I have always been fascinated by those who forge a new path for themselves outside of the cultural norms - the countercultures.
In my latest series Ode to Poetry I draw on the work of David M James and portray some of the Northern figures involved in the British poetry revival of the 1960's & 1970's - a modernist experimental poetry movement centred around London and my birthplace of NE England. Although this scene was going on while I was growing up in the region, I had no knowledge of it, and dismissed the venues as being boring places for old people. Little did I know of the passionate people forging new paths inside.