ARTISTS TALKING

The fine art selection of profiles is the biggest in the Signpost topics, demonstrating how many artists choose this as their route, often combining developing their own exhibitions and installations with undertaking paid work through workshops, residencies or arts administration.

Profiles include Antony Hall who completed an MA in Art as Environment in 2002, Pauline Bailey, David Kefford on his MA, the contexts for Nicky Hodge's paintings, Martin Heron, Jeremy Wood, Claire Hope who works in a bank to support her practice, Karin Kihlberg, Stuart Edmundson, Matt Golden, Julie Cockburn's balance between fine art and design, Louise Brookes undertaking professional development, Tanya Axford, Stephen Monger and Ben Sadler who supports his work through residencies.

Tanya Axford

At first I found developing new work outside of the university environment quite difficult. However deadlines, responding to specific criteria, limitations and budgets for projects have helped me focus.

Vane (Visual Arts North East), an artist-led open exhibition opportunity, allowed me to show my work at a very early stage. Getting my work seen has been one of the most important elements of my career development, enabling me to meet a new network of artists.

I have had new work commissioned from Locus+ and NGCA (Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art). In 2003, I am working closely with the Virtual Reality Centre at the University of Teesside in creating a virtual reality piece. This project was helped by an Arts Council England - North East in 2002 that gave me an opportunity to explore a new medium.

Getting critical feedback has been more difficult since graduating and is primarily achieved through exhibiting. I also participate in talks and one-to-one sessions organised by a-n The Artists Information Company.

Many friends are artists and we frequently discuss our work and projects. I also have a mentor (through the Arts Council England - North East) who is working with me to create a future plan, highlighting what and where and how I would like my career to develop.

I am working on a permanent piece of work for a public space in a new office building. Working with architects, building contractors and manufacturers and having my work fabricated by other people has been an enormous challenge.

I am not very confident about 'networking' but have found that the more I exhibit the more people I meet. I try to maintain those contacts and networks by keeping people informed about what I am doing.

In 2000 artist Cath Campbell and I curated and organised 'Engaged', a series of installations in pub toilets involving artists from all over the country. This was the perfect opportunity to introduce myself to artists, arts organisations and funding bodies without the self-consciousness of promoting my own work.

Many opportunities have been offered to me directly from people seeing my work. When applying for projects I concentrate on the ones that are really appropriate. It's better to spend time getting those applications right than to apply for those that aren't.

To supplement my income I have run children's workshops and worked with galleries, schools and community groups. I've also given talks to universities, schools and galleries. After college I did a business course and trained in new video editing and Photoshop. This experience secured a part-time marketing and advertising job at a-n The Artists Information Company and generated more opportunities to develop my work.

Tanya Axford has a BA (Hons) Fine Art, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1997

Pauline Bailey

My work always involves some level of collaboration even when it is a very personal project – communication feeds my creativity so much more than working in isolation. On completion of my BA,

I wanted to go straight on to MA but, as a mature student with children and bills to pay, I just couldn't afford it. Despite this, I remained resolute in my ambition to develop a career in the arts and was determined that I wouldn't have to go to London to achieve it. I took on part-time jobs, mainly teaching and coordinating projects and started working for Second Sight, a now disbanded women's video production company in Birmingham.

Eventually I set up my own company, Shomari Productions, organising video, theatre and live art events with all kinds of artists and community groups. From 1999 to 2001 I worked with the Arts and Community team for Birmingham City Council then returned to freelance last year to pursue my own work and to complete my MA. If you want to get anywhere in the arts you can't stand still, things change so quickly.

To be successful, I have had to become completely chameleon-like – juggling running a business with teaching, running workshops and exhibiting.

Pauline Bailey did a BA (Hons) in Humanities and Cultural Studies at the University of Wolverhampton (1985-1988) and an MA in Fine Art at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (2000-2002).

Louise Brookes

It is really important to keep your eyes open for opportunities, to make yourself, your ideas, ambitions and work visible, and to be creative about all aspects of your practice.

