Although I was born a little too late to appreciate first-hand the acid house movement of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the genre’s influence in UK music and club culture has been an ever-present inspiration.

In the summer of 2023, a good friend was celebrating their milestone 50th birthday. A friendship born from a mutual appreciation art, design and collecting and mixing house & disco records. Wanting to make a handmade gift to mark the occasion, I created a piece to encompass all the things we appreciate; a vinyl record with an inverted gold smiley stencilled on both sides.

This piece serves as a homage to friendships forged on dance floors the world over.

When creating the artwork, I didn’t see the merit in destroying a record that is still loved and cherished (I also thought my friend would consider it sacrilege ruining a perfectly good vinyl). Instead, I chose a record from my personal collection that had seen better days, gifting it a new lease of life in its new art form.

This was the inspiration for the All Smiles project. Adopting a sustainable approach to sourcing and up cycling vinyl from second-hand stock. Turning once loved records from discarded back into new treasured artworks – gifting them All Smiles again.