Artist Proof Interview with Artist: Famous When Dead

Global Location: UK

URL:  http://fwdead.co.uk/

Shop: http://www.zazzle.com/famouswhendead

Born in 1980 and raised in the industrial pottery town of Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire. Interested in art from a very early age, Andrew adopted the alias of Famous When Dead in 2005. Although self-taught as an artist, he did study graphic design and illustration up-to university level. Andrew still currently resides in Staffordshire and works from his home studio that he shares with his wife and three young children.

AP: How long have you been making art for and what lead you to start?

FWD: I been interested in art all my life but actively started out as an artist around 2001 shortly after the birth of my 1st son Joshua.

AP: Where do you currently  live and work ? And how does this influence your work?

FWD: I live and work in Stoke on Trent, It’s a working class industrial city built on the pottery trade. My artwork doesn’t really fit in here but that just makes me want to do it more.

AP: Did you have formal training if so what? If your self taught can you tell us what you prefer about being a self taught artist vs having formal training?

FWD: I did study graphic design at college and then failed university but I am self taught when it comes to painting, I think that both formal training and being self taught have there good and bad points and I don’t necessarily prefer one over the other.

AP: Can you tell us about where you make your work is it in your house, a studio etc.. and how it effects your work?

FWD: I make my art at home where I live with my wife and 3 children, it’s a totally hectic household and I have to grab any spare moment that I get to concentrate on my artwork. My studio at the moment is the shed during the summer months and the kitchen table all year round, I’m not sure how it effects my work, maybe it wouldn’t exist without the chaos.

AP: What are some of you favorite design projects/exhibitions you have worked on to date?

FWD: I have never been happier with the direction that my work is heading than I am right now, I really feel that I am finding my feet and enjoying the work that I am producing, so to answer the question I would say that the projects that I am working on now are my fave so far.

AP: What is your medium of choice ?

FWD: Acrylic

AP: What is the relationship between technique and content in your work? 

FWD: It used to be content over technique but just recently I have tried very hard to get both 50/50. There’s nothing worse than a great idea, poorly executed and vice versa.

AP: In what direction would you like to see your work going over the next five years?

FWD: I’d be very happy If things kept heading in the current direction.

AP: What forth coming projects and or exhibitions do you have scheduled for 2011?

FWD: I have several projects that I am currently working on, I have work in a group show at the Phone Booth gallery’s David Lynch show, I’m hoping to be painting at Upfest again this June in Bristol, UK, and I have a solo show scheduled for later this year at No Walls gallery in Brighton, England.

AP: Take us on a guided tour through a day in your life as an artist.

FWD: Well after I’ve got all the crap generic jobs out of the way and I’ve moaned about how shit everything is I then check my emails, start up Spotify and sit down with a brew to start work. Things very rarely go according to plan though.

AP: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions.