IN ART SCHOOL NOBODY TEACHES YOU TO PAINT

yo!.. own sweet way... innit!


o k lets start with a picture..




stuart lees said to me..

it's not a training it's an education..

nobody teaches you to paint..

or teachers you how to paint..

the foundation course is not a bacon tree..

it's an ambush..

old joke..!

so in for a shock of the new..

painting is dead..

get used to it..


GET A GRIP


table football and poole..

but mostly table football..

were the amusements in the students union bar..

a player said to me on hearing of my confusion with the course..

it will all become clear..

once you find out..

whether you are a striker or a goalie..


BECOME YOURSELF


graham sutherland..

I don't think anyone is free - one creates one's own prison.

In painting, you have to destroy in order to gain...
you have got to sacrifice something
you are quite pleased with in order to get something better.
Of course, it's a risk...

-----

meanwhile back at the poly..

the thing that got me started was a shape..





see also 'more on flaps'


anyway..

the next thing I knew..

I was in coventry..

on a BA(hons) course..

in graphic design..

don't ask..

so a painter studying typography..

instead of naked life models..

the course had developed out of..

a hot metal type education for printers apprentices..

had I made a major error?

it may still be too early to say..


EAST 100TH ST AGAIN


so I did my own thing..

and created an artist's book..

called ..


SYMPHONY : A RIFF NUMBER


for which I had to screen print..

hundreds of pages..

and cut them out..

with the shape..

and bruce davidson's photgraph

the book is in the movie..

 I sucked at the graphics course tasks..

the fine art approach was not appreciated..

but I soldiered on..


as time went by..

I settled in and they got used to me..



I became red hot at typography..

natch..




one visiting lecturer..

asked me why I couldn't apply the same quality..

to my graphics work..

as I did to my own work..

he promised that if I could raise my graphics game..

he would help me get into..

the royal college of art..


I RAISED MY GAME


I created a portfolio..

of great stuff plus some of my east 100th st. stuff..

I got an interview at the royal..

but that was all..

I did have a great portfolio though..

by the time the course was over..

I thought I would be a graphic designer..

but this was..


1975


This was the picture of the investment conditions seen by economists and politicians in 1975.
It was not a comforting picture.
It was, in fact, a classic picture of a catastrophic collapse in progress.


In the UK inflation continues to spiral out of control reaching 24.2%
the price of Petrol increased by nearly 70% in one year,
but the US sees a start back down with US inflation going down to 9.2%,
both governments use interest rates as a way of trying to control inflation
with the US Federal Reserve at 7.25%
and The Bank of England at 11.25%.


ALL BETS WERE OFF


I got a job at boots warehouse loading lorries..

rented a studio in town..

started painting again..