Graham Holliday's Blog

“Wealthy countries donating COVID-19 vaccines with a relatively short shelf life has been a “major problem” for the COVAX dose sharing programme, a senior official at the World Health Organization said on Thursday. The proportion of wasted doses is smaller in countries receiving doses through COVAX than in many high-income countries” – Kate O’Brien, the WHO’s vaccine director | Reuters | December 9, 2021. Drawn using H and HB pencils on almost LP-sized 250g/m2 acid-free Clairefontaine paper. Find more of my covidcards on Instagram.

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We learn a lot from the man on the TV. He tells us a lot of things. I took this photograph of a man on the TV on 5 July, 2020. It was the same day I read in The Atlantic that “COVID-19 won’t change us forever”, No matter how horrific the disaster, no matter how damaged our psyches, we wounded humans always bounce back. We rebuilt San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. We rebuilt Chicago after the great fire. We rebuilt Dresden, Warsaw, Hiroshima, Nagasaki. We grieve, adapt, endure, progress. And frequently we thrive. The Black Death was followed by the Renaissance. The 1918 pandemic was followed by the Roaring Twenties. All of which seems to tie in with where I stole the title of this post from – a poem called Man on the TV Say by Patricia Smith. I hadn’t heard the poem before I made the collage. Her poem is about Hurricane Katrina and the man on the TV is the weatherman. He’s telling people to Go. Back in July, 2020—because of COVID-19—a lot of people were telling us to Go, too. Man on the TV Say Go. He say it simple, gray eyes straight on […]

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I started drawing this a week or so back after first hearing the Country Tropics LP by Old Saw. I’ve had this four-track musical wonder on all week and—whenever I had an hour or so spare (not often, as it’s been a bumper-sized, busy week)—I worked on this drawing while the music played. In no way does the drawing do justice to the simply AMAZING LP, nor, I think, does it really reflect the music. In retrospect, I think this drawing is just something I did while listening to the LP. Country Tropics is ambient, analogue, avant-garde, Americana, spattered with pedal steel, bells, banjo, fiddle drones, burring nylon, and pipe organ, and it is incredibly soothing. I like this description of the band by worriedsongs, A network of New England string pluckers, organ drivers and bell ringers crafting a rusted and granular shadow world where the dive bar meets the divine. Search out Old Saw on Bandcamp – you won’t be disappointed (unless that is, the vinyl is sold-out). And, here is an interview with Henry Birdsey, one of the brains behind Old Saw. His take on how and why he makes music is enlightening and spot on, Sound is […]

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Emily A. Sprague recorded Hill, Flower, Fog at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, I have a feeling that, in the future, this LP might end up reminding me of these times more than most music of this period. She recorded its six instrumental tracks in a single week in March, in the early days of the pandemic. “I found myself suddenly a part of that stream which flows now separate from the reality we used to know,” she wrote upon first uploading the album to Bandcamp in March, just four days after she had finished it. (The RVNG Intl. edition has been expanded and resequenced.) “It is meant as a soundtrack to these new days, practices, distances, losses, ends, and beginnings.” Rather than fear or discord, though, she emphasizes a grounding tranquility. Pitchfork NOVEMBER 19 2020 A couple of days ago, the power went out for the whole day in our part of Dakar. This made it almost impossible to do anything apart from sweat and worry about the fridge and freezer contents. As I dripped, I listened to Hill, Flower, Fog by Emily A. Sprague on repeat and made this drawing – before the laptop battery finally […]

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‘Free’ drawing is very meditative. And, in these dark times, I fully recommend it. I also recommend this mini-LP by Marta Forsberg. I discovered her work on Bandcamp about a year ago, and since then I’ve watched a few of her performances on YouTube. It’s all gloriously experimental, but New Love Music is probably one of her most ‘accessible’ recordings – fantastically simple album title too. I made this drawing blind using a sharpened HB pencil on a 21x21cm square piece of 250g/m2 acid free Clairefontaine paper while listening to New Love Music (continuous mix). Have a listen below. You can find more of my drawings to music on Instagram. Lastly, below, is a live performance of New Love Music.

