Behind the print: "This Is My Happy Face"
- lucy w
- Oct 19
- 3 min read
Julian Davies tells the story behind this grumpy linocut character, from his beginning as a chance doodle to opening the doors for a whole set of monsters in print.
I don’t often work in sketchbooks as I feel that it takes away the spontaneity from my work, preferring to work directly on to the block. This approach has served me well over the years, and it suits the abstract nature of the work I do, allowing me to makes decisions on composition, form and colour as I go along. Having said that, I do tend to doodle a bit and these doodles quite often end up as funny-faced creatures and monsters – something that harks back to childhood, when I’d quite often be drawing Daleks and dinosaurs (sometimes in the same image).
One such doodle, done towards the end of 2021, sparked something to click in my brain and suggest that there might be something there worth pursuing. Of the four beasts in the original drawing, I was drawn towards the fella in the top right, so I drew him onto a small (15x10cm) piece of Japanese vinyl.
Having done that I started to have some doubts. I’d been making abstract images since the early ‘90’s – did I really want to go to the trouble to cut and print this block?
So the block was propped up on the bookcase in my studio, where he glowered at me on a daily basis. Maybe he was missing his friends? (They haven’t been completely abandoned – they may make an appearance at some point). Looking back at that picture, I do like the juxtaposition of this image against the books by such abstract heavyweights as Scully, Mangold and Tàpies!
I decided to take the plunge and cut the block. It was going to be a monochrome image, rather than my regular colourful, abstract reduction prints, just to keep things simple. I think that it’s all too easy as an artist to work in one way, be it abstract, landscape, figurative, etc, and almost force yourself into a tightly defined pigeon hole. Don’t rock the boat, stay in your lane – know your place. As anyone who knows me well will tell you, I don’t like being told what to do, so this image was going to be printed no matter what.
In early 2022 I headed off to Thames-Side Print Studio, and once the block was inked up, I just kind of knew that it was going to work as an image.
Pulling the first impression confirmed this, although at the time I didn’t realise that it would set me on a path towards doing more of these images in conjunction with the abstract work.
I like the image of the edition in the drying rack, where he looks like he’s behind bars for some, as yet undisclosed, crime.
I’d actually being seeing eyes, mouths, and faces in some of my abstract images – I believe the term is ‘pareidolia’ – so perhaps it wasn’t such a leap to start doing the monster images?
The next problem was what to call the image. It had to be something suitable. I’m quite particular about naming my work, and I do have some work that’s been sitting in my plan chest at home for a number of years just waiting for the ‘right’ title to suggest itself. Luckily, while I was trimming the prints down, signing and numbering them the title came to me, like a shot of divine inspiration (if that’s not too blasphemous a thing to say?) – “This Is My Happy Face”. Once I had that, it was all systems go, and I believe he made his Greenwich Printmakers debut in June 2022, where he’s proven to be something of a success.
I liked the image so much that I was even inspired to bring him back for a secondary image – "Tea and Apathy". From this one image I now have a whole legion of monsters and beasts. It’s amazing what one small doodle can inspire.
Some people have thought he’s a grumpy cat... which probably explains his less-than-happy demeanour. I think I’ve been influenced by heavy metal for so long now that we all know he’s a little demon. Can’t you smell the sulphur?
Julian’s linocuts are available on our online shop and in the gallery. For more information, see his artist’s page and his website.
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