How the "coolest job in the world" can ruin your brain

Counting Henderson’s Relish, Wednesday Vs United, alternative music and The Washington pub among his inspirations, Sheffield born and bred cartoonist Pete McKee has successfully turned a love for his roots into a job he loves. A job he readily admits to be ‘the coolest in the world’; combining imagination, humour, music, design and the ever expanding vibe of the Steel City.

 You may already know McKee as the regular cartoonist of The Sheffield Telegraph, a job he has held for the past 13 years, or as a regular contributor to the Sheffield Wednesday fanzine. These are akin to his ‘humble roots’; back when his paintings were done on cheap MDF with acrylic, and his focus was finding a record producer for his

band. For not only is McKee now a renowned and talented graphic artist, he also harbours an obsession for music and is a current member of comedy-folk ukele band The Everly Pregnant Brothers. In McKee’s life, music and art are inseparable, feeding off of each other, inspiring and complimenting each other, and providing mutual platforms of opportunity.

Born on a Sheffield council estate, McKee used his awareness and appreciation of his surroundings to channel his artistic meanderings, immersing himself in constructing logos and promos for his band at the time. Missing out on art college and working as a factory boy, McKee was determined that he would pursue drawing at his own pace, on his own terms. Managing to capture a strange sense of beauty and humour to the working class ‘normalness’ of his drawings, the originality of his earliest work – in particular, the ’22 views’ collection -  stems from depicting well known areas in Sheffield coupled with personal interests in music and football. Among his early and best pieces are ‘Kids in the Peace Gardens’; showing children playing in the fountain, and ‘Legends in the Fagens’, with Alex Turner, Jarvis Cocker, Tony Christie, Phil Oakley and Richard Hawley seated in the Broad St pub.

McKee pieces are easily recognisable from the bright colours and familiar sights/people, with emotion, humour and wit conveyed through brushstroke. With Sheffield and music being the prominent features in his collections, McKee has received recognition both locally and worldwide, with commissions from both Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys to produce images to use on tour and for promotion. (He created the 10ft portrait of Noel Gallagher imposed on a fibreglass guitar that was shown at Londons Southbank gallery during the Gibson Guitar exhibition in 2007, if anyone managed to catch that!)

2007 also saw McKee branch out from local exhibiting; showing at the Art Expo fair in New York and hosting his own London and Birmingham shows, ‘Lost Weekends’. Having being put firmly in the spotlight as ‘the hot pick from Up Norf’, both Lucas Films and Acme Studios caught sight of his shows and thought his style perfect for interpretation prints of their characters; and approached him to paint stills from Star Wars, Futurama, Family Guy and the Simpsons for use in comic conventions and to sell as memorabilia.

Over the next couple of years, McKee stayed true to his roots and showed at The Forum, The Bowery, and the Botanical Gardens (as part of the 2009 Art in the Gardens exhibition), and held his own slot on Toby Fosters local radio show. These ‘home’ inspired collections were mainly made up of views around and about Sheffield, painted in the size of an LP, so as to retain the Steel City/music marriage so original to him. McKee also crossed the valley to Manchester, exhibiting at the Great Moments in Music History show of October 2009.

Fast forwarding  to early 2010, and following up from his celebrity endorsements and commissions, McKee was invited by Clarks to put his stamp (rather appropriately) all over a pair of their Desert Boots, creating a limited edition design featuring ‘Mods and Modettes’ in honour of the boots history. This seemed to awaken his potential in the eyes of fashion, as later on in the same year he was approached by designer Sir Paul Smith, who offered a chance for McKee to exhibition in Tokyo at the new at the Paul Smith flagship store as well as collaborating with the designer to produce a limited edition tote bag to be sold on the opening night. This momentous occasion inspired McKee to develop ‘Teenage Kicks’; a limited edition book stuffed full of cartoons depicting the influence music has had on himself as a person and an artist, and celebrating his ‘awakening’.

With his blooming success on a roll, careering and colliding with new commissions left right and centre, McKee realised a personal ambition by opening his own permanent gallery, A Month of Sundays, in Sheffield’s Hunters Bar area in June 2010. His first exhibition there, ‘The Dogs Are Alright’ was born of a lifelong, but unrealised longing of his to own a dog. Yet again, we see music entwining itself with McKees’ past in the creation of each cartoon, and indeed the name of the collection parodies classic record ‘The Kids Are Alright’ by The Who, whilst members of the band are caricatured in the painting (if you can identify their canine persona!)

A Month of Sundays provides a space to get creative yourself, using McKee’s cartoons around you as inspiration or simply as a platform for your own artistic ideas. If you, like McKee, believe Sheffield is ‘going places’, and are proud of the ‘underground art and music’, this is one gallery and one artist you really, really shouldn’t miss. It’s practically on the doorstep, and if you get there before November 5^th, a self confessed brain exploding, see-it-or-forever-weep show will be there to wow all cartoon, TV and comic book geeks. ‘CARTOONS WILL RUIN YOUR BRAIN’ is a collection of limited edition artworks from popular animated TV sitcoms, including production cells, original pre-animation sketches and discarded scenes never before seen, at least by the good people of Sheffield. With the best pieces handpicked by McKee himself, with permission of the Acme American archives, see Futurama, Family Guy and the Simpsons come to a very still, 2D life in front of your eyes.

A Month Of Sundays is open year round, Tuesday - Saturday, 10am – 5pm and can be found at 365 Sharrowvale Road, S11 8ZP.

By Sarah Hastelow