Tell me about yourself. Have you always had a passion for art? When did you decide to become an artist?

If I look back, I can definitely see the seed planted at a young age. I think we as a species, all have this creative impulse. This desire to create, to make things. It’s only a matter of whether it is nurtured.

When I was young, I would often spend my summer holidays at my uncle’s place. It was on a remote hill in Tuscany with no internet or phone signal. And to me, it was a magical place, where fireflies would guide you home at night. The landscape was beautiful, the walls were there to be drawn on, there was art everywhere. And my family would paint, make sculptures, and puppets. The house was full off marionettes, as they made a living doing puppet shows on the streets of Florence and the neighbouring villages. I think it was there at a young age where I was inspired. I knew I loved to draw and I wanted to be an artist.

I also had some great teachers at school who encouraged me. But things weren’t necessarily a straight line. Art college was a shock. I went to a very conceptual art uni; it was a very different type of art too what I was interested in. I found it a stifling environment. But I've more or less recovered since then.

What led you to oil painting? What do you like about using this medium?

I think I had a natural inclination. Painting is much more than just an idea put into paint. It is concerned with the visual. It is thinking with the hands; experimentation with texture, colour, form, composition. It is collecting images, it is seeing, looking.

What's more, painting is pleasurable. There is delight in learning, in honing your craft and a thrill you get from abandoning yourself in exercising your artistic ability. Never-mind who sees it, or its wider impact. Those things are just an added bonus.

A lot of your works shows social issues. What inspired you to create these pieces? How does art help raise awareness of these issues?

After Picasso painted one of his most famous paintings ‘Guernica’, which depicts the bombing of a town with the same name by the fascists in the Spanish civil war, he was asked a similar question.

His response was this:

“What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who only has eyes, if he is a painter, or ears if he is a musician, or a lyre in every chamber of his heart if he is a poet, or even, if he is a boxer, just his muscles? Far from it: at the same time, he is also a political being, constantly aware of the heart breaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. How could it be possible to feel no interest in other people, and with a cool indifference to detach yourself from the very life which they bring to you so abundantly? No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.”

Picasso explained it well.

I paint social issues because I’m more than just an eye. Because I’m not indifferent. Because I am a political being. Constantly aware of the heart breaking, passionate and delightful things of humanity.

Often, the ‘raising of awareness’ is outside of the work itself. A work of art can sit in obscurity or it can be taken up. It has a life of its own after the artist is done with it. And this is somewhat out of the artist’s control.

Even if the work remains in obscurity and is only for the artist, or a handful of people, it is a record. It tells the truth; it is a testimony and hopefully a beautiful testimony at that.

Some of my political artworks have been combined with a political campaign.

The ‘Safety, Not Sacrifice’ Series, which was made at the height of the pandemic and the first Lockdown, was accompanied by a social media campaign calling for hazard pay, for Adequate PPE amongst other demands.

And the Social Murder: Grenfell in Three Parts painting. Is beginning a tour of areas affected by the cladding crisis. The exhibition is accompanied with public talks, film screenings and Q&As.

Tell me more about the Social Murder Painting, what was your creative process? How did the work develop?

The Grenfell fire had a big effect on me. At the time, I lived in my mum’s council flat in the same borough as Grenfell and shared the same landlord, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) who crimes have been exposed during the inquiry.

I was politically active in the area. When the fire happened, even though I was a few steps removed, I shared in the collective shock and trauma of many people I knew.

Since the fire, I've been following the inquiry closely and reporting on the aftermath for the Socialist Appeal newspaper. I've known I wanted to make a work of art telling the story of Grenfell for a long time. But I needed the distance to begin to approach the subject matter.

After five years I felt compelled to paint it. Because I'm furious. It’s a crime that should never have happened. I’m furious that as we come up to the six-year anniversary the cladding remains up. Only 7% of dangerous homes have been made safe. Thousands continue to remain at risk of cladding fire and are financially ruined as they are stuck in dangerous homes, they are unable to sell. I'm furious because after all this time, no one has been arrested, not only that, but the profits and bonuses for the companies involved continue to flow.

They knew, damn it, they knew this cladding was likely to result in a fire that would kill up to ‘60-70 people’ and yet they put profits before human lives.

I knew the subject well. I had the general idea of how I wanted the painting to work. I wanted it to be a triptych. Like the medieval altarpieces which could open and close.

This was important in order to be able to show the painting in North Kensington without triggering anyone by accident. What was also important was to have the participation of the local community who were invited to leave messages for Grenfell on the closed painting.

Now following the first exhibition in North Kensington, the back of the painting is covered in messages, which stand as a testimony from the local community. As the painting continues its journey, this is to be added to by future visitors to the exhibition in areas still affected by the cladding scandal.

I wanted the side panels to tell the story of what happened, before and after and the middle panel to show the Grenfell fire in all its horror and drama.

The part which took the longest was the initial drawing of the two side panels. Selecting the source material and composing where everything should go in order to tell the narrative. In comparison the execution of the painting was relatively fast.

I called the painting social murder because it was a terrible crime. It was murder. It was a crime that is inherent in capitalism. A crime that was driven by the profit motive. A crime that implicates successive governments, the state both local and national, as well as the various companies involved. It was a crime driven by the race for profits, the race to rig fire tests. And the managers and salaried employees of these companies, knew it was dangerous, but they learnt that voicing opinions was ‘not doing any benefit to their career’ And in that process they became accomplices in this crime. For that reason, it was Social Murder.

I think there is this bias, a prejudice against political art. As Plato would like to ban the poet from the republic. So today there is a desire to ban the artist from making overly political artwork. But this is just an attempt to relegate the artist. An attempt to silence art to deny its ability to say anything.

Of course, a work of art can be successful or not. This is true for art which deals with whatever the subject.

For me, the political artworks have been some of the most successful because they have pushed me beyond previous limits, its forced me to find a means to do justice to subjects which mean so much to me.

Which artists do you admire? Do they have an influence on your work?

Where do I start. Paula Rego I really admire. Diego Rivera too. I love Constable, especially how he paints skies in his quick sketches. I take a lot from many artists.

I was directly thinking of Hieronymus Bosch, and paintings like the hay-wagon when working on the Grenfell tryptic. Other paintings I've worked on have also been directly influenced from artists from art history. The composition of a painting, ‘The Death of a Courier’ was directly influenced by Annibale Carracci, 'The Dead Christ Mourned, (The Three Maries)'

The Death Of A Courier Nicholas Baldion.jpg

Do you think art is important in society?

Yes. Not only important but also necessary. If we look at the pre-history of humanity, of the early hunter gatherer tribal societies, we can see that: art was fundamental in the survival of humanity. The tribal dances before a hunt increased the tribe’s sense of power; war paint and war cries terrified the enemy and made the warrior more resolute. Cave paintings gave the hunter superiority over his prey. Religious ceremonies instilled social experience in every member of the tribe to make every individual a part of the collective body. This art of the early humans was not only important to society but crucial to humanity's survival.

Today we live under a new society. We live under capitalism. Arts role in society has changed. But could you imagine a life without it, without music, films, literature, Painting... without beauty? Art still retains some of this magic power from prehistory.

What's more, I don't think an artist can separate themselves from society. There is no such thing as ‘art for art's sake.’ And an artist can't remain in an ivory tower aloof from the rest of the world.

In my opinion, the best art recognises this and acts as a mirror to society.

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