Experience is invaluable and as an artist, I constantly develop skills, support structures and survival strategies including attending private views, seminars and art-related talks. Through these I see new work, meet artists and other professionals and make friends with people who share the same interests. Creating a database of arts professionals has been highly useful.

a-n The Artists Information Company is a valued resource, not only for opportunities, but also as a reflection of current arts activity. Since graduation roughly half the work I have undertaken has been sourced through the a-n Magazine Opportunities. Applications in progress include a professional development bursary and national touring exhibition, and the posts of mentor and project manager.

It is vital to make the best use of any opportunity, as well as being proactive in finding ways to make things happen for yourself. Being flexible and open to negotiation is essential.

When I got a studio space in-kind at a university I offered my skills and knowledge for free, gaining valuable teaching and demonstrator experience. I can now get paid work in this area. Occasional administrative work not only pays the rent, but also means I manage my own practice better.

I got a professional development award from Arts Council England - North West that enabled me to attend a London conference. Castlefield, Cornerhouse, Mid-Pennine Gallery, Salford University and The International 3 have all offered exhibition or project opportunities or advice on future development.

Tutors at Salford and Manchester Metropolitan Universities have given me critiques and some teaching work.

I won one of the first Irwell Sculpture Trail Out Bursaries that bridge the gap between university and professional practice by providing training, mentor support and a platform for new work. My series of temporary interventions into social, political and physical spaces of a village and its community enabled me to test concepts and refine ideas in real world situations and provided a model for future projects.

My work is research-based practice, developed primarily in situ in a variety of contexts and situations in response to concerns identified in my studio. For me, a studio is a transient space consisting of my concepts and ideas and a network of peers/friends who meet regularly to discuss, debate, review and critique our work-in-progress.

I am currently developing my research findings (artwork) into various formats that may include seminars. I've had discussions with local galleries and institutions regarding their testing and dissemination. I plan to go abroad again to create new work and am learning more about funding to develop my own projects.

Louise Brookes completed a BA (Hons) visual arts and culture, University of Salford, 2000.

Julie Cockburn

It's not easy to maintain networks after college and my main contacts have been made through sheer legwork. During my degree show, Paul Smith's creative director for the Floral Street shops approached me. I followed that up three or four years' later and was given a window and some internal space to show in. That gave me confidence to take my portfolio to galleries and dealers.

There comes a time after graduating when it's important to show your work. Perseverance resulted in an exhibition at London's Applied Arts Agency. This opened doors for me, including being awarded a Crafts Council Setting Up Grant, various commissions, designing graphics for Dries Van Noten, ceramic design for Emma Bridgewater, and a 3-dimensional periodic table of the elements for the Hackney Building Exploratory.

I met Emma Hill from London's Eagle Gallery through a college friend. She has championed my art books for many years, selling them to collectors around the world, including the Yale Centre for British Art. Being encouraged helps me keep on making, and making necessitates showing. This in turn is the catalyst for more work, more shows, more encouragement.

Alongside working as a fine artist and designer, I have worked for media design consultancy HWF Creative and product designers John Julian Design. Being creative enables you to work in many environments. Building a business and dealing with cash flows, marketing etc can be equally imaginative and rewarding. I work two or three days a week as a consultant to designers.

My fine art practice involves a journey that I have to take on my own. I make from a true passion - it is not led by market trends or fashion or other art practice. Beginning to make a living from it is like a dream come true.

My own work tends not to be reference to the art world, rather it is the materials and images I use that inspire me.

I am now making pieces that are simple, fluid and graphic, 2-dimensional and a bit messy. The filling of the screw holes in the plywood has influenced my latest work, so perhaps it's impossible to separate my fine art practice and the design work.

I miss the formal and informal critiques I had at college, so I have set up a small discussion forum once a month for artists to talk about their work.

I think this gives you a different perspective about what you are doing. I am continually experimenting with new techniques with my own practice and I hope that the work I produce will continue to attract commissions, design briefs and consultancies in the future.

