Interviewed by Edel Cassidy
What inspired you to become an artist and did you always have a desire to create, even as a child?
I believe some people are born with a desire to respond to their environment by making things. This might be a piece of furniture or a jet engine – the initial impulse is the same. I’m not sure I ever made a conscious decision to become a full-time artist, but I certainly had a desire to develop and improve the paintings I was drawn to make.
My father was a photographer in the Royal Air Force and also a keen amateur artist. I believe this certainly helped foster my interest in the visual arts and the idea that it was an acceptable and worthwhile activity to pursue.
Tell me about your experiences studying art and how you developed your style.
The notion of improvement is essential to my activity in that I find it very difficult to justify spending time on something that I already know how to do. Although many artists have a successful formula for making work, the idea of doing the same thing over and over again doesn’t appeal to me. I’m excited to see how far ideas can be explored and how I can find more elegant and complex solutions to visual problems.
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