Author: Dean Perry

The Shopping List(s!)

Ermagerd! Ermagerd! More lists??

It was bound to happen, wasn’t it? Give someone a tiny bit of attention or exposure and it goes to their head. They start getting wild ideas and before you know it, they’ve lost their marbles, throwing their art around all over the place and up your nose.

No apologies, but thanks to the suggestions of many, I decided to leave another list laying about. My youngest is enjoying all the fun that ‘The Shopping List’ has brought, and enthusiastically left Shopping List No.2 (or S.L.2) in a Trolley on Fri 30th March. We waited. And waited. Nothing. Zilch.
‘Ho-Hum’, we thought as the week drew on and forgot about it. But, (unlike the first list), we remembered to take a photo before we went shopping. There’s a pic further down of S.L.2 (I missed a trick there, I should have drawn a reference to ‘On a Ragga Tip‘* or something.
*(opens in new tab)

So, did we give up? No! Sunday (2nd Apr) saw the Pickle family off to Tesco again, same Tesco as the previous 2 shopping lists. We do shop there a lot and have done for well over 25 years. It’s a good Tesco.

This time, I wrote the list whilst sitting in the car, as Vikki did the fuel, so tried a different ‘style’ of shopping list. This time, I tried to incorporate all of the items in the list into one coherent picture, nearly managed it too, but later, noticed I’d forgotten the baked beans in the drawing!)

This particular Sunday didn’t require a trolley, so I had a basket on my lap and was in charge of the list. When we got to the till, the plan was to leave it in the basket for a lucky Tesco employee to find and brighten their hard working day.

Oops.
When we got to the tills, I remembered that I hadn’t taken a photo of the list. Panicking and hoping I wasn’t noticed, I carefully used my phone (which was luckily ready to use for the clubcard – phew!) I was sweating and nervous at this point. As my finger clicked on the button, the phone made a noise and the photo was taken. I hastily flipped over the list and took another.

No-one saw. I felt the adrenaline as I dropped the list into an empty basket in a pile of similar baskets. Mission accomplished. I breathed a sigh of relief and helped pack the shopping.

We went home, even consumed some of the things on the shopping list for tea/supper. Then, almost immediately forgot about the list again.

Until today! My son’s mate’s mum, Claire, works at the same Tesco, and she knows about the first S.L. and has been following it’s fun progress. This morning, she WhatsApp’ed the Mum’s n Dad’s group “Thanks.” (see below)

Claire’s W.A. message : with Danni – “Well Chuffed” – Holding S.L.3.

Woo and Yay, Houpla and Huzzah! *Drumroll*………. The S.L.3. has been found!

It was found by ‘Danni’. I’m not fully aware of all the details as to it’s discovery, or subsequent adventures, but I have been assured Danni was ‘Well chuffed‘ and the list is ‘living on our work desk now‘. That has made my week! Thanks to Danni and Claire for letting me know!

Here’s S.L.3. Before ‘the drop’. (Note the tesco floor as I secretly took the pic)

shopping list with a pig, punting a chicken along the river on a bread and butter raft as a carrot runs free on the bank of the river..

SL3 – Front:
The Third Shopping List; With a pig, punting a chicken along the river on a bread and butter raft as a carrot runs free on the bank of the river..

No baked beans were hurt in the making of this list. Because I forgot to draw them.

SL3 -Back:
Featuring a Chook from the future.

And, because I like to spoil you…. Here’s
SL2: ‘The Second List – Missing presumed binned’.

Title – S.L.2. – On a Shopping Trip.

Grapes on the beach on a hot day in California.

Happy cherries.

Pizza – Being eyed up by Leonardo TMNT. – All 3 kids did something awesome recently, so nicer pizza than usual as a little reward (amongst others during the Easter break), they’re good kids and deserve it!

Milk – obvs.

Sugar – Sing-along-if-you-know-it – Made famous by the inventors of said substance, ‘The Archies’, a band from yesteryear (1969 -The summer of sugar), not only discovered sugar whilst mountaineering in Holland, but also sang a song about it and how, after comparing it to honey, realised the similarities and really liked the results.