Julie Cockburn has a BA (Hons) sculpture, Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London, 1996.

Stuart Edmondson

Whilst I was an undergraduate at the University of Central Lancashire I spent seven months in Brisbane, Australia. It brought home to me the need to get out of an insular mindset and to think strategically about making connections with artists in other cities. When I came back I became aware of the thriving network of artist-led activity which was right on my doorstep in Manchester. And with the contacts I began to make there I thought it would be a good place for me to do my MA.

Throughout my MA I developed ideas that led to my work with Simon Pantling as Symptom of the Universe. It's a venue in a domestic cellar where we host exhibitions, partly as a way of informing and developing our own work. We felt very strongly that it was important for us to take the initiative for our own artistic development and to contribute to, rather than take from, the city. It's an integral part of my own practice and it's about seeking out and working with artists with whom you feel an affinity. Now it informs everything – from my choice of studio to my understanding of site in my own work.

Stuart Edmondson did a BA Fine Art (1996-1999) and MA Fine Art (1999-2000) at Manchester Metropolitan University. Forthcoming shows are at Glass Box Gallery, Salford University and The Lowry, Salford.

Matt Golden

After my degree I had no concept of what it was like to be an artist. All I had was this stubborn belief that I was going to be an artist. I went for one approach - the na? one - and worked every day in the studio and rummaged in skips to find materials before realising this wasn't the way forward.

A strategy fell in to place when I started working in galleries, as that's when you start to meet people and make creative friendships. You can't really do anything in isolation. That idea of artists in the studio 24/7 doesn't really apply to art today.

I wouldn't say I wasted time but I had three very unfocused years. I found myself in a rut. I had no money but that starts to fuel creativity and it gives you something to kick back against, so maybe it's not a bad thing really.

A residency I had at B16 Gallery was pivotal. I'd left college as a painter and I was struggling with carrying on painting. But I couldn't commit that sort of time to painting and needed a way of working that wasn't so labour intensive, so I could survive as an artist. The residency gave me exposure and that was important because people in Birmingham started to recognise me as an artist.<

There are so many people out there who you don't recognise as artists because they're just working away in their studio. You have to do more than that. It can be far more useful to go out with artists and have a drink, or go to private views and arts events.

I have a studio but it's more of a space for trying things out. Much work is done at home on the computer or looking through magazines for opportunities.

An important point of collaboration is OHNe. We four had common interests as artists and musicians and have worked on a number of projects. We've played at Liverpool Biennale, Ikon Gallery, Cubitt Gallery, Mead Gallery, New Walsall Art Gallery and Grizedale. I've also found it liberating for my own practice because when there's four of you you're not so precious about ideas.

I make a living from my art if you consider my practice as including being a freelance technician and running workshops, amongst other things. I think being an artist today is not just about making work and selling it or exhibiting.

Through working at the Mead Gallery I got to meet Simon Patterson. I had a solo show coming up in The Gallery at Stratford and the curator Annabel Longbourne suggested applying to West Midlands Arts (now Arts Council England – West Midlands) to get a Creative Ambition award to pay for a mentor, which I did. I wrote to Simon to ask if he'd be interested, and he was. I definitely feel it helped me to make the most out of the opportunity of having a show.

I'm currently applying for MA courses, as there comes a point when you need new challenges and you need to make new creative friendships. I need to consolidate my practice and move it on.

The crucial thing is that you can't be an artist in isolation. That romantic idea of getting a studio and working there every waking moment, it doesn't work like that.

If I was a tutor at college I would say to my students, 'go and work for a gallery or the biggest institution in your town, and go and work at an artist-led space and if there isn't one, set one up'.

Matt Golden studied BA (Hons) Fine Art, Leicester de Montfort University (1993-1996) and starts an MA in London in September 2003.

