20 Questions

May 2015

1. Without a doubt, your technique in art is very, very unique. Can you briefly share how you discovered this process of making art, and why you stuck with it despite its challenging nature?

Yeah I'm the first ever artist to pioneer working in this way. 

To be honest the discovery of what I do was an accident, one of those serendipitous moments that changed the trajectory of my life.  

I was cleaning blood off a leather jacket one Christmas, around the year 2000. The blood was stubborn and it didn't come off easily, so I got out my penknife and tried to scrape the blood off. 

That was it… EUREKA ! I carved through the leather surface into the suede (nap) beneath. It was my Archimedes moment, God's thunderbolt. 

The new art form I discovered was so fresh, so challenging, so difficult to master that I had to stick with it just to prove to myself something new could be born. 

Cutting, scratching, scraping, slicing, to reveal a powerful image… It became an addiction.

2. With regard to your method of creating art, would it be accurate to say that you learned from your mistakes, or on the other hand, aren’t afraid of making mistakes along the way?

Some mistakes cost more than others. 

I've sliced into my fingers and hit bone more times than I care to remember.  

I definitely learn from my many, many mistakes, and I'm learning to be afraid of nothing. 

The times I've been afraid to mark the leather, scared to make that first incision - have always been at low points in my life. 

The more fearless I am, the better the work comes out. 

Fear always makes us hold back and nothing can progress when we are afraid. 

3. To the uninitiated, how would you describe your work? If you had to call it something, what would the term be?

Etchings. Carvings. 

4. What music, or which people or what events inspire you to work?

I try and remain open to inspiration, as I'm in my forties too many of my friends & contemporaries’ are becoming jaded and turning to cynicism and irony as a worldview. 

I have 3 kids, their passion, wonder and appreciation for beauty is contagious. They are untainted, so I learn from them. 

I love music from Hip Hop to Classical. 

I listen to a lot of old Rock n Roll and find my iPod is full of movie scores and soundtracks. 

More and more I have been reading the epic tales in literature.

I’m inspired by Caravaggio, Peter Howsen, Damien Hirst, Bart Gavigan, Mel Gibson, Chris Nolan, Paul Haggis, Bear Grylls, Shabazz Graham, Van Gogh, Bono, John Eldredge, Andrew Shearman, Francis Bacon. 

5. How did your growing up in a farm in Wales contribute to your style or personality in your art?

John Muir said “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. Going to the mountains is going home.” 

I was born on a farmstead in the Welsh mountains, with a knife in one hand and a slingshot in the other. My earliest gift from my granddad was a pocket knife. 

I have a knife collection that would make Jack The Ripper envious. 

While my mates were all playing Atari, I was rock climbing, carving my signature in the bark of pine trees, jumping from cliffs into icy waters.

I've always loved wildness, I'm most alive when something's at risk. 

So I was born with a love of knives, and my work is risky from the first incision to the last cut. 

It's not like painting where the artist can just paint over any mistakes. In my work there is no margin for error. The pressure is always on. 

What is done cannot be undone. In my work there's no 'Apple Z ' .

6. As an artist, how would you say your style has evolved through the years?

The work is still evolving, I'm still growing and learning. 

The early years were all about portraiture and technical skill. After 7 years of pioneering and perfecting my craft I decided to start to make work about the human condition.

My Death of The Dollar series is about our modern culture of greed, power and excess. 

7. Aside from being an artist, what keeps you busy?

Kids, adventure, writing… lighting fires. 

I built a fire pit last year so friends could come over and sit out late into the night with whisky, cigars… and just talk. No TV, no iPhone, just human connection… something that I feel is slipping away. 

I find myself constantly lighting the fire. 

I'm a closet arsonist. 

8. Do you agree with the popular adage that “anyone can be an artist?”

Depends how you define the word 'artist'.

If that means someone who can paint pretty pictures of boats in a harbour, then yeah… ANYONE can practise and develop their skill and can give that a go and enjoy the experience. 

If however you believe an Artist is a calling, a role that carries a mantle and a weight of responsibility… then no. 

An artist is meant to be someone who speaks to mankind. 

We are pretty lost, as Bono said, "the blind leading the blonde", so the role of the Artist is to help us see. 

We need clarity, we mistrust human religion, we doubt politics, science is confusing and contradictory. 

Someone must hear and see outside the walls of our world and bring those messages back... in art, film, song and story. 

When a storm strikes a city the masses all run for cover finding shelter from the savage wind and rain. 

