Alec Doherty

0:12And so I'm Alec Daugherty and I'm an illustrator an artist it's kind of interesting and listening to Sakina talk about her hometown and how she went back to her hometown to find her identity it's like what I'm going to talk about as well.

0:29So I'm from place called Darlington in the Northeast it all.

0:31So yeah anyway I'm a total new me the newbie to doing this I've never done this before so a little bit nervous.

0:39But it's also been really fascinating putting this whole thing together. And it's the first time I've kind of actually sat and analyzed my work and not naked but yeah. So and I found this common theme. That's running throughout all of my work which has been really enlightening for me. Actually. And that's my adolescence so this is me yeah with my football trophy for most enthusiastic player and yeah.

1:04So I kind of know is this not just only in my themes but also in my style and approach to the things that I'm doing this like there's other lessons to it and and there's a sense of kind of mischeif and a sense of like rebellion in there and a sense of naivety to it as well so and like a teenager I've got a really short attention span so I like fight about.

1:27And I want to do one thing and change it up all the time get bored really quickly and this is kind of affecting my work. And so however growing up I always want to be a graphic designer so that's me in the middle yeah and that's my sister Sophie so I'm a big sister she's a graphic designer and and that Sharlee in the white there and yeah I'm actually one of seven I'm the baby over seven so probably a bit of a breath but yeah.

1:55So yeah.

1:59I think my mum might address me that day as well just that you know. Anyway.

2:02So I study graphic design and I managed to get a job in it somehow and then I realized I wasn't very good at it so like a teenager I just quit with no idea what was gonna do at all and no way of paying the rent Eva so I was not very clever with me but what happened was a friend opened the brewery up and he said I will you help me out with a couple of illustrations this was kind of my life sorry with a couple labels and this was my kind of first break as an illustrator and he gave me a lot of friends do I once I've like put these drawings that I've been doing under to the bottles so and people start to see them and to my great surprise I started to pick up a few Commission's which was amazing so and having this kind of first break one of the kind of first misconceptions I had was that I needed to like Cohen in this style I thought I was really important to being a successful illustrator and so yeah this is some of my only work I just thought I'd share with you at least part I'm trying really hard to be really consistent in my work. And I just didn't really find it very satisfying I felt quite stifled in my creativity and I got bored of it so and what happened was going back to my childhood again as a reference point and I like growing up my old man that's my old man in the face that thinkI for he's like Tommy Cooper or something we had this magic shop growing up.

3:26And it loads of his magician friends it was a magic shop but actually like they sold mainly fake booze and so yes sorry dad and then the other none teak shop it's a bit of a joke on my dad so it's called rotten swindlers that was his antique shop and but so grown up like mouse was full of like stuff some magic tricks and antiques and yes sculptures and they collected like lots of African antiquities and stuff I remember like friends would come around than would be like your mom wasn't in the mood it was until I it's like yeah anyway so and but what I realized from like this is that I'm really interested in object sill moving from like the two day and I was really struggling to find this consistency in the 2d space so I kind of pushed away from it. And it started to experiment with 3d so this is like my first little experiment and it was like a new step in my career so essentially so it start with these small wooden sculptures this is Mary Dora Derek and Steve my dad's actually called Steve and my mate there is dad's called Derek guy right yeah.

4:38So I want to talk about yeah.

4:43So the so these guys so used to got this little working men's club in Darlington it's called the engineers and we used to go down with my parents when we were teenagers and there was like a Northern Soul I think like the last Saturday of every month and yeah we'd go down have a sneaky beer and these are like just kind of fun memories that a member of like the oldies getting down loving a bit of boogie so yeah and they drink so this kind of teen theme continued with some larger reliefs these are these ones are based it's kind of scale them up slightly these ones are based on a night like and underrated club they used to go to called Wesley's and I try to find some pictures back and finally but I found this in the northern echo and which is quite funny the description of it.

5:26So I'll read out there. So it's Wesley's in Darlington opened in June 1887 as a way of helping young people to get off the streets away from the lure of drugs sorry drink drugs and glue-sniffing so little did they know we were just doing that inside where's leaves instead and never glue stay away from the prytt sticks and so yeah.

