Leigh Beard - artist Describe your works
I am a writer, artist, director, photographer, editor, designer, in a sense.. yeah - that’s just list of jobs as opposed to what my job is though. I’d say I’m a creative… producing literature, video and photography… and paintings as well… Describe yourself in three words…
Novel, Smart - I think I’d have to say that - Smart has two meanings… well dressed and … think-full. Or interesting, I think. No. Either wild, or crazy - because these symbolise what most people think of me. Life Story…
I am really academic, I studied straight from school in addition to working full time, I left home at seventeen moved to Nottingham. I’ve lived in Paris, Guilford and Worthing. I quit drinking at twenty five and got my MA at twenty eight, made a tonne of short films and made a lot of theatre credits too, I’ve been everyone from Bob Dillon to Albert Einstein. I’ve gone crazy and been tortured, loved and lost. I love the theatre, film, photography, writing and painting - everything creative and anything expressive. I used to work in coffee bars and I’ve always been wild. More recently I’ve been focusing on my writing and photography but hope to get a feature into production soon. Biggest love of your job?
Seeing people smile Absolute dream project?
A feature length art film. I actually have a great idea for one I want to do…. I want it to be the entirety of human history and the world… like the meaning of life. I’ve already written the second scene, I just can’t make it, because I need a crane and a desert… Quality you admire most in an individual?
I’ve got three really solid answers and I can’t choose between the three. Honesty, maybe - I think an honest person is a very important thing. But that’s like saying I like a good person as opposed to a bad person - which should go without saying. If a person isn’t honest, I don’t really want to know them. The other is conversation. If a person can speak… But then sex. I think sex is a very admirable quality in a person. Maybe I should stick with conversation Biggest inspiration in the creative industry?
Oh god! That’s just like my head spinning there! That’s a big thing. If I’m specifying one person that’s like specifying whether I prefer writing or painting. But inspiration as a form… art gallerys… because they show a good range of mixed media. The Tate… but I have a thing about potatoes and Tate is so close to Potatoes its confusing. It’s a really difficult question. Salvador Dali. he wrote theatre almost impossible to create… the nearest I’ve come is to see a film of that descriptive. But I don’t know if I can say Salvador Dali - I like the melting clocks and everything but its all a bit like he melted his brain with acid, and I’m very anti-drugs… I would say mass media, just because it has two avenues, which is usually something people hate, but that’s where I see the majority of things that actually inspire me and motivate me. The idea of having my work shown to people - the vehicle for showing my work to people - that’s another avenue. One to watch in the creative industry?
University and college degree shows - the newest, fresh, most inspirational work. Its always cutting edge - its always a progression - the new branches on the tree… What could the world happily do without?
More than one of the same produce simply in a different brand, because that just confuses me. I spent ten minutes looking at soaps the other day - a shelf full of soaps - the same scent but a different bottle. I liked the option of being able to decorate my bathroom with a bottle but… The world could happily do without choices of the same thing. What could you not live without?
I thought about this the other day, I thought could I live with my imac? No! I could, but I wouldn’t be happy. But if I didn't have my imac I could write. Nobody is ever going to stop me from creating Biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
I tried to abseil down my apartment block the other day and I gave up half way… so that’s the biggest risk I didn’t take. But the biggest risk I have taken? For my art? I’ve run through a wall of fire, climbed high trees, I went four days without sleep to play a man in a mental hospital - a guy with a three second memory. Another time I sat in a chair and filmed myself drinking a shot of whisky every fifteen minutes until I passed out to show the effects of drinking… that was a different piece!!! Lesson in life?
Remove all vices. Life gets better. Its astonishingly true. Being horny is now my only vice, and I don’t think that’s a vice at all. Available for…
Multimedia installation - kind of my main thing… If you could buy any creative work in the World, what would it be?
I would want something by a French projection group, they project onto buildings… they’re my one to watch actually… I would want one of their videos permanently projecting onto my house… removing all limitations… |