I’ve always wrestled with illustration as being a 👌 way to portray a narrative and stories inspired by things around me but also wanting to keep myself and my own experiences at an arms distance. I don’t want to illustrate events but let multiple events collide, everything should flow, I hope it does. Instagram: @arse._.end

My main aim is to fill a space as best as I can, following doodles, letting the process lead. I like the figures in my drawings to interact with each other, the people who inhabit the space also work to create their own space, a cause and effect, someone is always influencing something else and no action goes without at least bit of consequence. The fuller the space is the better, I think, it allows me to hide things in my drawings, not for people to search out necessarily, but I like knowing that someone is giving the finger is hidden most of my stuff that goes mostly unnoticed. I’d like to think things continue outside the frame of the frame but I’ve just run out of paper.

What would you like people to take away from your work?

I’m very open to interpretation in my work if someone can take something away from it that to me is a success, regardless of what that thing is. I then get a bit absorbed in the actual process of creating, trying to fill space and find new ways to hide things, not for people to search out necessarily, but I like to know that someone is giving the finger hidden most of my stuff and if someone notices that I hope it makes then chuckle.

If you could collaborate with anyone famous, dead, alive, musician, band etc who would it be?

oooOOOo, I’d have to say, Alfred Kubin, he led a very complicated and troubled life so I’m not sure if he would be the easiest person to collaborate with but his illustrations just seem to be so perfect to me, looking almost like prints the pencil work is so fine. I would love to see how he works and how he comes up with the bizarre creatures that inhabit his drawings, see if we could add something other than people to my stuff.

Are the people in your illustrations drawn from people you know or completely made up?

They are usually made up, I don’t want to make all my figures uniform because then it seems like I’m drawing this one character in different situations, people aren’t the same so I try to give the people in my drawings some variety. Sometimes I’ll borrow the likeness of someone I know if they inspired the situation that I’m drawing, my flatmate tends to get the brunt of this.

Can you list a couple other creatives/friends/people you look to for inspiration?

I am fortunate to have met some incredibly talented people at Art school who are all amazing individuals doing incredible things; @morvendouglasart, @lhrfineart, @gtretmanis, @emmaboistonart and my flatmate @hkaart. In general, I’m really into the work of @suds_mckenna and @strangeisland and France-Lise Mcgurn, who I managed to see prior pandemic and is one of the few exhibitions I've been to that left me speechless.