Starting out as an artist

Here is a collection of short films about my early career

Pinhole photograph postcards created with the Art Studio Sunderland

From 2010

I gained a scholarship studio in Creative Cohesion in Sunderland town centre. For a year, my studio was sponsored and I was able to get mentored by the fantastic Theresa Easton. The studio was a shared studio with many different art practises under the same roof. We worked with Washington Glass School, from Washington DC in America.

I met my wonderful glass blowing partner in crime Phil Vickery, and I got the chance to be involved with the local art scene. These two films are about our studio, and other studios based in Nile Street hosting our US visitors. All of the relationships I created back at the studio are still artists and practitioners in the North East, and I have continued contact via social media with the American glass community.

A lot of things have changed over the last 11 years. Phil and I have our own studio near where we live, and all of the original artists are now working on different projects. This was a great way for me to start out.

My practise was mainly concerned with filmmaking, printmaking, and mixed media painting. I was building up my equipment for commercial photography, and learning how the local art scene worked. I was at Creative Cohesion for 3 years.

We also hosted an inter studio festival called the Nile Street Solstice. It was really great for the studios to come together in this bizarre celebration of Sunderland art. During the Nile street Solstice I was also collecting artworks from the public to use in my first public participation project The Big Picture. I will add another blog to cover that later.

In the meantime, enjoy another Creative Cohesion walk down memory lane with the Nile Street Solstice: