I think all sorts of paths could lead someone to become a very accomplished artist. I can’t say my time at art school was a good thing for me. I was a bit of a mess, and my tutors considered me a lost cause early on. I became pretty disenfranchised and hardly showed up. I probably did about 3 life drawing classes and a couple of print classes.
The 6 years of my life after finishing my degree were very unstable. I wasn’t really able to make much artwork other than keeping sketchbooks. I was traveling from place to place a lot and working on farms. I eventually started whittling in my spare time, which was the start of my learning sculpture. That’s really the time I started to grow as an artist.
Meeting my partner was a big turning point for me too. She really supported what I was doing and loved my art. That was kind of a new thing for me, and things really blossomed from there.
As much as my art education wasn’t something I found helpful — and I feel like I got a lot more from learning by myself — I haven’t been put off seeking formal education. I’d really love to study sculpture.
I used to work as a farm labourer, then as a construction worker, roofer, and carpenter, so those jobs were a bit rough on my hands too. The needle-felting of a big sculpture is extremely repetitive, but it’s not as high impact as some repetitive jobs I’ve had.
Plus, now I can take a break whenever I like, which helps. My shoulder does get sore sometimes though. The biggest felt sculpture took me about 8 months to complete, but I was mainly just working evenings and weekends on it.
It was a natural discovery for me. I’m not sure how much the process comes across in my finished work, but it helps me imagine things. When you start to get the hang of staying in that state, you can sort of dip into it while awake too. I think my experiences with that practice would make some really interesting narratives. I’m not sure what form they’d take, but that’s something I want to explore in my art a lot more in the coming years.
It’s so hard to predict what will come about from the rise of AI. I think there’s a good chance the internet as we know it now will disappear because it will be near impossible to differentiate between human and AI — both in content and in our interactions.
One outcome could be that we look for more authenticity in the real world — meaning physical art objects and experiences could become more sought after again. I think in a similar way to how it seemed like books might become obsolete, there will always be a desire to experience and own physical art. But it’s anyone’s guess how things will unfold. It seems like there are some wild times ahead, whatever route it takes. Us artists will just have to be as adaptable as ever.
One of the biggest changes I made in the last few years is that I essentially gave up on showing in galleries. I honestly had no idea how I could make that work with my art. I take too long to make pieces, and galleries automatically take 50% of everything you sell. I think sculpture can be especially tricky to make money from because you generally have higher material and shipping costs too. Instead of selling one-off pieces in galleries, I now make an original sculpture and then sell editions of that sculpture directly to my audience on social media.
I made The Revelation in 2016, which was the beginning of a very tense time in the USA. That for sure was part of what inspired that sculpture. At the time I thought maybe it was a bit too on the nose, but I often struggle to predict the message people will take away from my work. That’s especially true with that particular piece. I don’t think many of my other pieces are so directly related to my environment. I did make a giant malformed golden head about a year into Covid, which I guess is in a similar category.
Well, we moved to Croatia, so the plan has changed a little along the way. It’s still my dream to make that happen, and it feels more possible here than anywhere I’ve lived before. Maybe there are a few projects I’d like to do with other people before I escape to somewhere remote and make sculptures for moss to grow on.
I have my first-ever residency in Slovenia at the end of May/beginning of June, so I’m really excited about that. Then I’m kind of at a crossroads. I’d like to learn something new, perhaps oil painting or animation. I’m not sure which yet. I’d also like to make a short folk horror movie too.
