“Some people might say, 'You're in space, what do you need windows for?', but there's plenty to see.”

 

I have had epilepsy since I was 18. The medicine slows me down, so I can’t play bingo. I find myself walking into a room and not knowing why I went in – sometimes my head feels like an empty room. I can find myself drifting off - but not in art. While making art I can concentrate and focus.

 

I had 5 years of tech drawing at school, which is why I use stencils and rulers. All of my work comes from my head, I don't draw from pictures. A lot of it is experimenting rather than being stuck and not happy with it. I'll turn it upside down and if the balance is right, then it's good. Sometimes I think, ‘Bloody Hell!’, then I'll rub it out repeatedly until it feels right.

 

There are no cars or people in my work, although there must've been people there at one point, but they’ve disappeared. If there are windows - there must be people in there, not just machines. Some people might say, 'You're in space, what do you need windows for?', but there's plenty to see.

 

I don't understand how these machines work, but I do think about that. A lot of the space crafts are flowing shapes like a car in a wind tunnel. I experiment with different shapes and positions for the engines, wondering how they'd propel the ships.

 

Sometimes I'll find myself looking at my work and thinking, 'Did I make that?'. It can feel as if I've made it before, a long time ago. Like I'm reading a memory or experiencing deja-vu.

 

I have a fascination with Sci-Fi programmes from the seventies and eighties. Things like Blake’s 7, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica. It makes me feel happy to design ships in the same way as they would have done.