Interview: Fuchsia Days

A Clayton

E T Goatman

There are moments when we turn a street corner and we find ourselves alone. We momentarily pause, senses heightened, and find a fleeting calm. Tom’s work captures these moments of sublime stillness. There’s a depth of solitude within the framework of their environments, a seeking out of undisturbed oneness springing from the architectural fabric of urban life. Yet the bold, bright palette and graphic line work are celebratory and strong, they revel in these moments. Their forays into the surreal, often presented in collage-like work, demonstrate an activist core to their work, revealing inner machinations of privilege, queerness and discrimination. Here Tom discusses their practice within the context of their musical influences.

Who would you like to do an album cover for?

I tend to find working to a brief quite creatively hobbling. That's just how my brain works. Everything I do is an exploration or an experiment starting at a specific place but generally not imagining the end point so much until I realise I've arrived there. This generally means my work finds its own home in the world rather than being specifically designed for somewhere or something. That said, it would be a dream come true if one of my pieces found its way onto a Clientele sleeve. They're a band I've loved forever and their album art always deploys really interesting mystical/magic realism with layout that somehow evokes vintage Penguin paperbacks. That would be a dream come true.

Do you listen to music when you are creating?

I find music a tricky one. It can work, but it's also a distraction. For more detailed work I can happily work for hours in total silence, just enjoying the sounds of the street where I live. That's a whole symphony of sound if you tune into it. If I'm in the mood for music generally I listen to a playlist of things on my laptop, loud through speakers. Crucially it is all from a very narrow window of time, roughly 1998/99. I was 14 in 1998 and for me the music I was listening to then has the power to transport me back to that place - essentially just before I started becoming an adult. For me this is the optimum headspace to try to evoke when expecting to be creative: the wonder and openness of young adulthood seen through the eyes and mind of someone with one foot in the safety of childhood. Good Humor by Saint Etienne, Push The Button by Money Mark, The Dandy Warhols Come Down, Work and Non Work by Broadcast....

What are your rituals for producing?

No prep. I just set a canvas or page in front of me and cut through any procrastination with big strokes. And I'm off. Posca is good for getting started as you don't need to load a brush or squirt out paint. You just go for it and immediately things emerge.

What does your artwork articulate?

Different things. I guess you could roughly divide it into the world as I see it and the world as I wish it was. The architectural stuff tends towards a kind of utopian vision of the world, a peaceful place where things obey various principles. Then I guess the other stuff possibly explores more inner things, generally whatever I'm processing at the time. So at the moment there's a lot of stuff around sexuality and bodies and things like that. Gradually I'm managing to synthesise those two strands, which you could say is an outward expression of an inner journey we all hopefully go on. Awareness and acceptance. Being queer myself, I can't pretend my work doesn't have a seam of protest running through it, and that's something I'm working to bring out more, be less sort of ginger about. As long as discrimination exists in the world, against my LGBTQ family, that I can work undisturbed and publicly remains a privilege (that I get to express myself largely without condemnation or discrimination) and my existence and open sexuality itself remains a defiant protest.

Have you produced more over the last year?

Yes, my work accelerated massively. I'd already been dabbling in painting again (starting in around 2016) but it rapidly took off in March last year.

Do you feel that a particular music genre represents your artistic style/personality?

For depth of feeling and connection and spirit as a human, no music gets closer to touching my very essence of being as The Kiss by Judee Sill. To me that's the pinnacle of human musical endeavour. It's hard to place it, genre-wise... torch song, possibly? I relate to a lot of that stuff. Goldfrapp, Broadcast... female singers and the good end of trip-hop.

Which art & music icons would you pair together for a dream collaboration?

I'd pair myself with Robert Pollard from Guided By Voices. He sings and plays guitar and I can do everything else so I'd just book us a studio for a week and we'd smash out an album of low key guitar pop gems. Dream.

What did you grow up listening to and watching? Do you think that that media influences your style?

Yes, very much so. There's always been a really strong cartoonish element in a lot of what I do - big planes of flat colour and bold lines. That undoubtedly comes from a teenage obsession with Pete Fowler and his artwork for the Super Furry Animals. I was obsessed as a teenager, and I guess that must have been the first time I experienced really "curated" sleeve art, where the whole thing is this delightfully rich, deeply thought out package rather than just a photo of the group. Also wonderful in this regard is Robert Pollard and his collage work on all the Guided By Voices records.

Can listening to music trigger the same emotions as visually experiencing artwork?

Yes, the same emotional responses are possible regardless of how something expressed is received.

How do you expect people to respond to your work?

I think about it from time to time but really it has no bearing on my work. I'd go as far as to say it's not really any of my business.

What are your intentions as an artist?

Inwardly, to purify myself. Outwardly to project a utopia, and in presenting this to the world, hopefully encourage us a little further towards it.

Images @fuchsia_days