I lived Istanbul for ten years from 2004, where I worked as a cultural studies and English teacher, and as a musician, releasing three albums and playing many shows and festivals. I founded and ran an arts and music venue in Sussex during 2016, following which I found myself caught up in the ‘culture wars’, which also informed my painting and writing. I have been a person who stammers since the age of 5, so working through that to a point of relative fluency, has also informed my work as a communicative artists in all mediums.
Apart from my two degree dissertations, I have published two books on modern art theory/history, and run a music and arts venue on the Sussex coast. I was Editor of False Allegations Watch, a division of Dr Michael Naughton's (University of Bristol) Empowering the Innocent project. I am a co-curator of ETI’s Innocence Art project.
I have trained and worked as a Samaritans listener, have two Peer Mentoring certificates and an NCFE Certificate in Mental Health Awareness. I gave a TED talk titled Stammering and Creativity in Istanbul in 2013, and am a volunteer/contributor to STAMMA (previously British Stammering Association) and Academics For Academic Freedom. My specialisms are in twentieth century art history, stammering and culture and contemporary justice reform.
I am a continuing arts practitioner; publishing poetry, having a Saatchi Gallery online page, and having recorded seven albums. I have variously worked as contributor, promoter or interviewer with the T.S. Eliot Foundation, Sky Arts, BBC Radio Wales, Time Out Istanbul, New Thinking, Louder Than War, Ed Harcourt, Kristin Hersh, Mark Morriss, Eat Static, David Macadam Freud, Ali Lapper, John Robb and Fiona Larkin.
Preferred materials: Watercolour, acrylic, ink, coffee, pencil, canvas.
Sources of inspiration may be portraits of figures in counter-culture rendered in neo-impressionistic or cubist style, and large bold colour abstracts. My work is most successful when I effectively combine these styles. Techniques of execution vary, generally starting with watercolour washes or pencil sketches, with music on, letting hand run free, forcing myself not to linger too long on anything. The older I get the longer I force myself to wait between ‘stages’ of work, whether that be wring then editing, or sketching, painting and rearranging. Themes range from miscarriages of justice, ‘Innocence Art’, Istanbul vistas to old photographs reinterpreted, always with a desire to introduce the human hand to whatever has been technologically captured. Ideal viewers or audience of my work are those who appreciate the beguiling, and work that challenges perceived reality, or how we may feel about a certain person or place.
Specific works:
Most recent: Peter Hitchens (cubist/neo-impressionist portrait)Most critically acclaimed/well-known: Andy Malkinson - Seventeen Years (2023)First/other: Through Your Worldly Fight (poem published in the Carmarthen Journal, 1995).
“State of the Arts” position statement:
Art is at its best when it has nothing to do with the progressive agenda, being as it is an incisive reflection of humanity, but it has increasingly been co-opted by charity or humanistic projects - and the more of that is incentivised, the more ‘woke’ it appears. The marginalisation of actual cutting-edge art goes along with this, as anything counter-narrative or truly ‘disruptive’ is quickly labelled ‘conspiracy theory’ or ‘far right’, these being the two favourite slurs of the progressive cultural media establishment.
Can art still really be 'anything goes'? In the postmodern melee the older have seen it all before, but the young care little about that, being more interested in the moral message behind the piece or the maker. Nick Cave has called this approach to artistic expression ‘suffocating’, and been put in the ‘dinosaur’ bracket by some because of it.
Many artists and comedians privately agree with ‘post-wokeism’, or going beyond the current cultural impasse, but are afraid of their management and deals going awry if they are seen to go off-message. There is no rebellion or free-thought in this, which since art separated itself from the Church with the Renaissance, has been its raison-d’etre.
I have guested on many podcasts promoting my book A Delicate Balance of Reason - Adventures In The Culture Wars, album Caucasian Nights, and posting new artworks on my X account: https://x.com/seanbwparker
I had a portrait in the No Comment exhibition at the Southbank from 1st November to 15th December 2024.
Amazon author page, featuring my 9 books since 2014: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B06XZ76F5Y
Spotify page, with most of my published music since 2005: https://open.spotify.com/artist/54AfbvLmprsXNalXs2xUJi
Education - 1997-2003: Masters and BA Hons degrees in Fine Art - painting, video art and cultural theory; plus Foundation Art and Design diploma at University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, Surrey (including 3 exhibitions). Influential instructor: Paul Butler (painting), Neil Mulholland (theory)
The Art Club, Phoenix Centre, Brighton – 2022-2024.
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I am a writer, artist and musician, with a Master's degree in Fine Art awarded by the University for the Creative Arts, Surrey, in 2003. I’ve had work published in many publications and websites since then, and shown at exhibitions, including at Brighton Phoenix Centre.
