Me, spinning fire (poi).

Born in Manchester in 1965, I was always good at art by alas I listened to parental advice that “it’s okay as a hobby but not as a job” and left school to work in a bank… which they applauded and I hated and only managed to stick out for a few years before moving into a career in IT.

That lasted until 1998 when I was diagnosed with CFS which makes me unemployable in the normal sense as employers want to know silly things like “will you be in work tomorrow morning?”, to which I have to answer “as me in the morning”.

Since then I’ve been self-employed on a number of occasions but my business ideas have either failed or grown to the point that they became more than I could handle, while not earning enough that I could employ other other people (the flip side of “the employment thing” is that employees want paying even on the quiet days).

Beardy Baldie.

I’m currently living in Dundee (Angus is my eigth county, nevermind moves within counties) having moved here in April 2023 with the intention of applying to DJCAD to do a degree in Fine Art. I had intended to apply at the end of 2023 to start in September 2024 but life got in the way and I’m now aiming to apply a the end of 2024 to start in September 2025. In the meantime I’m trying to brush up (pun intended) on my 2D skills given that most of what I’ve done over the last 40 years has been more to do with making things, mostly model making and jewellery, rather than painting and drawing.

Other Interests

My interests are many and varied. As you can see from the first picture on this page I occasionally play with fire (poi). I’ve also recently purchased a paraglider with the intention of learning to fly. Obviously those two interests need to be kept as far away from each other as possible.

AI, animatronics, and robotics are other areas of interest, and not just the technical aspects of it, but also the moral and psychological apects (such as the “Uncanny Valley”). In the photo to the right Klara (named after Klara in “Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro), is looking on eBay for a costume so she can dress as M3GAN from the movie of the same name. The plan is to take her to comic conventions (did I mention that I like to attend comic cons dressed as Bane from Batman:TDKN?) to see if we can mislead people into thinking she’s a human pretending to be a machine rather than a machine that looks almost human.

I dabble with keyboards, drums, and saxophone, although I’m better at singing than I am at playing any of those. I haven’t had time to pursue it since moving to Dundee but as things settle I intend to check the local area for poetry slams and stand up comedy.

Although I don’t watch TV (I haven’t had a license since 2004) I have a large collection of movies and TV shows on DVDs. I know disks are becoming “old school” but I have films on disk that you won’t find on the streaming services. I like to watch what I fancy, when I fancy.