Ready Salted Crisps – or ‘plain’ crisps. It’s worth remembering that the crisps we consume were once beautiful, free-range potatoes, foraging for food and roaming the landscape of countries like Ireland, England, Jersey and the Serengeti. Sometimes hunted for their skins, sometimes hunted for their flesh. Makes you think, doesn’t it? I don’t know what about.

Kiwi Fruits – I couldn’t bring myself to draw Kiwi-Knackers. So I censored it and cleverly got away with it. It doesn’t look much like a Kiwi, but you’re too pre-occupied thinking of testicles to notice.

Recycled – Of course. I won’t be cutting any trees down to write a shopping list. Apart from the impossiblility of carrying around a tree whilst shopping, I’d be overflowing with old envelopes, they’d stack up and up, then I wouldn’t be able to go shopping, or leave the next list somewhere, because my house will be full of envelopes that could have been recycled. I would be trapped.

Fbook address to pickledpizza.art – I decided to put a way of finding me/ contacting me to save the ‘ i found this, does anyone know who did it’ part – I loved it first time, but I think some people might just bin it or be negative if I keep being anonymous.

SL2 – The Back

P.T.O. – You’d be forgiven for presuming or assuming that P.T.O. stands for Please Turn Over, but it’s a common misconception. It actually stands for Page Transformation Organisation. Founded some time ago, The Page Transformation Organisation or ‘Patranorgan’ for short, discovered, during routine experiments in page-transformation that test subjects were observed losing concentration very rapidly, often turning over the whole page before getting to the end of the Header, which simply read: “P.T.O. – Organised but Transformative Page Research and development.”
Further tests revealed that just the initials of the organisation was enough to make even the tallest test subjects turn the page involuntarily.

To this day, P.T.O can be seen on shopping lists and tattoos across the world. Apart from the countries that don’t use the letters P, T or indeed, O. They have other symbols and letters for that.




Chook – A lovely chook from the future.





Disclaimer – As someone on the KentOnline article said that it is littering to leave a shoppinglist in a trolley by accident may be delighted to know that I’ve decided not to do it accidentally, as this is littering. So I’ll do the opposite, because leaving them deliberately is art, for free, as a donation to the good people of Thanet.

Smiley – It’s a smile. we all need those as much as possible.

Where next?

Who knows where? Who knows when? Perhaps subscribe to find out the next thrilling instalment! Thanks for reading and keep smiling when you can, it’s infectious and fun.

Update: The Shopping List, in print!

Local artist shocked by interest!

If you’re following the story, ‘The Shopping List’ saga continues! As you may recall, in the previous episode, I had made it into the internet-based KentOnline website, with Brad Harper’s story on The List.

Well, today I found out that the story had also made it to the local paper, KM Extra! Here’s a pic that my daughter’s friend sent her*:

*I still can’t find a copy so far!

A photo of the newspaper article in the KM Extra (Thanet).

If that’s how you found me, Hello! Welcome to the madness. Please peruse the rest of the site (via the menu).

If you’re not following the story, it begins here (opens in new tab) , to some, it might be “The worst story they’ve ever read”, but it’s been wonderful to see so many people smile along the way. Thank you everyone!

Subscribe to get a pickle blog in your inbox. Way more delightful than your usual email drivel.

Coming along nicely, tyvm.

It’s a bright, fresh day, a bit chilly, but sunny. I’m doing all sorts, as it’s Easter break. Kids to entertain, bills to pay etc.

Not a day off, I still have things to do, but a day off compared to the past four or five days. I’ve been working hard on the website, and as a foundation, it’s almost finished.

There’s a ton of my older stuff in the galleries section, alongside some recent and favourites.

Also, there’s a way to subscribe to my blog AND quick links to my social pages in the about me page!

For the future, there’s both photography and music sections planned, so watch out for them!

Thanks for popping along! More soon!

Well. That was a week.

It’s a week since ‘The Shopping List’ and what a week!

I won’t go into some of it, because financially, a lot of people have had shocks and unexpected expenses of late, so me moaning about money won’t help anyone. But grrr. That aside, it’s been crazy.

©Dean Perry

The oven is fixed, though, so fruit cake has been baked and partially consumed.

I’d been fiddling for weeks, mainly thinking and getting on with other things, then The Shopping List happened and suddenly I had a few hundred extra page hits*.

