1.If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
I have been a drummer and percussionist and DJ for last 25 years but always been an artist throughout my life in some form or other.
2. Can you tell us more about your work and what are the main ideas you would like to express?My work is a form of expressing my thoughts and externalising them in a continuous creative process. I am a collector of things and objects that interest me from flea markets – and picking things off the road – and later forming them into collage and assemblage pieces. I form an idea in my mind and then try and execute it in the most realistic way that I see it in my mind’s eye. The main ideas I try to express are based on my influences from pop culture, sometimes with a message or sentiment, and I present them as objects of beauty and wit, hopefully.
3. How do you start the process of making work?
In a very similar way to making music tracks, instead of instruments I use colours or objects and try to make them work together in a harmonious juxtaposition where they compliment each other and then mix down to create a finished piece. Sometimes this happens spontaneously and other times can take weeks to find the meaning of the work, or a missing piece of the puzzle to make it complete. I am continuously collecting and collating material, then try to piece it all together through different media – paint, sculpture, assemblage, collage, print, stencil and found objects.
4. Do you consider the viewer, when making your work?
Yes, absolutely. During the process of making my work, which is a journey in itself, I am conscious of how other people will perceive it when they view it for the first time and hope that if I like the finished result that they will feel the same way, although there is no accounting for other people’s taste! Essentially when I have finished a work, it doesn’t belong to me anymore as I have come to the end of that particular journey and was made for others to own and enjoy.
5. Name 3 artists that have inspired your work?
Wallace Berman, Joseph Cornell, Peter Blake have all inspired but not necessarily influenced my work.
6. Name 3 of your least favourite artists.
It has no bearing on me as an artist to whom I prefer artistically or not.
7. What defines something as a work of art?
I think the answer to that question is in the mind of the person considering whether it is art or not art. I am a fan of Marcel Duchamp who answered that question famously with a urinal. From cave paintings through to modern day art which has so many different mediums and formats, including visual, performance, light, digital, celluloid, photography, scuptural, painted and many more types of art including street art, it is considered a work of art if it has been created to be viewed by others and perhaps let them make up their mind if it is a work of art or not. It’s a question of philosophy and a difficult one to answer! Is it simply defined as art by the person or people who create it?
8. In times of austerity, do you think art has a moral obligation to respond topically?Not at all. I think art reflects society and artists do not have any moral obligations perhaps except unto themselves. There is no rule-book where art and artists are concerned and topical issues are entirely personal. If the artist feels obliged to represent society, austerity or otherwise it is down to their personal beliefs.
9. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
Pablo Picasso
10. What is your favourite ‘ism’?
Favouritism
11. What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work? William Blanchard’s work is very punk rock, being both slapdash and not very good.’
12. And the dumbest?
‘Absolutely the most ridiculous exhibition I’ve seen for some time, and that’s high praise indeed for a show in which a few works are so bad they are good, with the rest being simply… well shit!’
13. Which artists would you most like to rip off, sorry, I mean appropriate as a critique of originality and authorship?
Myself
14. Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
Absolutely! It reflects the amount of time, effort, materials,and miscellaneous costs involved in the piece of work itself.
15. If Moma and the Tate and the Pompidou wanted to acquire one of your works each, which would you want them to have?
The most expensive piece and have them all fighting over it!
16. What’s next for you?
The Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair on May 27th, “Ready, Aim, Fire!!!” at MEN Night Gallery – a night I will be curating myself 28th June and a solo show at Proud Gallery on the Strand 22nd July-3rd August
