BRADFORD artist Steven Spencer has an exhibition in the city starting this month. We asked him about his work and life. Q: When did you become interested in art? A: The need to express myself creatively is something that has been with me from an early age.
I still have a scraperboard image of a pirate ship I did as a six-year-old at Green Lane School. I really should have listened to Mr Khan, my art teacher at Rhodesway School, when he wanted to put me in for O-Level art. In the mid 1970’s no one said you could actually have a career in art - it was seen as a hobby, so I took woodwork instead.
Without funding I couldn't get into art college, but managed to get a number of commissions for montage posters used by a video rental outlet, plus interior designs for the Bali Hai nightclub and Bradford Bier Keller at Fountains Hall. Shooting butts, Burley Moor Field Maple in winter I was almost 24 when I finally managed to get on to Bradford School of Art’s Art and Design Foundation Course - my second attempt. While there I met and became friends with my tutors, sculptor Ian Taylor and painter Doug Binder.
Through Ian I got to meet and work with the watercolourist Ian Gardner and landscape sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. They were also members of The New Arcadians, a group of writers and artists headed by Ian Hamilton Finlay who I attended several events with. My journey took me to Wolverhampton School of Art and Design where I gained my degree in fine art, working under the guidance .