefitting charity is Help Refugees.

My piece this year came by a bit of serendipity, I have two young children. One 3 and one 5. I decided to let them watch E.T. for the first time. It quickly became a favourite in our household in the early days of the UK lockdown. It was watching this film that inspired my artwork and ultimately which track I was to pick this year. I plumped for the Foo Fighters single 'This Is A Call' A great song, one that around the time it came out was just released as I was started art college. 

First and foremost I always listen to a song incessantly, and sketch out the first thing that hits my brain cells. Then I often progress to the lyrics. This time around, I of course listened to the song, but from the outset the E.T. film popped in to my head. Particularly the scene where E.T. constructs a transmitter to call home. You see where I am going here... My daft head put two and two together. Of course most of the following could be BS/ my own artistic licence coming in to play!

Essentially I thought that Dave Grohl is writing a song in a similar vein to what E.T. was trying to achieve to get home, communicating with something dear to him. Either way it became a starting point. The saw blade for me became the focal point. In the film E.T. uses an old record player to 'play' the saw blade. Which if you do a bit of research, it has an etched pattern on it for the coat hanger to communicate his message home. 

This lead me on to think to hide a message in Morse code within the blade. If you had a decoder, the record essentially plays all of the lyrics of the song! The cover was also originally going to be colour, however when I came across a scrap of metallic card, the colour was quickly disregarded. I used a laser cutting machine to gently etch in the design. No easy fete, as its a fine balance of not burning the paper. I really enjoyed putting this together, as ever each year. I am sad to see the exhibition go, but equally I am really pleased with what I have produced because of it. Thanks KK and co for all of the hard work and organisation!

Thanks goes to the person/persons who bought this, if you read this please do get in touch, I would love to know where it is now living.