We (SH) interviewed UK artist Carl Cahsman (CC) for his upcoming project room exhibition “An Edited Version of Life” at Thinkspace Gallery. Unfortunately, Cahsman will not be in attendance at the opening this Saturday, August 15. Yet, make yourself a cup of tea and plate a few biscuts while you read over our quick chat with the artists on the rise.
SH: What is the inspiration behind “An Edited Version of Life”
CC: I see my work as a biography, documenting moments in my life. My previous show ‘good things comes to those that paint’ marked the point of falling in love with ‘the one’ sadly that lasted about as long as the show.. which is reflected in some of the titles in this body of work.
SH: Do you ever ‘unplug’ (outside of going to bed) and step away from the internet and cell phone etc.
CC: I’m pretty bad at that, I was pretty lost for a while in terms of where my life was going.. I feel like I have to make up for lost time so stepping away from painting is something I struggle with. I’m off to Australia in September for 6 weeks to see my oldest and best mate, that will probably be my first real break in 5 years.
SH: There seems to be a fine line between a graphic designer and an artist, do you think there is a difference between the two?
CC: I’m not sure there really is much difference, especially now days which you see people making a great career from prints with things like movie related artwork.
SH: What is your creative process? What do you do when you feel stuck or uninspired?
CC: I only work from a sketch book, im not really into designing on a computer.. my thoughts are that if I cant realise a concept with just my brain and a pencil then its not for me. Im probably holding myself back to a certain extent, but in doing so I’mm improving my draughtsmanship which is obviously a skill in its ownright. If I get a block, I tend to consume gin with one of my mates that live close by… 1 or 9 gins later the ideas usually start to flow
SH: If money were no object, what would be your dream project?
CC: I really want to get into installations, the closest I get to that atm is helping out at festivals such as Glastonbury. Luckily someone else has a budget for that, I just have to help spend it
SH: When did you decided you were going to make “artist” your full-time occupation?
CC: Id never considered that being an Artist full time was an option, but after helping out at the first moniker event in 2010 I decided to give it a go. Ive never really had the normal 9-5 mindset so im quite lucky it kinda fell in my lap. Sven Davis gave me my first break in terms of a career in Art potentially being an option.
SH: What is the best advice you’ve ever received? What advice would you give an artist who looks up you?
CC: Ive never received advice as such, but coming at this as a collector.. having my Art heroes such as josh keyes and mark dean veca being genuinely interested in what I do was mind blowing. My first ‘proper’ show was over in Portland Oregon, where I met them both. I was running around collecting autographs, while my work was hanging next to some of the biggest names in the scene.. the whole experience was pretty surreal. The only advice I can offer is to keep making Art and oushing yourself, with social media opening up the world.. you never know who s watching or where that break will come from.
SH: What were you listening to while creating this latest body of work?
CC: I listen to a lot of boiler room sets and the joe rogan podcasts, they are both quite long which helps me switch off.. a normal bands album tends to be around a hour which makes me more conscious of how long ive been working.
SH: Do you have a favorite brush or brand of paint you use?
CC: I mainly use fluro based system 3 acrylics, I keep trying to convert to liquitex but keep switching back to the more basic paint
Please visit the Thinkspace Gallery website for more details on Carl Cashman’s “An Edited Version of Life”