5:47So this is me like illustrating a typical night out there so be you love a little bit of a bougie with your friends I would a little bit with dance you trying to avoid getting into a fight and if you're really lucky you get a snog yeah I never got a snog to know why and so having developed that I brought it back into my first project which is parts on which I just showed you guys and and like kind of moving things forward from the 2d space to a 3d space I made these tabs for their new top room and I like to call these like functional sculptures so they're like beer taps you pour beer out of them.

6:26But they're also decorative and they represent milestones in the Brewers history.

6:30So we've got like the brewery cap this is Deana and she's like a working cat she's pretty amazing she's always hanging about she's really affectionate in lovely and so this is my interpretation of her in top form and yeah. So in like sphinx-like glory know what that means and so and then.

6:50This is another milestone so it's like their first beer they ever brewed which was the stout.

6:57So I like really like literal interpretations of stuff so this is like a stout mostly going really quite out there. And then.

7:05This is like a homage or a sari and omage cheese squeeze and it's similar to another brewery called redemption who helped Partizan and Andy get on his feet so they want to have this on March to redemption. And this is my interpretation of what redemption is it's a prisoner looking up to the sky for redemption maybe a film reference there when I think about it. Anyway.

7:31So there still goes strong a Burman say I'm still working with them after seven years so and they deserve an award for that definitely and so pushing this 3d further I wanted to make I've always want to make some like big stuff and so this is my first large-scale relief that I made for a lobby and in each I'll block in Stratford just complete it's the start of this year it's kind of a sip of water sorry and these are a few put protest shots of that. And so this is the happy hanger like a working title because it's a really no but it's 3.5 meters square it's made of steel and woods it weighs a Fleur concern and literally a ton.

8:15And it's it represents in 2012 because it's in your ex Olympic Park so yeah I made this was a couple guys call each productions down in Lewis amazing guys without them I wouldn't be able to do this whole project it was real scary and quite fantastic making something this big and see my work scale and I experimented a lot with their different materials and then I can learn a lot. And I had a lot fun making it it's in the this place called the Victoria Plaza if you do get the chance and you're in the area knocking I would look at it because it does something quite different when you. Actually see it in in the flesh that's it whoa yeah and it's a selfie Bay I just decided to put me in my own work like a little Tarantino narcissistic moment they had that yeah.

9:04So I'm gonna move on to else without so without this project I'm going to show you I don't think I've got that previous project.

9:12So this was like affirmation for me that making stuff and like moving about and being like inconsistent and was actually been his positive influence on my stuff so and it was like change of people's perceptions of what I was capable of as well as my own perceptions which was really kind of quite liberating so about two years ago.

9:28I started making some jewelry like just for a bit of fun really I just started doing it for for me I want it to pinky confirm one and then I shared it and my mate started wearing them.

9:40And then to my great surprise people start to buy them.

9:45And I was like wow this is amazing so this gave me like great confidence that I didn't need to hide these personal projects anymore I could like if I shared them and work would come out of that eventually and and it also it was also cool cuz I didn't need to like wait around for this right Commission to come around to change the direction of my work I could do that myself and I was like that was hugely liberating for me so and now it's one of those things that like people ask me about the most and I talked about so Joey and and I love this ambiguity of what is that. Actually do so I like am I a jeweler am I like a sculptor I'm an illustrator who knows and I like I just I like that it's cold I just want to do different stuff because I'm a taking age and I just want to like mess about.

10:31So I made this pinky and bait.

10:35So that's the one sudden the gold on the other it's super crude and really naive but I love it like it's my it's my one and actually referencing like so I think there's quite a lot of we were talking about this last night when I was going through my sister and but it's like quite a lot of references from like those African masks and stuff that were all around the house and it definitely it's definitely influenced me quite a lot.

10:59So then.

11:02I made a collection which had called me mood rings and and again referencing routines and they're named after these rings I remember these yeah f one's thirty and yeah yeah. So like these these were like flavor doesn't know.

11:18But the color-changing rings used to wear as a kid in f1 Adam and don't like I love objects and like this static power that they have over you. But this oh and yeah. So these are the mood rings and yeah.

11:28So they tell you what were you feeling so you'd be like excited I I'm anxious me know yeah gray yes like Restless bored and frustrated definitely me as an adolescent definitely white frustrated because I never got snogged it Wesley's either.