So, thinking had to become doing and I trawled through several files and folders and typed like a loon to get a foundation and some weight to this website. Yes, it’s a WHOLE WEBSITE! Not just this page, but galleries, projects and everything! It’s not a bog deal to most, but it’s been a LONG time since I’ve been able to fully achieve this. Before, I had to struggle along in dreamweaver, designing my own buttons, getting frustrated over hyperlinks and then trying to get it to look right on all devices, browsers etc.

Now though, it’s WordPress has made accessible, all the things I’ve yearned for. So I have the ideas, WordPress has the software and my enthusiastic followers have somewhere new to look at my old stuff, hehehe.


*All of which were probably heading to deanperry.co.uk which currently points towards an old wordpress.org site, which never happened. However, I’m unable to get it to point to here, but trying hard to resolve this. But I’m happy with the pickledpizza.art.blog address, because it’s simple, gets you here quickly without all the .com or co.uk faff.

The New Site

Firstly, when you visit, you’ll be dirested to this page, The Blog. It’s where I’ll be updating everyone to the latest news, rants, or up-and-coming happenings. Sometimes illustrated with a few adornments, sometimes just plain text.

Next up is the rest of the site, hiding patiently behind the blog and all dressed up smartly, waiting to be noticed.
It’s a smorgasbord of pictures, videos, photographs, drawings, photoshoppery, doodles and soon, some music.

So easy to navigate your way around the site too….

Check out the Menu at the top of the page, there’s sub-menus too, for example, there’s a gallery page, but in the menu, there is a sub-menu, with all the galleries listed in it. The same for the ‘Projects’ section.

I won’t list all the pages and what they are for, but there’s a brief description on each page.

I’ve added a mixture of slideshows and static galleries, depending on the Gallery or Project which works well and there’s a Bio and links to all my social media pages in the ‘About Me’ page, and a way of contacting me in the ‘Contact Dean’ page.

There is still a bit to add and some artwork to find, even new pages coming soon, but the main site is done and ready to enjoy!

It’s taken the best part of the week, but it’s been worth it.

P.S. I’ve tried as much as possible to make sure there’s alt text or descriptions to all the artwork, especially for those with sight-related issues. It’s taking a lot of extra time, but it’s important. If I’ve missed any, sorry! Also, there are occasions when I can’t add a description. But you’re not missing much, lol.

P.P.S. Here’s a new thing, you can subscribe to get my silly blog fresh in your inbox! There’s a subscribe box on the ‘About Me’ and ‘Contact Dean’ pages, they look like this…. (which also works)

It might just brighten up your week! Lets all hope for a bright week ahead,

The Shopping List

or The Unfolding Saga of an Folded Envelope

(continued, sort of, from previous blog post)

The Shopping List : How it began

During Lockdown of 2020, the world hit a new low, but human resilience, in it’s many amazing forms, found a way through the darkness. Everyone found little ways to battle through the greater nastiness of the times.

Shopping became hard, sometimes impossible and I’m not ashamed to admit we, as a family, relied on help from outside sources, ordered shopping online (rarely) or shopped locally, keeping to covid-based rules. I’ve always doodled silliness, painted silliness and I’m a generally silly person amongst my several personalities. So a logical course for me was to cheer up a mundane task by adding a bit of illustrated humour.

It’s impossible to do daft doodles on every shopping list, our life is a complicated one as it is, so time is valuable. But if there is time, perhaps when Vikki is deciding between items, or we’re doing a list whilst doing something else, it does bring a bit of sunshine to a shopping list. It’s also not a new thing, apparently Michelangelo did the same! More on that later…

The Shopping List : From Tesco to Facebook

As mentioned briefly in my previous blog post, on Sunday 26th March 2023, we went shopping, not a week’s shopping, just some things we needed. The Oven part of our cooker randomly stopped working on the friday, so this meant we weren’t as happy as a family with a fully working oven, even though we were relatively happy.
Nevertheless, because no oven = no pies or cakes, we chatted over biscuits and a cuppa, that perhaps a stew that evening would be a possibility, cheaper than a big roast and very tasty. Like a naked pie with added potatoes, veg etc.

The list evolved (we were watching a film on Talking Pictures TV) and I doodled away, like many sporadic times before as Vikki relayed things we could check out prices of, or stuff we might need. We went to tesco just before 2pm, and I wheeled myself around the store in my wheelchair, whilst Vikki pushed the trolley and checked the list. As usual, she chuckled at some of my silly doodles and even though we ended up with a few extra bits, we were done about 2.40pm, put the shopping in the car, and went home.

