Be it sketching the Beano comics as a child or creating evocative ‘psycho-surrealist’ pieces of art later on, 'Psychosurrealism' (PS) has always harnessed an artistic streak. ‘It’s just unfortunate that I have to have a day job’ he tells me. It’s a familiar echo. Not having to work in order to do the things that we truly want to do is something millions of us dream of. But at least PS has a job in graphic design which, surely, goes hand in hand with his creative work… right?
‘No it doesn’t’, PS tells me, responding to my question about whether his graphic design work aligns with his passion for art. ‘For me, graphic design is very rigid and I have to follow rules and give the client what they want, so in a way my art is a release from that’. Of course, this is not to slate graphic designers, but PS raises an important point here which relates to the subject of Art generally. For whether it’s a painting, writing a novel or performing a play, it seems that the cornerstone of Art isn’t so much the creations that are produced but the freedoms that created them. In PS’s case, this creative freedom allows him, as it does for many artists who produce commissioned works, to break away from the rigidity of having to produce a set piece. Moreover, such freedom provides him with an escape from having to plan things out. In fact, it lets him do the very opposite – it allows him to get spontaneous.
Spontaneity is an interesting one when it comes artistic process. I mean, how do you create something out of seemingly thin air? After all, students need to revise if they are to answer exam questions, lawyers have to prepare their cases if they are to successfully execute them, so surely artists have to plan out their works if they are to successfully create them - don’t they?
