Do you have a visual item or moment from your childhood that has stuck with you, shaping the artist you are today?

My parents kept a folder of my sketches from when I was a kid. They’re mainly inspired by films I was watching, like Jumanji and Independence Day, video games I was playing, or music I was listening to at the time, like The Prodigy or various Nu Metal bands. Some of it is pretty funny, but there are a few typographic drawings in there where I can see the designer in me starting to appear.

What did creativity look like for you as a child? Were you always drawing or making things?

I was a pretty creative kid, always drawing and making things. It’s something I’m trying to pass on to my eldest son, making sure he always has art and making materials available to him, so he can do something if he likes, without us trying to force it too much. My amazing wife has built him a large new desk in his bedroom, with drawers and shelves for his pen pots, art materials and glue sticks. I’m happy to say that he does tend to draw or create something most mornings, coming downstairs with a beautiful new drawing for our walls or a creative new handmade contraption made from our discarded materials and packaging.

You’re known for your beautiful paper cut work. Why did you choose paper as your medium?

As my work was developing through university, I was trying to bring my interests in fine art, photography and graphic design together. I started to realise that through paper I was able to achieve this, by bringing my designs up off the page and then photographing the final pieces.
I then started to see how far I could push things, and my layered style developed from there. I never really chose to be a paper artist, it just kind of found me, and then before I knew it, my portfolio started filling up with paper cut pieces.

As a medium, paper is extremely versatile, so the range of uses is really broad, which can be seen in the array of paper artists working today. It’s also very easy to acquire and quite cheap, so if you make mistakes, you can just remake a piece quite easily.

It’s been nice to see the rise in it as a medium for commercial work, because when I started, art directors were still unsure of how to use my work for their commissions and campaigns. But over time, it has really grown as a professional medium, and I have found there’s a real calling for it and a definite surge in recent years. I think it’s partly a response to the rise in digital art and AI, with people wanting to feel a connection to the artworks they see. Paper art is so hands-on and obviously handmade, especially when you shoot with natural light as I generally do, and there’s lots of behind-the-scenes process you can share as part of the project. There’s also a warmth in the reminder of childhood play, as it’s probably one of the first mediums we connected with as children.

Cutting with scissors is something we all did as children and do with our own kids now - do you have any particular memories of making or being inspired by paper craft when you were young? Was there someone who encouraged you to make art?

I always remember being interested in art, doing lots of drawing and painting at home. My mum was a textiles teacher, so she was a big inspiration, with her woven pieces up on the walls of our family home. A lot of my sketches were inspired by film posters, games and music I was listening too, but I did also play with creating my own typefaces – so there was definitely an early design interest there.

Papercutting came a bit later for me though, as a development of my studies in fine art and graphic design at school and experimenting with ways to bring those together. There was also a big push of tactile art whilst I was studying, and I realised as a medium paper allowed me to bring my designs up off the page and into the real world.

Did you have artwork on your bedroom walls or around your home growing up, and do you remember a favourite piece or how art made you feel as a child?

My mum was a big inspiration to me, in fact, we have a few pieces up on the walls of our new home.

I also remember quite vividly a trip to Amsterdam when I was a kid, and seeing the work of Anselm Kiefer for the first time at the Van Gogh Museum. He’s a German artist who creates these huge canvases, covered in thick paint and lots of raw materials added onto the canvas. The piece had a real effect on me and I brought home a postcard, which I still have up on my pinboard at my studio. I remember the feeling of standing in front of his work being so visceral and spine-tingling. I think that was probably one of my big inspirations on me to travel down the art route, and a reason I’m always keen to take my children to art shows too, even if they seem too young for it – because you never know when inspiration might strike.

What do you think your younger self would make of your art and the fact that you became an artist?

I think I’d be pretty blown away to see that I’ve managed to make it as an artist. It’s a really tough journey and I feel like I’ve been grafting hard continuously for the past sixteen years, but occasionally you do pop your head up and think “wow, I can’t believe I’m able to earn a living this way!” It’s a pretty special place to be and I do not take it for granted at all.

What else do you like to do when you're not illustrating?

I play the drums in a few bands, which is another thing that I started to get into when I was a child. My dad brought me a drum kit when I was ten and then I started jamming with some local kids and we formed a band, which at one point had six guitarists in it!

I had a break from playing when I moved to London, as I felt I needed to focus on my work and become professional. But I soon realised I missed that side of me, so a friend Chris Clarke and I decided to have a jam and we formed a new band a few years ago called Modern Technology which has taken us on some great adventures, releasing a handful of albums and getting to play some great festivals and venues, including the Electric Ballroom in Camden, which was pretty wild!

I now also run a small record label called Human Worth, releasing noisy music with a portion of all our proceeds donated to charities helping those in crisis. It’s a very different world from the space my art inhabits, but I love the juxtaposition and feel like the jing and jang of it helps to keep me level and energised. It’s made me realise that you should never give up on your hobbies, no matter how old you get.