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He's so moody. Martin was the single most important influence on my work and my attitude to being an artist. He introduced me to the art world in London and through him, either directly or indirectly, I met loads of interesting and important people. We first met at Wimbledon. He had recently graduated from the RCA, was doing a bit of teaching in St. Albans on Foundation and Peter Startup got him in to run a project Martin had devised. The first meeting to discuss the project someone came in twenty minutes late and Martin asked me to recap what had been said. I started talking and after a few minutes Martin said, 'I never said that'. I replied, 'I'm telling him what I understood, if you want me to tell him word for word what was said, I can do that' and I preceded to do just that. At that time, before booze addled my brain, I could remember anything I'd read and any conversation, verbatim. |
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He had the room blacked out, with a single light bulb hanging down. The model just sat around. That's me in the background. Martin lived around the corner from me in West Kensington so on his teaching days he gave me a lift in and home. We started going for a drink after classes and then he started taking me to exhibition openings. I was side-kick and acolyte, which I liked. I was the eldest of five so he became the older brother I never had. |