influenced by your native landscape. I like
westerns, spaghetti westerns in particular and
the sort of imagery of a lone protagonist in a
sparse landscape has always appealed to me.
You have said of your art that "these images
have dogged me all my life". Is there any
sense in which your artwork is personally
therapeutic or cathartic for you?
Well, I'd say the characters in some of my more
recent stuff represent some aspects of myself,
slightly melancholy and apart. Once they're on
paper they become real to me in much the same
way a novelist's characters become real to the
author.
Untitled (2014) ink on paper
Much of you work is untitled, and you are
reluctant to analyse its meaning. What are
the advantages of remaining ambiguous?
Being a bit of an old fuddy duddy, I've never had
much truck with a lot of conceptual art, and it's
always seemed to me that the bulk of thought or
work that goes into certain contemporary art is in
the title, which automatically forces the viewer to
look at the work in a certain way, which I guess
is the idea. I like to keep the work untitled and let
the viewer imbue the work with their own
subjective interpretation. Often two people will
look at the same piece and one will see a sad
faced man, whilst someone else will see the
same image as a happy woman or whatever. At
the end of the day it's a visual medium and text
should not be a necessary accompaniment.
Untitled (2012) ink on paper
Music is another avenue of creative
expression for you. Do the various creative
forms you pursue - art, acting, music express different aspects of your
personality?
I think all creative endeavours come from the
same place but require different mediums to be
expressed properly. There's a shamanic element
to being an artist and this is particularly true of
music.
In what ways has your art changed or
developed over the course of your career?
My stuff used to be a lot darker, more vulgar and
violent. I guess the work changes as you do as a
person, but being a contrarian if people say they
Untitled (2014) ink on paper