Studio Visit Interviews
Studio Visit Interviews - 2010 Interviews
Francesca Hudson appears to be enjoying herself, which is no small feat as an artist. Francesca is in the often enviable position of making works of art that she likes and selling to people who agree with her aesthetic; the inherent joy in this comes across when you talk to Fran, she's comfortable with what she creates but not at all stagnant, she takes pleasure in mining the immense image banks of the world and finding inspiration for her works. I'm not downplaying Francesca's angst, she has it, I don't know an artist who doesn't but she clearly has a lot of pleasure in what she does. I'm not the kind of person with a reputation for being particularly late or early for events or social occasions; I don't go out of my way to build a reputation with regards to time-keeping and neither does my wife, I think it is a universally acknowledged rule however that It's socially weird or creepy to turn up at some one's house exactly at the prescribed minute of meeting and it was thus that we found ourselves arriving at Francesca Hudson's house on the evening of the interview. It's probably a disservice to Francesca and her sister to describe them as merely "great hosts", we were greeted with a cornucopia of beer and wine and to the olfactory fairground that was the meal being prepared. We were able to relax and have a couple of drinks before we headed out to start the conversation "for propper" by which point we were all pretty relaxed. The conversation picks up with Francesca talking about the construction of her studio building.....
When Rory asked if he could use my friend Will and I’s studio space to “put a few bits in” I didn’t give it a second thought. It was when we met him and he started to carry in large sections of scaffolding and huge torches, I became inquisitive. I have worked in proximity to Rory when I was still at university and we have shown work together in the Mushroom Works, but that was then. Having given him a hand to install one of these new pieces I was interested to learn more about this exciting project, so I invited him over to share a bottle of wine...
Studio Visit Interviews - 2009 Interviews
Studio Visit Interviews - 2009 Interviews
Narbi Price can come across as being a bit of a closed book; mysterious, quiet, reserved, possibly the kind of person you would see played by John Cusack in a film such as High Fidelity (perhaps too obvious an association as Narbi works at Newcastle Art Centre and skirts on the edge of playing the elitist shop clerk). In those quiet moments of acerbic wit or self deprecation you can catch a glimpse of the character that is omnipresent in Narbi’s paintings; the everyman of British comedy whom Narbi references frequently.
Narbi Price: Apologies for the madness.
Damian Huntley: Ah God, nothing to apologise for.
NP: No, there is; I hate madness.
I had never talked to Sarah Blood about art before now; we'd indulged in conversations about pirates, ghosts and allotment gardening in the past, but never really about art. We'd shared many short conversations over cups of coffee at the mushroom works in the past but none of them touched in more than a cursory manor on the subject of art. Having interviewed a few people for the site so far I was starting to realise that it's not an entirely uncommon phenomenon; artists although often enjoying the company of other artists frequently don't talk shop. One of the things that struck me to an almost disturbing degree when I sat down to transcribe our almost two hour conversation is that Sarah talks in near perfectly structured sentences, semi-colons falling almost audibly in place. Sarah also talks pretty quickly, not that she rushes, she is well paced however by the time we started recording the interview we had already arrived at the subject of exposed electrical contacts on a neon sculpture...........
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Friday June 5th 2009 Ryen and I were relaxed, taking in the preview of "Sustainable Environments" at The Mushroom Works, sipping the complementary wine and feeling less and less apprehensive about interviewing Jim Edwards. He appeared to be running a little late but when he arrived I felt at ease as I watched him walk around the show with one of his children on his shoulders. Here was a man enjoying the pleasures of married life and plainly at ease with the fact that we were there to interview him. Not so, Jim had forgotten completely that he was meeting us to chat about his work, so embroiled was he in preparing for the show. It's nice to catch someone on their back foot, especially a consummate professional like Jim.