beauty I find a lot of
in rusted and decaying
objects
but it sounds so wanky... I always just say I’m an illustrator.
How do Mickey Mouse and other cartoon characters tie into all this?
How important is the surface you work on and why do you choose to work with salvaged materials?
I am still a massive child and love cartoons and other nostalgic childhood imagery, the use of these things are just a tip of the hat to the things I love. They can also be used as a comment on our consumer obsessed society.
It depends what I’m trying to do. My new pieces are all painted on handmade wooden panels, not salvaged wood, as I wanted all the textures and marks to be made by me. When I choose salvaged surfaces to work on, it is to incorporate my own work with the existing texture of the object. I find a lot of beauty in rusted and decaying objects that for years have existed as something else. It’s nice to draw attention to these things by making them into a painting or a sculpture.
How has the move from a small English seaside town to London changed the way you think about art? I never used to think about art before I moved here. When you start making a living from something that you used to do recreationally, it’s going to make you think about it differently at first. Now I try not to ‘think’ about it too much, just make things.
There is reoccurring use of male figures often in a sinister context. What themes or concepts have driven these works? They’re not intended to be sinister; it’s just what I draw. When I make drawings, which then become paintings, I don’t think too much whilst I’m making the initial marks. Then shapes, figures, type, buildings and geometry start to appear from those initial marks.
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In your work you mix vintage posters, cubism and commentary on the current cultural zeitgeist, comparative to that of Barry Reigate. What are the most important influences you’ve embraced during your artistic career? I am very visually obsessed and try and recreate things I like the look of, whilst giving it my own spin. My influences are constantly changing but some of the constant ones would be: the 1990’s for hip-hop, trainers, graffiti, clothes, artists like JeanMichel Basquiat, Egon Schiele, Barry McGee... I could go on and on.
What is more thrilling: going out at night to paint under streetlight or working within the confines of your studio? It’s not often that I go out and paint these days. Sickboy tells me I’m lazy... Right now I’m concentrating on spending my time in the studio and trying to make the best paintings I can in there.
How do the two working environments affect your choice of subject and medium? If you paint outside it has to be quick, so that affects what you’re going to do. In the studio you
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