Downtime Interview w/ Tom Hodgkinson

Feb 8

1) LOCATION?

Bristol, UK. In spike island art space. 🇬🇧

2) YEARS COLLAGING?

My Auntie used to decoupage lots of things around her house, so I remember being fascinated from a young age, I have since kept returning to it over the years, then around 2006 I started making canvas works, so a good 15-20 years in my adult life.

3) WHAT DO YOU LOVE AND HATE ABOUT COLLAGE?

I love that moment when a collage comes together and works(For all the times they don’t), hate is a pretty strong word but the clutter can get pretty distracting.

4) BIGGEST INFLUENCES?

Henri Matisse the snail was my biggest early influence in terms of opening my young eyes to art.

Since then, Terry Gilliam, Eduardo Recife, Justin Harder, Dirk Rudolf, Ellen Gallagher, Ruff Mercy, Jenny Brosinski have all impacted me at various stages in life. and lots of Music.

5) ANALOG VS DIGITAL?

My day job is sat at a computer, so my collage work has always been partly a way to remove myself from the screen, so analogue is certainly more my where I get my kicks. Having said that, I do prepare imagery/patterns in Photoshop/illustrator, so I can’t claim to be fully analogue. I have also experimented with remixing my analogue works, digitally, which is how I created my feature for @46pgs last year.

6) HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR DOWNTIME?

I have a 5 year old so I try to spend as much time with him as I can, apart from that I just flit between animation, collage, music, friends and watching films.ing.

7) THREE TIPS FOR SOMEONE STARTING OUT IN COLLAGE?

Little and often, experiment, find your voice.

8) UP AND COMING SHOWS OR PROJECTS WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT?

There is a big street art festival in may called Upfest, there are hundreds of artists painting there, I have a spot on a board there so will be doing a live collage over the weekend. And am in talks about a digital exhibitions with the Rochester museum of fine arts in the US.

See more 👀
Gram: @tomhodgkinson2
Web: tomhodgkinson.co.uk