How one small mistake can lead to something that leads to something….
So that was that, or so we thought. The stew went really well, very tasty. The shopping and list a semi-distant memory.

Until a friend popped up on Facebook messenger to ask, “Just wondered if this list is anything to do with you by any chance?” Followed by some screengrabs from Facebook – The Shopping List had been discarded in a trolley, taken around Tesco again by a couple shopping (oblivious to it’s future fame), then found by a hard-working trolley guy.
It made him smile at the end of a Sunday shift, so he took it home to his partner, who posted it on a Facebook Group, ‘New Thanet Chat’ – Photos below.

Litter Disclaimer:
Normally, we 100% take our litter with us, we always have a bag in the car, or always use bins. Just disregarding litter was instilled in us at an early age and apart from the rubbish that frequently blows into our front garden (which we also put in the bin) we always take care not to litter the countryside, or leave stuff behind.
(Ahem) Soooo, every time I’ve done a daft shopping list, they’ve gone straight to the paper recycling, I haven’t even taken any photos of them, they just get binned. Responsibly.
Imagine then, if you will, how in a way my heart sunk, knowing I’d left a bit of my silliness to litter the world. Some might say it’s ‘Scrote – like behaviour’* (see below).
However, it was Vikki who was in charge of the list – my conscience was clear. She however, was embarassed.

The Original Facebook Post

Screengrab courtesy of Marie Thomas

Facebook – The Response

Turns out, just as a side story, or background info, the original poster of the Facebook post, Chantelle Parker, is one of the sisters of a friend that goes way back, but her name didn’t ring a bell for me, it was Vikki that remembered and made the connection later on!

I don’t really have a ‘style’, I have a few. One minute it’s a photo-realistic portrait, the next it’s a wild scrawl or a doodle. So for Marie, then slowly one or two others to recognise my scribblings, was a surprise at first, but after reflection, I guess I do draw a lot of grinning objects. Here’s an example from 2009: Keep an eye out for the can in particular.

I’d been spotted, it had traced back to me within a very short space of time and the responses were rapid and despite one comment about people having too much time on their hands, every comment was positive. (True at the point of typing this, but there may be more hate coming, who knows?)
I’m a humble bloke really. One half of me is still the painfully shy boy who hid behind his mother rather than talk to people. The other half is still the class clown, but I don’t like to brag, I don’t know how to accept praise and I’m my worse critic, art-wise AND self-wise. Not that I don’t like praise, I’m just not egotistical, but The Shopping List had opened the gates suddenly and the comments were being added.

I’ve tried to like or heart (or laugh with, some of the comments are very funny) and thanked everyone by typing a thank you post in the main thread, because it’s the comments and reactions that have given body to something normally easily ignorable or perhaps uninteresting to some, into something that has spurred me on a bit more as I battle with my own demons. The comments that have let ME know that sometimes a bit of love, or a bit of silliness that we only really share within ourselves, or within our homes, that can brighten up someone else’s day, even for a moment or two.
Anyway, I’ve gotten a bit deep, but I do appreciate people taking their time to show some love.

I thought of screengrabbing some of the comments, but I’d rather ask everyone’s permission for privacy and that would be a headache, but if I just type them, it’ll look like I’m just typing words in a list or blowing my own trumpet. Although before I’d popped on to Facebook to say ‘it was me what did it guv’, it was funny to see posts like ;”Banksy”/”I feel the same”/ and “wow, keep that, it could be the next Banksy” or even “Would love this on my Gable end wall!” did make me chuckle.

But a special comment was one that highlighted the fact that Michelangelo doodled on his shopping list! Click here to see a pic!

Another comment, which stood out for me, was “Nice to see a bit of humour for a change” – It’s SO true. Adverts have become less humorous, music doesn’t have any sporadic one-hit wonders (bar a sausage roll every xmas). There isn’t the silliness of Python, Goons, Everett, Hill, Abbott or The Goodies in the mainstream. I doubt one man’s lunacy will make a difference, but on this occasion, a humble shopping list made over 1,000 people smile, dozens to comment and that tells me otherwise.

