ES Magazine Interview

Interview for the Evening Standard Magazine

Where did you grow up? E.g. country and city or town/village ?

Had a mixed upbringing, from an ex - coal-mining town in Yorkshire through to more rural Yorkshire. The town was South Elmsall, between Doncaster and Wakefield (South / West Yorkshire), and is were my parents live now, is the village of Clayton, not too far away from South Elmsall. South Elmsall is your typical demoralized Yorkshire mining town, that’s only just starting to recover from the closure of the pits. I spent most of my time as a child playing around the ex - industrial landscapes, with huge abandoned pieces of obsolete machinery, and almost apocalyptic pit stacks with their slurry ponds.

Where did you go to school?

Been to loads of different schools including one Public school for 3 years, - that was awful. But the longest time I went to a particular school was from ages of 14 to 18. It was in Featherstone, near Castleford (home of Henry Moore). It was called St Wilfred's Catholic High School. - Not that I'm a Catholic, - in fact my Dad's a C of E vicar.

Do you have a partner/married/single?

Un - ceremoniously, and uninterestingly single.

Where did you study before the RCA, and what did you study (this should include Foundation Course)?

My foundation was at Leeds College of Art and Design, - apparently Hirst, Moore and Hepworth went there! After not really impressing myself I somehow manage to scrape my way into Bretton Hall, - now a campus of the University of Leeds (and soon to be closed by Leeds uni!) (And it's also the Yorkshire Sculpture Park). There I did a BA in Fine Art Ceramics, - not that I had any clue, at the time what Fine Art was, - and I think that element of 'not having a clue' reflected in my final results, - I got a 2:2.

In 2003 I became disenchanted with clay and turned to glass blowing (as explained bellow), so I went to the International Glass Center, in Brierley Hill, West Midlands, where for 2 years I learned glass working techniques, and glass design. This course gave me the confidence to apply to the RCA.

What briefly have been the media that have interested you most, and have you switched radically along the way from one media to another - and if so which?

After a couple of years of working for various individual potters, opened my own studio in North Yorkshire, - in the town of Goathland (where ITV, film Heartbeat), with the aid of a financial backer, - who wanted a studio built on his land which he could rent out. After converted the old stables into a working pottery, I was in production for about 2 months, before I realized the hard realism of life as a craft potter. I found an ad for a free glass blowing course in AN artist newsletter and was subsequently accepted at the IGC. I found blowing a wonderfully free and liberating experience, full of color and vibrancy and since then, I’ve never looked back. I throw sometimes for therapy, - but not very often.

Linking this answer to whichever examples of work were pictured in the shoot, can you explain what the main ideas are behind your work, what you aim to achieve with it, and what inspirations there are behind it.

My work is full of light and transparency, - this is something which is fundamental to artistic expression in the medium of glass. But also within this the glass has natural state, which is fluid, organic, almost uncontrolled, - and what a person must do when working in this way, is try to get that quality of the glass, without it being contrived with evidence of interference from the maker. My work revolves around this idea, but in the piece in the shoot I have brought the qualities of glass to heel and the result still exudes pure glass qualities, but rather than 'contrived', it is 'professional', - maybe that’s a matter of opinion!

Why do you particularly like working in the media that you work in?

Glass and light are like peas in a pod. Together they create a > wonderful interaction on many levels, - visual, - form, etc, etc. Plus the material itself suits my aesthetic tastes and what I want to see made.

Do you have any plans for what to do after college, and if so what are they?

I feel that my overall, general aesthetic could be applied to any scenario. My plans aren't going to happen over night. I intend to have > multi pronged approach to my professional practice.

1) To practice as a profession artist / sculpture in Glass

2) To operate a bespoke lighting design service (design and making)

3) To work with other people to develop large scale commissions .

There are many different variations to this idea, - put essentially > what I'm trying to say I that I feel I’m not a person who can just > stick to lighting, or just stick to sculpture, etc. I would like to be (say in 5 - 10years time) working on the same level as Thomas Heatherwick. As I said, - I don't think this achievable immediately after the RCA My next move after the RCA, would ideally be to get onboard with the craft council's 'Next Move' scheme ( http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/guide/nextmove/index.htm )