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I drew covidcard no.104 during snatched moments over a few days. It was only after I finished the drawing—although, I’m never quite sure when any of these drawings are ever quite finished—that I discovered the Al Jazeera article about COVID-19 in Singapore. The story seemed a good fit for the drawing. “We are on a path of transition to a new normal of living with COVID-19,” Health Minister Ong Ye Kung told a virtual press conference on Friday. “It is a journey that is uncertain and full of twists and turns.” – Al Jazeera, 20 September 2021. Drawn using Marvy Uchida For Drawing, Rotring Tikky and Steadler Pigment Liner pens and two HB pencils on a 21x21cm square piece of 250g/m2 acid free Clairefontaine paper.

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I was looking for a piece of music to draw to—something I hadn’t heard before—when I came across Original BGM by Haruomi Hosono. I believe this track is from a 1981 album by Yellow Magic Orchestra. It was only after I finished the drawing that I realised this music was made by the same guy who made Watering a flower 1984 cassette (花に水) – one of my favourite discoveries of the past few years. I made this drawing blind using a sharpened HB pencil on a 21x21cm square piece of 250g/m2 acid free Clairefontaine paper. See more drawings from my drawn2music series on Instagram.

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I started drawing this covidcard soon after I read this article in The Guardian. “In the UK, the majority of those now in hospital with Covid-19 are unvaccinated. Many face their last days with enormous regret, and their relatives are telling their stories to try to convince others like them.” The Guardian | Tue 14 Sep 2021 06.00 BST It’s a sad, depressing read, but (rightly) it’s not judgmental towards those who had the choice to receive a vaccine, but for whatever reason chose not to. Living in West Africa—where vaccine supply is extremely limited—it is hard to understand those who live in rich countries who choose not get vaccinated. This article helped me grasp at the thinking behind their choice to abstain. I drew this using a Marvy Uchida For Drawing 0.1mm black pigmented ink pen on 21x21cm square piece of 250g/m2 acid free Clairefontaine paper. You can find more of my covidcards on this blog. I’ve posted many more to Instagram.

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An album of Tibetan bell music made by white folk in 1972 might conjure up images of hippy trail beatniks down a Kathmandu back alley attempting to jam celestial monk music. And, you’d not be far off—a lot of this recording is calming and other-worldly—but some strands within this seven-track album are also quite jarring. Various websites state that this LP was “the first recording to use Tibetan bells”. I don’t know if that’s true or not or how you could even verify that claim. I do wonder how these artists discovered Tibetan bells back in the early 70s. Unfortunately, the Internet appears to have very little information about any of the musicians who played on this recording. This is another drawing in my drawn2music series. I made this drawing blind using an unsharpened HB pencil on a 21x21cm slightly faded piece of 250g/m2 acid free Clairefontaine paper.

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Another rather rapid covidcard sketch. I made this as I read a column by Prof Devi Sridhar in The Guardian which seemed to sum up the horrific divide between the vaccinated rich and the unvaccinated poor of this planet. “So when will the pandemic be over? Covid-19 won’t end with a bang or a parade. Throughout history, pandemics have ended when the disease ceases to dominate daily life and retreats into the background like other health challenges. Barring a horrific new variant, rich countries such as Britain and the US may be within months, if not weeks, of what their citizens will see as the end of the pandemic. This isn’t the case in poorer countries in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. For countries that can’t afford vaccines, technology or treatments for Covid-19, populations will remain trapped by outbreaks that cause chaos in hospitals and kill health workers and vulnerable and elderly people.” I made covidcard no. 102 using a 10cm X 10cm piece of 250g acid-free clarirefontaine paper, Steadler Pigment Liner pens, HB pencil and shavings, broken leads, Maped ice 80% Recycled Black Ballpoint Pen, and Rotring refills. There are more covidcards on my Instagram.

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