Double Page Spread Article - First Draft

This is the first draft of my article for my double page spread article. It is a transcription of the interview with Garry Downing that was previously uploaded in a Soundcloud document. As it is the first draft I will give it to my teacher to assess it and see whether it is fit for the purpose of my magazine. If there are improvements to be made, then I will make them in due course.

What inspired you to enter the trade of graphic art design?

“A lot of it is down to Sunderland. I left town when I was 18 and you know that’s a long time ago, I mean I’m 44 now and have lived all over the world since then, in varying degrees of wealth. I had a rough time in my 20s and my 30s were… a strange time as well and you know now I’m doing quite well and every period of my life seems in quite high contrast with the time that immediately proceeds it but the thing that I think is really important when talking about where my inspiration comes from, a lot of the time it is Sunderland itself and it was a real privilege to be asked back by Sunderland City Council to come and do the most recent project. I never thought of myself really coming back home for anything you know I was actually in Japan and got a phone call. I was actually taking a Jacuzzi and my friend came in with the phone saying “I’ve got Sunderland on” and that was it. Next thing you know, I’m on the flight back to Sunderland, on my way to the civic centre. Haven’t even seen the place for a good 30 years and all of a sudden I’m back there talking about this project and you know, Bob’s your uncle.”

Has the fact that you were born and raised in Sunderland helped and inspired you to create such a successful portfolio?

“Well I don’t think the success that I’ve had can only be down to Sunderland, but in all the work I do, Sunderland is there. The bridge piece which you are using for this issue, you know, that’s me, me when I was younger, that’s what I remember. You know walking across the bridge with my dad to Roker Park, I mean I’m not the biggest football fan but that was just the done thing and it still is you know, a lot of people still do that. It’s engrained in our culture. In almost all of the work I do, especially the most famous piece that I did for DKNY called ‘Mud’, but when I put it together you know I mixed together actual mud, some blood and a few other different fluids and as bizarre as that may seem, the whole time I was doing it, I was looking out of my apartment in Manhattan’s skyline, but in my head, all I could think of was Sunderland.

What is your main methodology for creating your products, is there any particular programmes that you prefer to use?

“Ahh that actual technical stuff? Believe it or not, I’ve never really become that involved with all that. I mean I know my way around a computer but my methodology still involves paints and pencils with a canvas. You know, sometimes I will just sit for a long time and just think ‘what am I after here?’, ‘what am I trying to achieve here?’ and then I see it. I see what I’m going to do, then that’s when I know what I’m going to need to use to put it together. Occasionally I might use programmes like Photoshop, the Adobe packages InDesign, Illustrate, if I need something that I can’t create with hands-on materials. My first instincts always to go with something that I can feel, something tangible. But you know software is amazing these days and those programmes and others enable artists that we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.”

Would you consider yourself to have a linear approach to your work?

“No not really, I think my work is actually very non-linear. I always try to approach each of my projects in completely different ways. The work I’ve done in Sunderland is quite simplistic, quite traditional, but when you compare that with something like Mud, if you look at that, at first you’d just think you were looking at some kind of accident but obviously once you get into it, you know that there is more to it. But the Sunderland stuff, well it is pretty straight forward, but I didn’t want to approach it in the same way. It’s like I say, when I start working on a project, I just like to see what direction my mind takes me in. But I still maintain that a lot of that comes down to being brought up in Sunderland. This is a place where life, certainly in the past, is a bit different to the way it is in other towns and cities within the UK, not always in a good way. But yeah I feel like my work is certainly inspired and entangled in the place I was brought up in which happens to be Sunderland.”

Why is it that you find graphic art such a successful method for capturing the mood of Sunderland?

“I fall into the category of graphic art because of my earlier work really. Some of the stuff I’ve done more recently, could you call it graphic art? I don’t know really. I still tend to use a lot of shapes. I think a lot of that is down to growing up in the 70s and 80s with all the computer technology, I was pretty fascinated with it when I was growing up, despite the fact I tend not to use it with my current work. But back then it was all shapes and angles. Things were very defined and I think that was what inspired a lot of my work and caused some of the earlier work I did such as ‘Wood in the Shape of Carvings’ and ‘B Flat Major’. They were very angular and the graphics were a big part of that. I think it’s just the route I’ve gone down. If I’d been born in a different time or a different place maybe I might not have used graphics so much in my art. I tend to think of myself as just an artist, but you know, others choose to put is in the realm of graphic art and who am I to complain? I’ve done alright out of it!”

Have you ever found yourself hitting creative blocks?

“Every project for me starts with a creative block and it’s not something that I’d like to sound smug about, but a block is a positive for me. You know at the beginning of each project, I sort of immerse myself in that nothingness and it doesn’t bother me. I’m lucky because I’ve managed to turn my art into my profession and this might not be as easy for somebody who is creating artwork in their spare time outside of a busy job. But I’ve got the luxury of staring at the canvas, sometimes for days, literally weeks, I can do nothing. People think I’m crazy, then out of nowhere it just comes and I see it, it’s there. You know I live in Shoreditch now and it’s a really creative place and I know it gets its flack for the hipsters and all that but when you’re there you know you go out in the street and you’ve got people riding unicycles and someone’s always there with a friendly face, every day. You know I love it! It’s a great community of creative people down there and you walk amongst those kind of folk and sometimes that helps to overcome any blocks you’ve got. But overall I’d say to anyone aspiring to go into the field I’m in ‘don’t be too down if it takes a while to overcome these blocks, sometimes they can be a positive’.”