About

I make art because I get ideas that I can't seem to get rid of.

They can come from anywhere - music, words, people, objects, popular culture, history, something I've read or simply something that makes me think about life.

Most ideas disappear. The ones that don't are usually the ones I end up making.

I have no real interest in creating something simply because it looks nice on a wall. There normally has to be an idea behind it, even if that idea isn't immediately obvious to anyone else.

HOW I WORK

I work primarily with stencils, spray paint and reclaimed materials.

I like the physical side of making art. Cutting stencils, building backgrounds, spraying layers, making mistakes, covering things up and then bringing parts of them back again.

I'm drawn to things that already have some history to them, which is why reclaimed and found materials often find their way into my work. I don't particularly want everything to look perfect. Scratches, overspray, uneven surfaces and imperfections are often what make a piece interesting.

A lot of the detail isn't obvious from across a room. I like making work that changes when you get closer to it and start noticing what's underneath.

THE IDEAS

Although the work can look quite different from piece to piece, the same subjects tend to keep appearing.

Ambition. Mortality. Work. War. Peace. Music. People I admire. Popular culture. Words and phrases. The absurdity of some of the things we place importance on.

And, probably more than anything else, time.

The fact that we don't have very much of it has always interested me.

Memento mori - remember you must die - sounds incredibly bleak, but I've always seen it as the opposite. It's a reminder to actually do something with the time you've got.

That idea runs through a lot of my work, whether it's obvious or not.

MAKING IT REAL

I'm less interested in making images than I am in giving ideas a physical form.

There's something satisfying about taking something that has existed only in my head and eventually being able to stand back and look at it.

That's usually the point at which the idea finally leaves me alone.

Then another one takes its place.

I make every original piece myself, by hand, in my studio in Stockport, England.

This website brings together the work I've made so far, alongside prints, editions and other things that have grown out of it.

I hope you find something that makes you stop for a moment, look a little closer, or think about something differently.

Adam Adshead