I always loved making things and drawing things as a child. It became part of who I am or what I was about. It seemed very natural for me that if, for example one of my parent's 7 inch singles lost it's covers that I would design a new one. I made my own comics and publications from the age of 11. I got written about in a magazine called Just 17. I was encouraged to draw cartoons at school and every class I was in had examples of my work on the walls. I imagine this encouragement had a big impact on me. I wasn't very interested in watching sport, I didn't own rollerscates or learn how to ride a bike etc. Drawing was my biggest passion, with listening to pop music being my second. Sometimes I would buy birthday cards for my mum but she was always happier if I made her something. In my 20's I tended to make films and fanzines. I started painting around the time of my 30th birthday. sometimes with painting you can make yourself laugh. Sometimes you can find out what you were thinking. Sometimes you can express yourself better than you could in words. Painting can be quite exciting. John Lennon said his songs were like postcards. I relate to this idea as a lot of my work is about who I am am and how I am feeling."
2 What do you intend your work to convey to an audience?
"You can't worry too much about audiences. Someone once asked Sid Vicious if he made his music for the average man on the street. Vicious replied, "No, I've met the man on the street and he was a c**t." It's important to be honest and make the work that you feel needs to be made. Sometimes I may start off making a piece of work with one person in mind but it tends to change half way through. I would hope that my work makes people feel happy that they'd seen it. It's a nice idea to think that I make work because I am in love with people and in love with the world. It would be great if people saw my work and felt that."
3 Why do you work in your chosen medium and format?
"I like paint that dries quickly and that you can wash off with water if it gets on your clothes. At the moment I'm really into painting things pink - like a cartoon flesh colour, and then drawing over the pink in Prussian blue. When painting goes well it's really exciting, a bit like undressing someone for the first time."
4 Technically speaking how do you go about constructing your work, that is the image or object itself? What devices do you employ?
"This question made me laugh. There's nothing technical about me. If I want to make a film I get Gordon Beswick in to do the techical bits. If I wanted advice about painting I'd talk to Rowland Smith, Jasper Joffe, Kes Richardson, Mat Humphrey or Marcus Cope about it. If I coldn't do what they'd suggested I'd ask them to do it. My work is very direct. I get an idea and do it the best way I can. In the same way that if Benny Hill wanted to do a sketch about Michael Caine he would phone up Micheal Caine and ask him to be in it. He wouldn't sit at home doing impressions of him into a tape recorder like Rory Bremner would. I usually make a little drawing to use as a starting point and then buy a canvas and paint on it."
5 Which period(s)/artists/specific works of art are you influenced by and how directly? How does this manifest in your work?
8 From where do you derive your other visual source material (i.e. non art historical) and how do you implement this material within your work?
"I'm influenced by lots of people. I like a lot of illustrators like Judith Kerr and Quentin Blake. There are so many classic books my sister and I were given as children or that were just around the house such as; "Miss Carter Always Wore Pink" and "Where The Wild Thing Are". At primary school I was introduced to Rousseau, Bonnard and Picasso. Bruce McLean made me want to go to art school when I was a teenager - I read about him in a style mag called Arena. When I was 30 one of the people who made me want to try painting again was Stella Vine. She was the first person to sell one of my paintings and it was the fact that she was interested that made other people interested. Some of my paintings make direct references to paintings by Bonnard, Sickert and Guston. I steal lots of their ideas and put them next to other people's ideas to make new ones."
6 What stimulates/informs your work from the world around you?
7 What stimulates/informs your work from your own personal experience?
"I'm stimulated by lots of different things. I work in a bookshop at the Tate Britain gallery. I see great art everyday and most of the people I work with are artists. I get ideas for paintings and projects all the time It's like having a nervous tick. Most artists are men and most men are autistic. If you look at famous songs of the 60's that millions of people love you will notice they are singing about being autistic. "I don't feel alone, as long as I gaze on Waterloo Sunset I am in paradise" for example. Artists are stimulated by the world around them and yet, at the same time, they're unaware of it because they are so emotionally damaged and confused. Van Morrison once compaired his art to being an inarticulate speech from the heart. There was a time in my life where I couldn't find any people who felt like that or who believed in anything or had any knowledge of beauty, so I tended to just keep my head down and my mouth shut. Times have changed and now I'm asked to make work all the time and lots of people seem to like what I do. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts."
9 What are the main problems that you face in making your work?
"I can't think of any problems that I have to face when making my work. When they go wrong I fail again but fail better. Or, I try and get someone else to do it or, just give up and do something else. I really like painting."
10 Where do you intend to take your work from here?
"I don't know. I'm working on a film with Gordon Beswick. We've been filming Greta Sarfaty Marchant do pyschic readings of different young women that I picked from around the world. I'm going to paint each girl's portrait. I'm going to be in a show in Brazil with James Jessop. I'm going to make issue 3 of The Rebel magazine. I'm working on a musical with Mikey Georgeson based on the Little Prince and the Happy Prince. I've had a few ideas for songs. I'm writing a sit-com called, "Bad Guys". I want to make more episodes of Harry Pye TV. I'm going to exhibit some photos with Chris Coombes, Julian Wakeling and John Moseley. I'm alo going to do a few experiments with the photographer Steve Double. I want to do what I've always done which is follow my muse. At the moment I think I've done some quite good stuff but I'm still only starting out. I want to go onwards and upwards."