Do stuff you enjoy. You never know where it might lead.
How my drawing on the left led to the exhibition on the right.
Ok, so I didn’t actually draw the one on the right, I just hung it in a gallery. (Sorry, you’ll need to read on to find out the whole story.)
Many years ago, the master of ‘doing stuff to see where it leads’, Mark Denton, told me ‘It’s just one of me silly projects. I don’t really know why I do these things, but you never know where it leads” (One of his silliest projects has recently been exhibited in the Royal Academy.)
The point Mark was making was that it can be fun and rewarding to do things away from your ‘proper job’. Not as a ‘side hustle’ but purely as something that brings you pleasure.
So back in 2018 I started doing sketches of the area where I live and love, Clerkenwell. Then I wondered what to do with them, so I did a bit of research about Clerkenwell’s history, collected some local stories and turned it all into a little book. Then sold them in a few local bookshops and gift shops. All 1,500 copies have now sold out. Mainly from just two shops.
One copy was bought by a property developer who’d just restored a building in Hatton Garden on the edge of Clerkenwell. He asked if I’d do a bespoke version for the building launch. I agreed and asked if he’d like to sponsor a local photo competition I was running. (Another side project.) He agreed and said I could use the gallery space in the building for an exhibition and prize-giving night for the photography competition.
When the building opened Faber & Faber, the famous publisher, became a tenant and noticed one of my photo exhibitions. Marketing Manager, Sophie Clarke then asked if I could help her create a similar exhibition for the launch of a graphic novel version of the Lord of the Flies, beautifully illustrated by Aimée de Jongh. Last week, at a special viewing, I met Aimée, also Judith Golding (William’s daughter), the CEO of Faber and lots of other lovely people. (If you want to see the exhibition you’d better hurry, the last day is this Wednesday 25th September.)
Oh, and the little book helped me change career from advertising to lecturing.
In my interview I was asked if I’d ever carried out any research projects. Universities like that sort of stuff. I confessed, “Er…no”. But then “Ah, sort-of, does this little book count?” They said that was close enough. And now I have a new job and a new lease of life at the University of Westminster.
So that’s why I’d encourage you, whatever age or stage of your career (I was in my late 50s when I ‘did my little drawings’), to just do stuff you enjoy. It might not make you rich or famous. But it might make you happy.
And you never know where it could lead.
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PRETTY PICTURES AND EXTRA NOTES if you’re not bored yet:
“Milk, milk, lemonade, round the corner; chocolate’s made” Beautifull art-directed peurility.
My original little book, and the bespoke version for The Bindery, which included facts about their building and its surrounding area.
The Clerkenwell Community Photography Competition Awards Night 2024
Artist Aimée de Jongh at The Bindery event. Huge boards of final coloured artwork, and the original A4 line drawings that were scanned before colouring in Photoshop. Author's daughter, Judy Golding.
The title slide from the first workshop / seminar / lecture (I'm still not sure what they're called) I gave in my new job as a lecturer.
Mark Denton would say he’s never actually had a ‘proper job’. I can highly recommend his book Unleash the Power of Peurility. And here’s his home of silliness, Coy! Communications.
Mark’s Royal Academy exhibit ‘Chocolate Factory’ is based on an extremely puerile playground song from the 1970s in which (mainly) boys would point to various parts of the body: “Milk, milk, lemonade, round the corner; chocolate’s made”. Purile, and wonderfully art-directed.
For my photo competition, I needed help with printing the publicity flyers and shots for the exhibitions. Our Head of Production, pointed me to a Clerkenwell-based company called Leap. Through their generous support of the photo competition I’ve met with them dozens of times, and I’d now consider them mates.
When Leap printed the ‘Bindery’ version of my book, they asked if I could lead a walk around the area I had a better idea: “How about a fact-based pub-crawl quiz type thing?”. The resulting evening was quite awesome, a lot of fun and marvellously messy. I’ve since done the quiz-walk for local companies and a hilarious 60th birthday party. Again, you never know where things will lead. Sometimes to a local pub. Marvellous.