11:49So anyway so my rings are a take on moods and characters that I remember from growing up in Darlington circa 2000 so we got dazed gonna have a little spin gone yeah nice one and we have broken nose as you can do it have a little work it work it yeah and then automate a faster ecstasy mmm yeah bit of a misspent youth Fair moving on so so I also it is similar period time I made these pendants which are called good day bad day and you can wear them depending on like how you feeling that day so you can when good day bad day ma'am and I think this is something we all experience in life. And it was kind of significant for me in reflection because at the time I was making these I was like having a little bit of a turbulent time.

12:48And it's kind of expressive how I was feeling that period of time. And now - I said it's then so and it's a bit of a big deal for me like sharing work about feelings because I do a lot of commercial work. And it's pretty dry but something it's something that I've kind of embraced in my work like that brings me to my latest project.

13:07So this is something I've not done before so directly which is making work about my own personal experiences looking I wonder sit the core thing and yeah. So again I'm returning to my adolescence and I think the oh yeah those Ralph and so our lessons the reason I think this is is because I've hit my thirties only just in my thirties hence the hair the hairline is just so yeah anyway it's a it's a time of uncertainty for both for me personally and actually like when you think about in a global context what the hell is going on in the world. And so I'm feeling some of the same things that I was feeling now as I see it now as I was as a teenager so like anxiety anger excitement about the new and I'm also exploring different ways to express myself which is kind of what you do as a teenager essentially yeah. So sorry and so in depicting these like significant moments is a way of me figuring out who I am essentially and so I've also noticed this in like the mark-making that I'm doing is returning to this point it's like it's not something I've attempted to do it's just happened naturally so it's like more spontaneous and childlike and quite naive and which I think embodies these like emotions that I'm feeling right now yeah.

14:42So sorry it's quite serious isn't it. And so so I'm gonna take you through a couple of them. And so yeah and it can explain a little bit what I'm trying to do and not Charlie sure that figured out yet but so and this might my first dates go so it's about like a little bit of social anxiety with like people around us the mark making this is super naive and undeveloped but I kind of like that as well as looseness about it and yeah and this could relate to any other subject as well. So it doesn't have to be like school it's like me being here surrounded by you lot and the anxiety is that causes and I'm quite comfortable now she's fine and yeah there's me that was me just before I came on that slight yeah that's I'll just aged as I come up now and yeah my first day at school very nervous about the new things that was going to experience yeah and some slightly darker ones it's me getting my head kicked in yeah happens quite a few times but and the reason like I like approach this is because it was formative for me and scary time and not something that was pleasant and that's all obviously but I created like these lifelong relationships through these moments of time and they are you know they're quite informative so I'm approaching needs to kind of try to discover something essentially yeah that's me get my bruised up with my friend and and then going raving so like music is hugely important in all of our lives I think and these moments when you want to dance floor were people sweating it out it's like they're you build these bonds and these friendships and they that you have these like you know these really kind of important memories that really touched them it's can be quite good for a tick in some ways and then like this sounds like a weird rock drinking in the black but yeah this is like relates to me like like doing things that a bit nor a probably shouldn't really doing and that's a way that you learn what you like and what you don't like and that's really really important in our development as human beings and also like embarrassing yourself as well and like learning from those embarrassments yes lost love unrequited love so we all have stories about this and but yeah.

17:02So I think that our stories make us who we are and sharing our stories is a way to understand each other and ourselves better so yeah.

17:09So this is like the start at least project essentially I'm not sure where it's gonna go but what I've been doing which is in the little booklet is I've been collecting I was going to play some recordings basically.

17:18But it sounds a bit too personal but I've been collecting recordings and letters and texts and Facebook messages a few voicemails from friends and there have been telling me their stories and so what I want to do is I want to narrate those stories and sometime in the new year I'd like to make an exhibition of them if anyone has a space or this is my pitch now and yeah if anyone doesn't avoid Soros space let me know because I have no clue what I'm doing yeah.

17:45So I guess like it's coming to an end all right we're gonna so so my kind of takeaway from this is that I guess maybe I might be destined to be like this perpetual teenager and or maybe by embracing all this in like kind of learning from it I'll learn to grow up essentially and my work will develop from that time will tell so anyway. That's my story. And I hope you enjoyed it and not snoozed off yeah and thanks it's nice that forever me and whoever drops out. And I replaced because thanks to them - yeah.

18:23So I'm ilakaka II I'm on Instagram veered of that please follow me and no come another conversation movies I love to hear from you for now [Applause]