Artist-Teacher Ethos

Art, Craft & Design

Art imitates creation.

Creativity is mistakes.

The role of the arts … is to self-consciously manage this relationship between the inner and outer world.

…each particular artwork is a proposal to live in a shared world, and the work of every artist is a bundle of relations with the world…

Technology speeds up the process of design to bring things to market quicker.

The creation lives as genesis beneath the visible surface of the work. All intelligent people see this after the fact, but the creative see it before the fact (in the future).

 …what excellence is…is simply the bravest, most original, most innovative, most perfectly realised work of which people are … and it is the opposite of the safe, routine and imitative.

And me as a poster boy for craft, you know somehow I’ve got a reputation that I sit there all day making these works of art. You know I use digital. It’s the default option of many artists. We live in the 21st century.

Craft cannot be dematerialised: it must first and foremost remain a physical object.

Joan Miro’s “art leads to the fundamental roots of human existence…Steeped in human experience, we may be able to recover some of that innocence of heart and purity of spirit which we possessed as children.”

Art does not reproduce the visible; it renders visible.

Printmaking is like a sport – it’s necessary to continue training in order to improve, or even remain supple. The practice is a part I really enjoy: pushing my art even further, trying even more technically complex methods and challenging conventions.

I thank God for the gift of art: the gift of creation, our most divine quality and a powerful force within.

The iPad is a very new medium for an artist … it has certain things about it that are quite fantastic.

We might be loosing traditional skills, but then other skills are coming along all the time.

The separation of craft from art and design is one of the phenomena of the late 20th century Western culture…It has led has led to a separation of ‘having ideas’ from ‘making objects’.

To be a work of art is to be (i) about something, and (ii) embody its meaning.

There is a danger that art will just sort of dissipate via the web and all of the amazing delivery systems we have now…like art has exploded and the dust has settled into every single piece of culture.

If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.

A work of art consists of two elements, the inner and the outer. The inner element on its own is the emotion of the artist’s soul. This emotion is able to bring about a basically corresponding emotion in the soul of the viewer…Feeling is also the bridge from the non-material to material (the artist) and from the material to the non-material (the viewer).

N.B. This page is currently under reconstruction.

Julie on Art, Craft and Design:

Art, craft and design help us to:

• make sense of the world around us and find meaning by linking our inner world to the outer world;

• express ourselves and communicate with others;

• create something new and unique, demonstrating our highest human capabilities;

• make something fit for purpose;

• feel joy, satisfaction, pride and confidence in the doing and the finishing process;

• develop key life skills such as listening, reflection, discussion, observation, co-operation, decision making, time and resources management, organisation and evaluation.