You mentioned college was a turning point for you. Can you elaborate?
Oh, so I had a teacher. And first of all, I went to a junior art college because I left high school at 16. So I went to a junior art college for two years. I had a tutor there by the name of Syd who was very influential. He was just great at drawing, very caring and attentive to your needs and was full of encouragement, but also wasn't afraid to be critical. You know, you need the balance. Yeah, you don't need a trophy, just for taking part, you know.
So where did you go from that point after?
So then I applied to a degree college and I went to South Wales to take my degree. A college called the South Wales College of higher education. And when I got there, I was more of a painter, but my sculpting side flourished at college. So I got to work with clay plaster. I made some giant outdoor sculptures based on childhood drawings that I made of impossible things. When you're a kid, you tend to draw perspective, strangely, you draw things from multiple views. And so I made these kinds of impossible looking sculptures based on my drawings, and I got good feedback when I was at college, and I honestly thought I was going to be a sculptor, it didn't work out.
So when did you start teaching? What was your first experience?
Oh, so after college, I moved back home. And the expectation was, I found a building where I was going to have a studio is actually a garage, and I found another person who was going to share it with me. And I just didn't have the money to equip it with the tools and materials and struggling artists. I was struggling. And so I found myself working, washing dishes in a factory. And one day I was walking around town, and I bumped into that high school art teacher that I wasn't really that impressed with.
He moved to another school, he was excited to see me. And he invited me to his school to become an artist in residence.