So I’ll continue to be a vigilante for silliness, thank you again facebookers.

The Shopping List : Stop The Press!

As a result of the original post getting so many responses, I was messaged by Brad Harper from KentOnline who asked if I was available for a chat, he phoned and asked me the story behind the Facebook post amongst other things, like background, how many kids etc, it felt like I’d laid myself bare, but i guess there’s boxes to tick.

But, it went online today. A couple of hours ago, in fact. From a scrap of torn-off envelope to the heady heights of the Local Internet-based Newspaper.

Here’s a link to the Article, and Brad’s story. (opens in new tab) It’s a little less detailed than this story, but at least he tells you all the facts.

A couple of different screengrabs from the KentOnline article

The Shopping List : A little bit of negativity goes a long way.

I’m all up for constructive critisism, but there will always be ‘haters’ or a negative Nora, and there might even be more yet. But so far, the only negs so far are :

KentOnline negatives:
*cough* “BrianBlessed” wrote; ‘ “accidently left in a trolley”, much like the detris of paper, papers and other shopping list just abandoned in trolleys by dirty scro ates that can’t be bother to tidy up after them. ‘
I deliberately left it as is, with all mistakes left in. A grammar-conscious pedant would pick it apart, but I’m always making typos. He makes a valid point, we all need to be responsible for our litter. (See disclaimer above). I think calling my wife a ‘Scro ate’ (scrote aka scrotum i think he meant) is a bit harsh, it was an honest and unintentional mistake.

FactsOnly wrote; ‘Congratulations. This is the worst article I have ever read.’ This possibly the winner of something, especially as it won -63 which means 63 people clicked the thumbs-down button. I don’t think anyone was prophessing this was going to epic news, but I’ve read worse.

I only have one negative comment in all the Facebook comments so far .. and it’s great.
David Sh wrote ; ‘Nice to don’t have nothing to do in life‘ –
I took it to mean that he has some opinions on how much society should be sitting around doing nothing on a Sunday. I commented that it was my day off. Which was ironic, because it wasn’t my day off. I don’t get a day off being me. Far too busy.

The Shopping List : What does it all mean?

  • Here’s a list of the list. If you’re a list lover, you’ll love this list of a list.

  • Title : No shopping list needs one, so I don’t know why I always do this. Money is always short so i added coins.
  • Tesco – we sometimes shop seperately for seperate items, so i usually split the list, we didn’t have much time to do aldi, so it didn’t get added
  • Salad : Well, it’s rabbit food, isn’t it?
  • Tats : Double meaning, Tats, short for potatoes, and tats as in saying ta-ta or goodbye.
  • Bananas : We get through a bunch a week, and I’ve drawn this little fella for 30 yrs. He’s called ‘Nana’!
  • Grapes: Just cute little shiny, purple faces.
  • Steak – This was for our Stew as mentioned earlier in the Blog Post / story. Obviously a cow. The cow’s important because I’m currently drawing a cow for an exciting project that’s been YEARS in the making! (more soon!)
  • Milk : TwoferOne, Also the same cow. Value for money.
  • Ham : Little piggy. Usually a piggy for ham or bacon.
  • Bread : ALWAYS on the list. isn’t it always on eveyone’s?
  • Pancakes : 50p a pack, they make a change during the week for the kids, sloshed in maple syrup, naturally. (or fruit)
  • White Vinegar : I pondered over a doodle for this for a while, but then thought ‘it’s an Acid’ so went Old Skool Raver for a bit and drew a smiley.
  • -container for baking powder- : we bought a cheap 3.50 bell jar. We have a kilo of baking powder, but that’s a whole other story.
  • Marmite : I nearly left it wth just the devil-type jar, because I hate the stuff, but Vikki loves it, so I drew an angel one for her.
  • Cherry Coke : just some cute cherries and a can really, I can’t drink alcohol thanks to my meds, so it’s my vice. So is drawing cartoon cans (see earlier picture).
  • Water – I’ve been called a drip before, another simple cute one, but i think one of my favourites!
  • Juice : Another tricky one, do I just draw a bottle of juice? Nah, not silly enough. This definitely got a a lot of comments.
  • Persil : Just a bubbly washing machine.
  • Flash : (ah-ah) I mean, who doesn’t sing it if they write the word ‘Flash!’ (see? you did it again, didn’t you?)
  • ‘Look at £ of toilet rolls and then faint’ – The price of everything is bad so it coud’ve been anything, but I wanted to see which were cost-effective. However, we never made it to that aisle as the Easter Eggs distracted us. Happy Kids, dirty bottoms. Just kidding, the eggs are for me. (also, just kidding).
  • ‘Look at Microwave Dinners whilst oven is out’ : I mentioned before, the oven isn’t working so we thought about it, but didn’t make it to the microwave dinners. There are countless other ways of eating anyway.
  • ‘This shopping list is made from 100% recycled envelope.’ : Just doing my bit for the environment. 🙂

