February 2022
Q. Do you see yourself as a ceramicist or sculptor?
I have always regarded myself as a studio potter, however, I find that my audience are more comfortable with the term ceramic artist as that enables them to categorise my work in a more accessible way.
Q. How did you initiate your practice? What has been your background / training and how influential has that subsequently been?
It may surprise you to learn that my first training was within the performing arts as a drama student. The option of pottery came as a filler subject in the second year, it was seen as part of the performing arts programme and once I had my hands in the clay, I understood that making ceramic objects was the path that I was meant to travel. Consequently, having completed two years of training in drama I changed direction completely and opted into a two-year HND course in Three-Dimensional Design. On conclusion of this initial foray into pottery, I set up my first workshop in 1982 in Sussex making purely domestic ware; cups, teapots and dishes. This culminated in me working for 10 years as a performing potter in an industrial museum, during which time I continued to make domestic wares, but in a historical context using historically accurate equipment. Although all this provided an essential but extended apprenticeship, after 18 years of making domestic wares, around 1999 I began to experiment with making one-off fine art pieces of studio pottery, entirely in the early 17th century traditional colours of English slipware. This new direction became successful and in 2002 I set up my own ceramic studio workshop in Arundel, Sussex where I dedicated my time to making stand-alone, fine art ceramics and free of the industrial museum. Very quickly I considered colour for the first time, but still working in the pottery discipline called ‘slipware’. In 2007 I set up a second studio in the mountains of Granada in southern Spain where I could devote uninterrupted time to refine my ideas (I finally dismantled the UK studio in 2020).
Q. What is the inspiration behind your work?
The constant flow of ideas and inspiration for my work comes not only from everyday mainstream popular culture (or more accurately, pop culture) but also from films, television advertising, books, memories and pop music. Fundamentally, the nostalgia of advertising is a huge inspiration for me; it stems from my childhood and with it, the associated power of the pitch and the illusion of satiating the lust of ownership. In the same way that pop culture and advertising usually deal with single themes to intensify the delivery of their message, I usually like to paint solitary everyday objects on my ceramics that may well have been seen as iconic in their time, but also others which could otherwise be perceived as ordinary when viewed on their own. I am always looking for different ways of presenting my ideas and obsessions. How I produce my art is inevitably influenced by external episodes. Whenever I experience an unexpected wave of nostalgia triggered by a cultural event or trend, whether past or present, I try and interpret that feeling according to the moment. It could be said that the repetition of themes and iconography within my work is an indulgence on my part, but it is one that allows me to represent on one piece, or across different pieces, disparate facets of the same image: over and over again, like a television advertisement. This refines its potency and reinforces the intent. Ultimately, my motivation stems from an inherent fascination and appreciation of the item(s) that I have chosen to play with at that time: it could be said that I love them — literally. Consequently, the subject matter for all of my pieces become ongoing relationships, each of which develop in a singular and discrete manner, according to their origin. If they are inanimate there is a story to be told concerning their creation. If they are of the natural world, it is usually the result of a remarkable experience. However the objects or ideas originate, they mature into eventual and ongoing relationships that develop with each iteration until they become the physical ceramic myths of my work.
Q. How do these ideas sit within the context of your work to date?
I believe that many of the objects we are attracted to today have been with us all of our lives. They may live deep inside our DNA, quite literally the fabric of who we are. I continually ask myself what are my favourite things and also the following questions: Why these objects? What power do they hold for me? What meaning? What memories do they conjure up? What emotions? And most importantly, what stories do I tell myself about them and through them? How have they become a part of who I am and what part of me do I leave behind in them?