But the Artist is meant to face the storm head on, climb the church steeple and there get struck by lightning... and then live the rest of their life as a lightning conductor. 

9. Aside from self-expression, what do you think is the greatest thing art has contributed in the last century?

The ability to see with the soul. 

Art, music beauty, truth all speak a language that the sciences know nothing of. 

It's a language that has nothing to do with IQ, education or rational, analytical thought. 

The greatest change art can ever have on a person is to help them see with the eyes of the heart. To see mythically. 

10. As an artist, where do you see yourself in the next ten years?

It's SO hard to answer that. I'm not sure where I'll be in the next ten minutes!

I'd love to get to a place where I'm truly unafraid of people's opinion and am making work that is rattling cages and causing people to stop and wonder. 

11. If there is one thing you would like to achieve with your work, what is it?  What message would you like to get across with your collective work? 

That we are not alone in the Universe. 

That death is not the end. 

That hope and courage are contagious.

And that Redemption is a reality. 

12. If you were to sum up your work in one word, what would it be?

Brave

13. On average, how long does it take you to finish a particular piece?  Would you say that it is an organic, flowing process, or are some works harder to finish or break through than others?

Approximately a couple of months for a single panel piece, several months for my larger works or my indicate Dollar pieces.

Yeah some pieces are a nightmare and cause me many frustrated, sleepless nights.

14. Briefly tell us about your first solo shows.  What was that experience like? 

Stressful, painful….My agent started a fight with the gallery owner. 

Funny looking back on it now though. 

15. Would you say that you have already created some of your best work?

I hope so. I hope I've not spent the last 15 years making a pile of shite. 

But obviously in 5 years time I hope to look back and think, 'Wow my new stuff makes 2015 look tame!'

16. Art, in its plethora of mediums, has often been used as a vehicle to disseminate an interpretation of beauty, memorialize a particular historic event, relay a message (some with obvious or discreet double entendre), and champion a cause and cry for change. Picasso did so in his art narrative, Guernica. What socio/political issue, if any, in present day are you passionate about that you feel is brought forth in your work?

Passivity. 

I hate passivity and apathy. Lukewarm water. 

It's a guise for fear and complacence. 

Picasso's world was a very different place.

In the present day our battle is not Cold War with the Russians or bombing by the Nazi's. 

Our battle is for our attention span!

Our war is invisible - the frontline in our day is our headspace. 

We're not hit by bullets, we're assaulted by advertisers. 

I can't think straight. 

The more we have access to with technology and digital media, the more internally unconnected and bored we become. 

Like Banksy said "When I think about the state of the world I get so sick I can't finish my second apple pie."

We've never been so bombarded and yet somehow so numb.

You know the frog boiled in the water story? It dies slowly, without knowing it's being boiled alive. 

As a society we have never been in this place with infinite connectability and yet we seem so disconnected. 

All the blogging, tweeting, pinging and uploading we do just cannot replace human connection or divine inspiration.

I did an experiment on myself… I took a 5 week trip with family and left my iPhone at home!

My thumbs were freaking out. My friends back in London freaked out. 

But my soul had space to breathe!

And that space gave me perspective and clarity. 

It's clarity that leads to inspiration. 

17. One of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’ most famous quotes read: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience”; what are your thoughts on this?  Do you feel that there is a Divine hand that guides you as you create and bring to life that which you see in your minds’ eye?

Great question!!

Absolutely… Yes there is a divine hand that has guided me at certain times, without question I have experienced this on a number of occasions.

But only if I'll let it guide me. 

God doesn't hold the hand of him who holds the iPhone too tightly. 

Distraction is the biggest killer of divine guidance. 

Our flawed humanity gets in the way of a true spiritual experience because we are more concerned with fear of what other think of us, rather than seeking truth.

18. Through your own personal observation, what is a common thread between the most avid fans of your work?  Or is the group completely heterogeneous- from varied backgrounds, occupations, personalities? 

Various people seem to love my work, but if I had to pinpoint it, narrow it down to one solitary sector of society I'd have to say my work mainly appeals to men. 

There's something raw and primal about leather and knives that evokes something in the masculine soul. But lately that’s less and less true. Women are collecting my work now more than ever, which I find very inspiring. 

19.  Answer this question:  “If I were not doing this, the occupation I most see myself having is____________.”

Sumo wrestler….

Wait

Honestly… probably a writer or movie producer.

I love story. It is one of the great truths we have left.

20. What is your bliss? 

Climbing a church steeple in a storm and getting struck by lightening!!!