How did you get into screenprinting?
I learnt to silk screen print when I was at sixth form as part of my at A Level Art. My teacher, Mr Duke, taught me, and a few years ago I ended up having contact with his son who had bought one of my Johnny Flynn prints, which was a cool thing to find out. What was even more amazing, he then sent me a photo of my print for Johnny Flynn hanging next to one of his dad's paintings, which to me meant a huge amount!
Have you always been a full-time professional artist, or did you have another career prior to that?
I did fine art at university and then upset all of my fine art lecturers and set up a t-shirt business with a friend. In the 1990s we had shops from Bondi Beach in Sydney to Tokyo, Spain and across the UK for a while, selling our t-shirts, which was fun. I then trained as an art teacher and did that full time until about 2010. I still do some teaching now at the Cherwell School in Oxford which I always enjoy. Being a full time artist can be a bit lonely at times so it’s nice to get out and do some teaching.
What does an average day look like if you’re spending it making?
That varies quite a lot to be honest. This week I have made a print for the band Bear's Den who are playing some gigs over in Australia, so I've done lots of printing and then stressing about getting all my customs info right to ship to Sydney! I've just signed off on artwork for a tour by the brilliant John Smith and will be printing that later today, and right now I am making final changes to some artwork for a band who are coming over from Nashville in a few weeks - printing those will be next week's job. Later on today I am meeting up with James Bay who is playing an acoustic show near where I live. He's going to sign some of my prints today for an auction I'm doing to raise some money for The Samaritans, and I am having a chat with Latitude festival about selling my prints there again.... I really should learn to say 'no' sometime I think!
How do you choose a subject/new piece to work on? Do you have a bank of ideas/sketches/reference material?
When I'm not making commercial work, I like to make work about a place I've been to at a specific time. I quite like the idea of memory so my prints are often not completely true representations of a place. I use photographs from my phone, quick drawings I do when I am out and about and I make lists, endless lists, of things to do/ideas to work on. It's a bit of a mixture of approaches and really depends on how much time I have.
What other things take up your working hours? Do you enjoy any of the more mundane aspects of art life?
Every so often I have to email my accountant about how to charge VAT to artists that are coming over here from far away shores. I try and do some applying for art fairs as well and I try to do an Instagram post or two each week if I can and if I have something to say. I do quite enjoy doing my VAT return - sad I know but it's somehow satisfying!
Do you do any teaching, and if so do you feel like it contributes something to your own practice? Or brings other benefits? (Other than financial ones!)
The teaching I do does help me, I find being an artist can be a bit insular and so getting out and teaching teenagers is generally quite good fun. This year I am teaching some textiles so I am learning how to teach sewing machines - and how to fix them! There are obvious financial benefits to teaching but I would say at least equal to that is working with other people. I also run screen printing workshops from time to time as well, they’re a lot of work but always enjoyable.
What sort of art, and which artists, inspire or influence you?
I was always inspired by the paintings of Howard Hodgkin, particularly his use of colour and his ideas of how a moment felt, not necessarily how it looked. Although my work is nothing like his, his use of colour has always influenced me.
What other things inspire your work (or just make you happy!)?
Travel and visiting places inspires me the most. The people I was with at the time and what I was doing; I made a print of Paddington station at the start of the year as it was somewhere I would arrive at a lot in my 20s when visiting my girlfriend - now wife.
How has your style developed over the years?
My style has become both more detailed and more free as I've experimented with the drawings I make that I can make into a print. I've become more adventurous in my work - sometimes that gives me a massive headache as I realise I have a huge amount of colours to print which can be tricky and easy to get wrong!
What sort of response do you hope your work provokes in people?
I'm always fascinated with what other people see in my work. I'm hoping it will bring them a little bit of joy, remembering a place that they connect to in the same way I was inspired to make the artwork about a place/ moment in time I connect to. I don't have big deep meanings behind my work - I suppose if anything the joy of the moment is what I hope people take from my work.
Have there been moments, or interactions with people, that you’ve felt have validated your decision to pursue a career in art?
There have been some random moments most definitely. I walked into a pub in Shepherd’s Bush one Saturday night a few years ago, got my drinks in for me and my friends and turned round to see one of my prints on the wall. Equally, I have a print hanging in the Presidential Suite at The Beaumont Hotel in Mayfair in the same room as an Alexander Calder - there is no way I will be allowed to go and have a look (unless I pay huge amounts of money!) but knowing that it’s there means a lot. Equally, having my work hanging next to my old A Level Art teacher’s painting means a huge amount.
Being an artist I find it’s always a battle to keep putting yourself and your work out there. I try not to get over excited about any one moment as these things are fleeting, sometimes they happen, sometimes they don't. I try not (and am definitely not very good at this all the time) to put too much store in feeling validated by others but it’s nigh on impossible to not get over excited and feel a sense of validation and pride.
If you could go back and meet your younger artistic self, would you have any advice for them?
That you are better than you think you are and to try and have more self confidence in the things that you do - easy to say, not easy to do. It was a journey, as it is with everyone; the things I went through as a teenager and in my 20s shaped my work now, and although I went through some very stressful moments of self doubt, etc, they have made me what I am today.
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