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Frequently Asked Questions
or more accurately, occasionally asked questions
THE ART WORLD
The "Wow!", "What remarkable paintings.", "They send a shiver down my spine.", "They take my breath away." and so on comments (and thank you for those) are often followed by variations on "How come we haven't heard of you before?"
The answer to that is easy and rather depressing.
The 'art world' is thoroughly dominated by fools and charlatans - most people who go to art college (and go on to become teachers, lecturers, administrators, critics, etc.) do so not because of any real interest or ability in Art but rather because they are useless at pretty much everything but want a degree and a career, and the easiest of degrees is in fine art and the careers that tolerate the highest levels of incompetence are in the arts and the media.
An example; I would imagine that in a random group of say 100 people well over half would identify, say, Jackson Pollock as a 'great artist' (although most would regard his work as trash), but it is unlikely that any would identify, say, Dorothea Tanning, or Pierre Roy at all (although most would probably find their work worthwhile and intriguing). Dorothea Tanning and Pierre Roy - both accomplished Artists and 'unknown', Jackson Pollock - a talentless chancer and world renowned on the back of years of incessant touting on his behalf by weak-minded, impressionable arty-farties incapable of discriminating between Art and garbage.
As you can see I'm not a politician or a diplomat, and I could go on about this for hours and hours.
I think I'll go and have a cup of coffee.
DRUGS
It's sometimes suggested to me that the imagination displayed in my work must result from the taking of drugs.
Not so.
Although I attended art college when drug taking was rife any peer pressure directed at me was resisted.
For the record I have never taken any illegal substances.
The only 'drugs' I have ever taken have been prescribed medicines (antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, post-operative analgesics, etc.), tobacco (cigars & pipe tobacco, intermittently from 1971 to 1982, and not at all since), alcohol (occasionally and in moderation), coffee (or more accurately mildly flavoured & discoloured hot water, almost constantly), tea (seldom, except when visiting and then by the litre), and Irn Bru (when I can get it).
SIDDALL AND CHAOS
Siddall the dog, a Border Collie cross, 1977-94; Chaos the cat, a black domestic short hair, 1982-97.
In addition to both being beautiful, even-tempered and full of fun they also shared one remarkable characteristic; until their last couple of years both were routinely mistaken for young dog and cat.