How did you first get into art – was there a moment when you realised this was what you wanted to do?
I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember really. My family are very creative – my mum’s an artist and my dad’s a potter – and that influence got me making early on, which I’m very grateful for.
It’s less something I’ve thought about doing, more something I’ve just always done. I’m riding the wave in a way. It’s been an invaluable form of expression throughout my life.
I studied art in Bristol and, while I was probably a pretty frustrating student at the time, the art scene there definitely had an effect on me in seeing it as something I could actually do. It’s been the same here in Sheffield. People have been very generous and supportive here and in Doncaster, where I’m from, which I feel blessed about.
There are some amazing artists in Doncaster, especially in the graff scene. There are so many creative people around – wherever I’ve been I’ve met people that inspire me.
Your work has a distinctly psychedelic and surreal quality – what first drew you to that style, and what keeps you coming back to it?
It was a natural process to be honest, but I think the freeness of it is what drew me to this way of working. There are no rules or boundaries to how far you want to go – you can just unleash.
It’s a good way to explore states of consciousness, and bits slip out through the brush or pen or whatever in a sneaky way you don’t notice until after the fact, and I love it. It definitely feels like there’s something alive about it.
My personal work is usually a lot wilder than commissioned work, but I love to do both. I just love making stuff, really – putting something from inside your head into a physical space.
My earlier art was a bit more abstract than it is now, but you can still see echoes of it – like a crystallisation. Also, I love the different interpretations of my work that people tell me. I enjoy that people get their own things out of it. Like, I have an idea, but once it’s made and in the world, it’s not mine anymore. You can decide what it means – like a Rorschach or something.
What inspires you the most – people, places, music, something else entirely?
I draw from a lot of things in my work, but I’d say just the world around me and the relationships between people and things is what inspires me the most. The weirdness of life in general.
I’ve always viewed life through a bit of a dreamlike lens I guess – a bit fantastical and exaggerated, especially when I was younger – and I think that comes through in what I make.
Leonora Carrington and Varo were big visual inspirations for me. Also Moebius, Francis Bacon, Jodorowsky’s films, Haeckel’s Art Forms in Nature, ancient art from all different places, endless album and gig poster art.
At the moment I’m obsessed with some illustrations of the Book of Kells I got in Mull – they’re so intense and otherworldly.
Are there any recurring themes or motifs in your art that you keep coming back to?
I guess connection is a big theme in my work, and there’s a kind of mystic wonderment to it. My work usually takes the form of otherworldly scenes dotted with abstracted entities or warped portraits – using the term ‘portrait’ as loosely as possible there!
They’re kind of a sensory overload. You can’t take it all in at once – you’ve got to inspect it for a little while to see what’s happening inside. It can spin me out while I’m making it.
There are definitely a lot of recurring motifs in my work – like morphing smoke, strange anthropomorphic flora and fauna of the mind’s eye, souls emerging from bodies or candles or orbs, little figures in utero.
Sometimes I feel a bit like a mad scientist mixing test tubes. I make my work intuitively to start, and then build in more details as I go. Sometimes I’ll have a loose idea of what it will be – like depicting a certain scene – and other times I’ve got no idea at all until it’s done.
The end product is a kind of ordered chaos. It does feel a lot of the time like it’s developing itself in some way. It’s definitely meditative for me.
At the moment I have these little shadow people rocking about in my work that are quite reminiscent of cave paintings, which I quite like.
Sometimes I feel a bit like a mad scientist mixing test tubes. I make my work intuitively to start, and then build in more details as I go.
You’ve worked with a range of creative mediums – do you have a favourite?
Oils have always been my favourite medium since I was a teenager. I love the viscous gooiness of it and it’s perfect for the way I work. I don’t know if that came as a product of oil painting or vice versa though.
I’ve been doing a lot of digital work lately, especially for commissions, but I’m erring away from that again now. And painting walls is always massive fun.
I love trying out new mediums and tend to jump around a lot. I’ve got the kind of mind that gets bored quickly and they all give a different personality to what comes out at the end.
Finally what advice would you give to emerging artists trying to find their voice?
I’d say follow the things that make you excited and that you’re naturally drawn to in your work – and do it for yourself first. Then you’ll always end up in the right place because you’ll be loving what you do, and that’s the most important thing.
Trust your gut, essentially.
