My life in art
As with most artists, my creative life has spanned many different stages of life, from school to college, to University and then to becoming a semi-professional artist to date. That said, I'm always learning and there is always more to do... But here is a brief summary of my creative career and a selection of works from each of those periods, bearing in mind these were the days when we didn't all have mobile phones and photographs were a bit more of a faff...
School - I went to Cedars Upper School in Linslade (1984 - 1988), Leighton Buzzard; and the teachers there, (John Blaxter, Megan Howles and Bob Williams) were my inspiration and the reason I am still practicing art today. Especially responsible was Bob Williams who got me to try lino print... But I gained much from all three teachers who set challenging homeworks and engaged students in critical discussions on our own work and that of each other's. We not only learned practical skills to create our work, but also skills in closely observing our chosen subjects and reflecting on our interpretations of them.
Foundation - At Basingstoke College of Technology, I completed a BTech National Diploma in Art & Design (1989) where I tried out many different art forms over a period of one year, covering photography, painting, life drawing, textiles & sculpture. Alas, I haven't many photos of my work from this stage, but I did hold on to some life drawings... Having found out that Birmingham School of Art really valued 'drawing', I attended as many life-drawing sessions as I could, in preparation...
Polytechnic/University - I was granted a place at Birmingham School of Art (from 1990 - 1993). The school was part of the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design at Birmingham Polytechnic and while I was there it became the University of Central England. I completed a (50:50) split BA Hons in Fine Art & Non-European Art History. I specialised in painting and printmaking as well as theoretical studies. I chose to study non-European art history because I felt the teachings and writings on European art at that time (and that I had access to in the absence of online resources) were rather Eurocentric and 'art about art', and not necessarily appropriate for truly understanding human creativity and culture. I've always had problems with the notion of sticking artists of different eras in chronological boxes and categorising them under invented groups (e.g., 'Romanticist', 'Impressionist', 'Expressionist', 'avant garde' etc...) Thankfully, among many other topics, my studies covered the art of Japanese Woodblock print which became a huge source of inspiration for me both then and now. I have my art history tutor, Moira Gibbs, to thank for teaching me about Chinese and Japanese painting and print.
My first studio - At Galley Hill Arts Centre in Milton Keynes (1995-1997) which was part of the Art Workshops Trust at that time, I faced the concept of making art in the real world without the comfort of an institution or qualification to drive me. I took on temporary work at The Open University and spent my non-working days in my studio thinking 'what now?'. It was quite a steep learning curve that challenged my ideas about art and life in many ways. Art school had instilled the sense in me that all art had to have context and meaning; and after art school I felt a bit unsure of what my art should 'mean'. But I loved the community of artists that I met at Galley Hill and was inspired by the diversity in people and artforms that I encountered while I was there. My work became more experimental and diverse in subject.
2006 to 2018 - Having left Galley Hill and having secured a permanent position as a Curriculum Manager in the Faculty of Arts at The Open University (OU), I focussed on my career there. In the meantime, I had completed a Masters Degree in Art & Design Education during which I had become very interested in 'multimedia'. For my dissertation I wrote a CDROM-based tutorial on 'the compositional elements of Japanese Woodblock prints' and conducted an action research project to test the CDROM in a school. This shows how interests can cross disciplines into new realms, and my career has definitely been multi-disciplinary. Of course the use of multimedia for teaching was and still is a core element in distance learning. From 2007, I went on to complete a Certificate in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning sector, which also informed my work at the OU.
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