Last night was the opening of Sounds Damn Fine exhibition, orchestrated by the fantastic people at Damn Fine Print. 30 artists were chosen to exhibit with 30 hand-pulled prints from each available on the night. The theme was Sounds Damn Fine and each artist picked a song or lyric from a song on which to base their illustration. I picked the super-catchy Wimoweh song, also known as The Lion Sleeps Tonight. The illustrations from each artist were limited to two colours.
Each print was screen printed by hand and the results were really beautiful and I was thrilled to be involved.
The song was originally recorded by Solomon Linda in South Africa in 1939. It was recorded by lots of different artists over the years, making it to no.1 in 1961. However it didn’t reach LEGENDARY status until recorded by Tight Fit and their leather loin cloths 🙂 I remember seeing them on Top of the Pops when I was a kid. There are some things you just can’t unsee.
