This has to be one of my favourites. And in my mind, it's called
'Buttresses of Academia'. With my ongoing financial struggles, I got a creative fellowship at Queen Mary. And it was a terrifically positive experience, I mean, to get regular money for three years, alongside my other work. But also, I just found it so intellectually stimulating. I knew at the beginning, that I wanted to learn a lot of words and ideas. But funnily enough, at the end of the three years, I knew I'd learned a lot, and I wanted to learn more. But I also realised that as an artist and I had taken for granted all that I could do, that you learn over years and years. You become very capable, making things happen, at making drawings, at making images and you can often leave art school and feel, "I know nothing", that's what I felt. And by this time, I knew, I felt very good about my skill as an artist and putting together big projects, but I got very fond of the academics. But some of them couldn't change a light bulb to put it mildly. But they were just so wonderfully supportive and stimulating and it was like my cranky brain, my head, being this cathedral of ideas, and there's me as the pulpit and it took me a long time doing that drawing. I think I worked on it overnight one night, and these people can around in the morning and they went "Oh!", as it was propped up on the microwave. I went round at the end that morning. I put lots of tiny little highlights in, white dots and blue, and that and I've always just been so grateful I got the chance to make that. It's what it's like when you've got a lot going on your mind and you feel very supported by people around you.