Sandringham School
Workshop
Sandringham school, St Albans
2017
Nick visited the school to give career advice to sixth form art students.
As he has begun to use fragments of data in his work recently, his new series of paintings using crushed CD data was a topic of discussion for the students. Nick also gave advice about how to promote yourself as an artist and gain visibility for your artwork on your artist website.
Suitable for teaching 14-16s. Artist Nick Gentry introduces his artwork and how using various recycled items is a fundamental part of it.
How to become an artist
How can I develop my self expression?
Find your unique identity. Don’t follow or repeat what others have already done.
Have a philosophy about life. Dream about what is happening around you. Share these ideas with friends by talking and going to events.
Allow your opinions to change and be shaped others and new experiences.
Question everything. The world is deeply mysterious - not black and white.
How can I be more creative and find inspiration?
Fuse things that wouldn’t normally have an association for unexpected results.
Look far and wide from just art for inspiration. Sometimes the further the better.
Create an ongoing ‘complicate then simplify’ process to refine your ideas and techniques.
Technology gives us new possibilities and challenges. How does your work look on different platforms.
Create something iconic. Look out for things that are iconic.
How can I get a gallery to sell my art?
Don’t approach them. Become more visible and they will find you.
Understand gallery commissions. Not all galleries are equal.
Don’t neglect your business side. Spend time and learn that part.
Explore where and how your art can exist. Charities, Festivals, Limited edition products, Brand collaborations.
How can I build momentum with my art?
Get art moving out of the gallery. Give your art away.
Work at a pace that allows to you feel. Judgement as a feeling, not thought.
Find your optimal time of day to work.
Work while you are inspired. Don’t delay if you feel the creative energy - it fluctuates. Rest when you need to.
Luck. It’s all around you, but you have work to to be in the right place at the right time.
Plan ahead. Write down work (and life) goals for a timescale (1 / 2 / 5 years).
Don’t rush or panic. With devotion things will happen at the right time.
How can I promote my art?
Be active in promoting your work online.
Study what makes something shareable.
Art needs to grab people in 2 seconds now, but also be deep enough to last a lifetime.
How can I make money from art?
You don’t have to be a stereotypical ‘struggling artist’. Understand how money works and plan so that you feel secure to work.
Work on a freelance basis so that you can manage your time.
What are art residencies?
Travel for inspiration and new perspectives.
Find a place where you are comfortable working.
Travel is good for ideas. Home base is good for work.
Artist Nick Gentry talks about what inspires his artwork and explains how his inspiration can often come from very mundane and everyday things.
Art students FAQ
How long does it take to compose the larger montages?
Each piece varies greatly in the amount of time it takes to produce. It doesn’t really matter how long it takes, as long as the artist is working at their own natural pace. It's a gradual, iterative process. Almost like a continual cycle of invention and refinement. What people see if the result of years of notes, scribbles, studies and experiments behind the scenes - most of which only makes sense to me at that stage. I like to collect materials and explore the physical and conceptual properties of those elements. For me, the choice of media is central to the work, not only in its final presentation but also in its history and meaning.
Describe how you work from the point you are inspired to when you finish a piece?
The starting point for my art is not with me, but with other people from all over the world. They are usually people that I have never even met, but they have seen some of my work and feel they would like to contribute something to the project. It's very much an open project and I encourage that way of collaborating. It is then up to me to make some sense of the various artefacts that find their way to me. I do this by combining these elements into one form, but really intervening as little as possible. If I paint, then it is in the most reductive way possible so that the media can be the main focus of the work.
Can you elaborate more on why floppy disks is such a major influence and is associated in your work?
I’m interested in objects that often get overlooked. Floppy disks are at first thought mundane in appearance, but I’m interested in what is inside. It occurred to me that time changes everything, so I wanted to build something into my work that shows the effect of time.
BBC Education Series - Making Art Work
BBC Two interviewed Nick Gentry in a series of educational videos and career advice for art students entitled ‘Making Art Work’
Artist Nick Gentry demonstrates how he uses old materials that people have sent to him in his artwork.
What inspired you and which artist(s) have you found inspirational?
Leonardo Da Vinci was primarily an artist, but he was also an inventor and a scientist. I find his life and unique approach incredibly inspiring. Finding different ways to work and ignoring the man-made boundaries is a great way to nurture creativity. Really it’s about exploring and finding links between many seemingly unconnected fields to create something new. I take inspiration from a wide range of places. I regularly visit art galleries and cinemas. It's also a lot about how memories fade and change over time. The way we experience the world is in the moment, but it's also reflective and we use the past to make sense of the present. Some of my other favourite artists are Francis Bacon, Pablo Picasso, Wim Delvoye and Lucian Freud.
What you are trying to communicate through your work?
I don’t prescribe any set way to experience my work. It’s left entirely open so that the viewer can draw their own interpretations.
Are there other technology based media you would try using in your work?
I’m always exploring and thinking of other materials to use. I’m really interested in technology and used materials, but I’m not confined to those categories only.
How do you choose the subject of your portraits?
I regard the true subject of my art to be in the materials, rather than the actual face depicted. It's more authentic to me to deal with actual history and real artefacts rather than a mere representation of a face. This is a reversal of they way we traditionally regard portraiture. The faces are merely access points, or ways to view the materials. In a sense they have a collected, combined identity from many sources which leaves the actual face as a mystery I suppose. I do sometimes take commissions and create a realistic representation of a specific person. For this I would need artefacts that relate to that particular person. For example I created portrait of Sir Ian McKellen using disks with labels that linked to past events in his life, which in a sense makes it a biographical study.
Describe your art in one word.
Adaptive
Where did you study as a student and at what age did you realise art was a career path?
I studied at Central St Martins. I didn’t have a realisation as such. Art was always the way I expressed myself. I was lucky enough to have the support of my parents and some teachers from a very early age.
Do you think becoming a world renowned artist is a hard thing to accomplish if so can you share some problems you may have faced throughout the years to get where you are now?
I suppose that becoming ‘renowned’ is something that may be happening along the way. My main focus is to create new work. After that, it is a lot to do with patience and loving the job enough to spend many hours trying to perfect it. It’s easier than ever for an artist to at least show representations of their work online. In a sense that gets the ball rolling.
Throughout the years you have probably produced hundreds of pieces of artwork but what piece is personally your favourite?
I believe I am progressing with my work so really the best sign of that is to have a good feeling about the recent works. A few of the pieces that use film negatives are my favourites.
Nick Gentry takes on the challenge of using some of the old floppy disks that he's been sent to create a portrait.
As your floppy disks are recycled I myself like to use recycled materials do you have any tips on interesting materials that create interesting art pieces other than floppy disks?
Sometimes the most mundane objects can actually be full of life. It’s all about context and how close you are to your chosen material. You have to bond very closely to these objects and develop some kind of feelings for them. It could literally be anything, as long as it meets those requirements.
The images created on your floppy disks seem to be a long process would you mind talking me through that process?
The first thing I do is construct the canvas by sticking the disks down onto a wood base. This is a very selective process as each disk needs to be placed in the right area according to tone etc. After that I paint all the edges, creating a silhouette figure. The final part is to paint the details of the features, but only where necessary, which allows the labels to show through.
What advice would you give to me to make a successful name for myself in the art world?
By all means be aware that you need a public image and there are plenty of good reasons to share your work, but don’t allow yourself to be distracted by trying too hard make a name for yourself. If you place too much emphasis on that it might take away some of your focus and energy from your practice (especially if it doesn’t happen quickly). It’s about patience and balance. Often artists overlook the need for sharing their work too, but the internet is of course allowing a new platform for that.