The End……?

So that’s that.
Or is it? I’ve already had some neat suggestions, including the possibility of further list-drops, to further spread some happiness and generate some more interest in my work,

Still, even if it IS all over, it’s been a laugh and it’s re-awoken something. Thanks everyone. YOU are the talented, hilarious, geniuses.

I’m just silly.

So this thing happened….

Hello. If you’re here for the first time, thank you for popping by, I appreciate it more than you realise. You may be thinking, ‘He doesn’t post very regularly on his website, does he?’

If you’re revisiting, I also really appreciate your visit, but you’re probably thinking, where has he been? Why neglect your website for so long?

Let me explain,

I am getting old. I am fast approaching 50 and as the years move steadily on, I have let my negativity and mental health dictate my creativity/humour. So, no website visits meant keeping this site up-to-date became less of a priority. It’s a bit sad, but as far as encouragement/inspiration/lunacy were concerned, lack of interest in the site meant lack of interest from me. I just don’t seem to go anywhere.

In my defence, as a family, we’ve had to endure some hard knocks over the past 4 years or so and although I haven’t stopped drawing, or being silly whenever possible, the blackness of depression has been uncontrollable and random, sometimes knocking me back during my best times and making me doubt everything, even give up altogether. I also suffer with anxiety, although there seems to be a lot of that about recently, I mean it, the older I get, the worse I worry but not without cause, I actually do have a lot to worry about.
(I’ll blog in detail one day, but suffice it to say, that with 3 kids, (one of which is an adult), all with health problems of their own, coupled with with my own and my wife’s, it’s not just worrying about nothing*).

(strawberry from The Shopping List – See next blog post for details)

Anyway…..

I’ve done a lot of thinking recently and I’ve decided to stop stopping. It’s a nasty, vicious, pointless cycle;
Make art, post art, try a project to make money, project fails, start new project, get dejected, get ill, stop.
then something like halloween or Xmas pops up and it’s back to the sart of the cycle again.

So from now on, I’m breaking the cycle. I’m working on how to structure my time so I don’t hyper-concentrate at the detriment to other platforms. For example, I’ve ignored this site, because of a lack of traffic, but still post on my Facebook page (pickledpizza.art) and last year, ignored instagram because Tik-Tok was doing well.

I haven’t a clue how other people juggle all the platforms when they only focus on one product, so being a diverse artist with several mediums makes the whole thing even more messy. For years now I’ve hunted the solution to have a portfolio website that’s easy to upload to, but has enough sub-categories to cover photography, portraits, digital, vector, craft, facepaint, crving, pyrography, inkwork, tattoo design, text art, poetry, photo-manipulation etc etc etc.

But what did you mean, this thing happened?

Well, the reason I’m back, hopefully from this point onwards is the culmination of my working out how to be in all places at once and a determination to battle my mental health, coupled with a tiny** burst of recognition on Facebook, thanks to a shopping list.

Shopping List?

Well, every now and again in my life, something random might see a piece of art thrust into the limelight, sometimes deliberately sometimes by accident. On Sun 26th March, I doodled on a shopping list, something I sometimes do to make my wife or kids laugh whilst they shop and my wife left it in the trolley.

Next Time… The Shopping List – The Unfolding Story of a Folded Envelope

In my next blog, I’ll explain this event in more detail but this simple shopping list has made the events leading up to now, to make me channel what I do, which sometimes makes people laugh, to stop chasing my tail aimlessly and keep on keeping on.


*I also worry about others, some of which are far worse off than myself.
**this could be relative. Tiny so far, Tiny in comparison, or Tiny sarcastically. Time will tell!