I lived Istanbul for ten years from 2004, where I worked as a cultural studies and English teacher, and as a musician, releasing three albums and playing many shows and festivals. I founded and ran an arts and music venue in Sussex during 2016, following which I found myself caught up in the ‘culture wars’, which also informed my painting and writing. I have been a person who stammers since the age of 5, so working through that to a point of relative fluency, has also informed my work as a communicative artists in all mediums.
Apart from my two degree dissertations, I have published two books on modern art theory/history, and run a music and arts venue on the Sussex coast. I was Editor of False Allegations Watch, a division of Dr Michael Naughton's (University of Bristol) Empowering the Innocent project. I am a co-curator of ETI’s Innocence Art project.
I have trained and worked as a Samaritans listener, have two Peer Mentoring certificates and an NCFE Certificate in Mental Health Awareness. I gave a TED talk titled Stammering and Creativity in Istanbul in 2013, and am a volunteer/contributor to STAMMA (previously British Stammering Association) and Academics For Academic Freedom. My specialisms are in twentieth century art history, stammering and culture and contemporary justice reform.
I am a continuing arts practitioner; publishing poetry, having a Saatchi Gallery online page, and having recorded seven albums. I have variously worked as contributor, promoter or interviewer with the T.S. Eliot Foundation, Sky Arts, BBC Radio Wales, Time Out Istanbul, New Thinking, Louder Than War, Ed Harcourt, Kristin Hersh, Mark Morriss, Eat Static, David Macadam Freud, Ali Lapper, John Robb and Fiona Larkin.
Preferred materials: Watercolour, acrylic, ink, coffee, pencil, canvas.
Sources of inspiration may be portraits of figures in counter-culture rendered in neo-impressionistic or cubist style, and large bold colour abstracts. My work is most successful when I effectively combine these styles. Techniques of execution vary, generally starting with watercolour washes or pencil sketches, with music on, letting hand run free, forcing myself not to linger too long on anything. The older I get the longer I force myself to wait between ‘stages’ of work, whether that be wring then editing, or sketching, painting and rearranging. Themes range from miscarriages of justice, ‘Innocence Art’, Istanbul vistas to old photographs reinterpreted, always with a desire to introduce the human hand to whatever has been technologically captured. Ideal viewers or audience of my work are those who appreciate the beguiling, and work that challenges perceived reality, or how we may feel about a certain person or place.
Specific works:
Most recent: Peter Hitchens (cubist/neo-impressionist portrait)Most critically acclaimed/well-known: Andy Malkinson - Seventeen Years (2023)First/other: Through Your Worldly Fight (poem published in the Carmarthen Journal, 1995).
“State of the Arts” position statement:
Art is at its best when it has nothing to do with the progressive agenda, being as it is an incisive reflection of humanity, but it has increasingly been co-opted by charity or humanistic projects - and the more of that is incentivised, the more ‘woke’ it appears. The marginalisation of actual cutting-edge art goes along with this, as anything counter-narrative or truly ‘disruptive’ is quickly labelled ‘conspiracy theory’ or ‘far right’, these being the two favourite slurs of the progressive cultural media establishment.
Can art still really be 'anything goes'? In the postmodern melee the older have seen it all before, but the young care little about that, being more interested in the moral message behind the piece or the maker. Nick Cave has called this approach to artistic expression ‘suffocating’, and been put in the ‘dinosaur’ bracket by some because of it.
Many artists and comedians privately agree with ‘post-wokeism’, or going beyond the current cultural impasse, but are afraid of their management and deals going awry if they are seen to go off-message. There is no rebellion or free-thought in this, which since art separated itself from the Church with the Renaissance, has been its raison-d’etre.
I have guested on many podcasts promoting my book A Delicate Balance of Reason - Adventures In The Culture Wars, album Caucasian Nights, and posting new artworks on my X account: https://x.com/seanbwparker
I had a portrait in the No Comment exhibition at the Southbank from 1st November to 15th December 2024.
Amazon author page, featuring my 9 books since 2014: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B06XZ76F5Y
Spotify page, with most of my published music since 2005: https://open.spotify.com/artist/54AfbvLmprsXNalXs2xUJi
Education - 1997-2003: Masters and BA Hons degrees in Fine Art - painting, video art and cultural theory; plus Foundation Art and Design diploma at University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, Surrey (including 3 exhibitions). Influential instructor: Paul Butler (painting), Neil Mulholland (theory)
The Art Club, Phoenix Centre, Brighton – 2022-2024.
sections