Posters of my work

Alas! The day has come! The day you have all been waiting for! The day you have only dreamed of!

Ahem.

You can now buy prints of my work! A2 matt posters. All apart from 'White Gir'l which is A3. Here's the available posters and if you'd like one here's the link!

My Tiger My Timing win Becks newcomer

Wonderful My Tiger My Timing have won the Becks newcomer award! They got to fly to Berlin and support Phoenix and the Ting Tings! Sooooo proud! Check out the vid, famous Harrison is in the glasses!

My advice for young/new/graduate artists

I left art school in 2007 but my career and the interest in my work actually came about much before this. So I would consider myself to have been in the art world for about four years. In this time I have encountered every kind of shit you can imagine. From a dealer saying I could get out of paying expenses I owed him by taking off my pants and sending them to him, to a man trying to claim he was ‘so scared’ to deal with my work that he couldn't possibly pay me (whilst on the phone to BBC news). I have so many other stories too. I’m 25 and I feel like I’ve experienced it all. The funny thing is, it’s the people who seem the most legitimate who are the biggest arses.

However, instead of giving up (which I would never do) I can only use this experience for the future and make sure it never happens again. And of course share my advice with others. It’s not just visual artists – so many of my friends who are in the arts in some way (writers, comedians, actors) have had this shit and know people who have also had these problems. The arts seem to be the only profession where you work 24/7 and people think it’s okay to not pay you for that.

Here’s my top advice for young/new/graduate artists

1. Expect everyone you meet in the art world (especially people interested in exhibiting your work) to be either a) a bastard or b) sub-human. This way you will avoid feeling any kind of human emotion towards your dealer and if, for example, they make £100,000 selling your work and don’t give you any money, you won’t mind asking for some. Also, if they turn out to be nice then that’ll be a nice surprise.

2. ‘We deal in graduate art ‘ translates as ‘We deal with graduates because they’re desperate and it’s much easier to swindle them.’

3. Contracts. Get a good contract. If they present you with one, get it checked by a lawyer. Because it’s definitely going to be shit. Do not just ask your older brother to check it over just because he went to Oxford. Especially don’t then ignore him when he points out an important part of it because you don’t want to pay a lawyer to sort it out. Get a fucking lawyer. It is definitely worth the cash in the long run.

4. Don’t trust anyone who wears tweed.

5. On the contracts note, make sure you double check expenses. Some people will claim expenses from you. This could be anything or any amount, which means you can end up with absolutely NOTHING. Make sure this is not in your contract.

6. If they say ‘You’re an art star’, kick them in the balls and run away.

7. Don’t appear desperate. Because they can smell that a mile off and it’ll create more leeway for them to rip you off. As convincingly as possible, pretend you’ve had other offers but that you ‘can’t really say’ what they are yet. As if something amazing is about to happen but you’re not allowed to confirm it yet. Pulling the jinx card is good too ‘Oh I don’t want to say as I don’t want to jinx it, ahahahaaaaaa.’ (that’s a personal fave)

8. Don’t be fooled by a fancy website. Check out the credentials of their other artists and do research. Contact the other artists if need be, sometimes I get this and I really don’t mind offering my advice.

9. Beware of name droppers e.g. I was told ‘The director of your residency is affiliated with MoMA.’ And yes it was true. They knew someone who worked in the admin department. Which leads to….

10. Don’t trust anyone who bigs themselves up too much and take everything they say with a pinch of salt. It’s often all mouth and no trousers.

11. Pretend you know what you’re talking about. This is very important. If you don’t know what to say, just nod and say ‘Yeah I get you, I’ll have to have a think about that one and get back to you.’ (then go home and google)

12. Don’t take any shit. From. The. Start. I don’t mean be an annoying twat, but if something bothers you, then there’s a reason for that and speak up. You’re not imagining things. Do not be fobbed off. Remember, they are a) a bastard or b) sub-human. Or both!! I thought playing the ‘I’m just a stupid artist’ card would work. It doesn’t. They just think you’re a stupid artist.

13. If it sounds dodgy, it IS dodgy.

I hope this helps. I literally ignored all the advice I was given and now I lie awake at night fantasising about what I would do if I won a million pounds.

(please feel free to add your own advice in the comments!)