Honesty.
It’s a big word, but I think it’s one of the best ways to describe art. Artists are honest, and
art is an honest part of where I want to be, how I want the world to see me, and what I want to contribute to the world. I want people to enjoy what can be achieved through art, and I want them to see and feel what I do when they see an image that I created.
Enjoyment is why I am an artist.
The amazing thing about enjoying art is that it is a full sensory experience. My art, for example, is tactile. The different textures I use are a sensation not just for the eyes, but also the skin. You can also enjoy art in different ways for different experiences; try looking at a picture in different light, or from a different perspective.
Just before you look at a piece of art, you might be feeling your own mix of emotions. It might’ve been a good day, or it might’ve been truly awful, but art can change all of that. My art should lift your spirits, not just in the moments that you look at it, but permanently.
Art makes me feel like I can contribute to both the world around me and to the lives of the people who see my art. It’s my legacy – not that I’m planning on going anywhere anytime soon! But I want to leave something and make an impression, and I want that impression to be a reflection of me that lasts. So, if it doesn’t sound too cheesy, not only have I chosen art, but I also believe that art has chosen me.
Art is often outside our comfort zone. It’s emotional, and that’s something that doesn’t always fit into a professional life of meetings in the corporate world. Our biggest expression of creativity in the office is whatever suit and tie we wear each day. But to me those clothes and that life is a shroud, it just brings you down.
Art has given me the freedom to break free from the boundaries imposed on me, peel back the layers of my life, and see what’s underneath.
The artist Pollock has been described as a “dripper of paint”, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. He is one of my greatest inspirations, and I wouldn’t want to be seen as just a “dripper of paint” either. But I also don’t want to be seen as another Pollock, a cheap imitator. It’s not shameful to admit that my work is like Pollock’s. In fact, when someone compares my work to Pollock’s that’s an accolade that I will bear with pride. It’s not plagiarising or copying; it’s taking something great and making it uniquely my own. I’m using new techniques and new materials that Pollock never even got the opportunity to experiment with. Besides, in art there should be no rules, so how can I ever be accused of being a fraud when I am just an artist who loves what he’s doing?
I love people-watching, people inspire me. I can be anywhere from Sheffield to London to Birmingham, and it’s the cultures, sounds and people that excite me and encourage my artwork. When observing people you can see tones and colours, but I also see things beyond a physical shape. It’s about the presence of the person, and how this can be represented on a page.
Everything is positioned, everywhere you look. But I like to focus on juxtaposition in art, or the mispositioning of things. I love the way that you can put something in an environment where it shouldn’t be, and it resounds. You can also put me in an environment where I shouldn’t be, and I resound.