Antony Hall

During and since my degree I have participated in a lot of group projects and exhibitions including solo shows at G39 in Cardiff and Station in Bristol. This year I exhibited in Arnolfini's touring group show 'Presentness is Grace'. An AHRB grant and a New Visual Artists' grant for 2000-2001 have provided essential financial support.

In 2000 I wheeled my tabletop piece – The pond life microscope projector – into G39. Constructed from jam-jars, pipes and old bits of machinery it looked like a pile of junk, but actually sustained a globule of pond life. G39 has been a great support in my work, it is a social hub as well as a gallery, a community where artists can meet and discuss ideas. I am hoping to get involved with a similar kind of community here in Manchester. This is happening: a group of us from the MA course are organising a show in a disused warehouse later this year and I am working on a collaborative performance to coincide with the Manchester Art Gallery opening night in May. Art isn't only about major galleries: it has to happen everywhere, but you have to create your own opportunities – collaboration has always been the healthiest way of doing this for me.

Antony Hall did a BA (Hons) Fine Art at UWIC: Cardiff School of Art and Design, (1996-1999) and is currently undertaking an MA in Art as Environment, Manchester Metropolitan University (2001-2002).

For an update on Antony Hall's career go to Artists' Profiles Index

Martin Heron

I started reading a-n Magazine at college. I even started applying for commissions before I graduated. I knew I didn't stand much of a chance because I didn't have the experience, but I thought that going through the process of applying would be a useful exercise.

When I was at college I was really only aware of the commissioning side of public art and not the surrounding practices, such as the community-based workshops and talks that are increasingly common. I began to feel that public art should involve the public, and I still believe that today. When I first left college I worked for several years in a hospital occupational therapy department. It turned out to be really useful experience when it came to setting up and running workshops for other groups.

One of my biggest projects came about when I responded to an advert in [a-n] MAGAZINE for a disabled artist to undertake a six-month residency on the Irwell Way Sculpture Trail. I was keen to get it on my own merit as an artist, but having being diagnosed with a long-term illness at that time, I was encouraged to apply because of the on-site support that was available for the artist if required. Coincidentally I'd read an article in the magazine a few weeks before about The Art House, an organisation for disabled and non-disabled artists. They were brilliant and helped me sort out the paperwork involved with my benefits, and organised technical support to enable me to undertake the work.

Recently I was involved in an Art House initiative called Outside the Box. The idea was that you received by post a box with an object in it, made a piece in response to it and added your work to the box and sent it on to the next artist, until the project was completed. I liked the immediacy of that way of working. I was pleased when [a-n] MAGAZINE reviewed the resulting exhibition and featured my work.

I think that early on in your career you have to do a mix of paid and unpaid work to get the experience and raise your profile, so that you can apply for better-paid work in the future. Currently I do a lot of work for a West Midlands-based organisation called Creative Arts Consultancy. It's great that now I'm more established, I seldom have to go through the process of applying for commissions because organisations like this tend to approach me directly.

Nicky Hodge

My practice revolves around painting and drawing. I tend to work small-scale, the most recent being paintings in series, using landscape as a metaphor, playing with the idea of loss. I take Polaroids in parks of flowerbeds for example, deliberately moving the camera so that the images are blurred and details erased. The paintings that derive from these indistinct images are further enhanced by memory and are more about absence than presence.

I graduated in Fine Art and Critical Studies as a mature student from Central St Martins in 92. After college I wanted to concentrate on producing work rather than exhibiting and getting a studio was a high priority. It was through one of the open studio events at my Vauxhall studio that Danielle Arnaud first saw my work in 95 and this eventually led to a solo show at her London gallery in January this year. A solo show at Whistles in St Christopher's Place in 99 also came about as the result of an open studio contact.

I have subscribed to [a-n] MAGAZINE for a number of years as it provides essential information about exhibitions, residencies and other possible career opportunities. It was through it in 96 that my application for exhibition at The Drill Hall was positively received and I was able to show my Confinement drawings. As a result of responding to another advertisement, I will shortly be taking up residency in a sheltered housing scheme in Camberwell working with older people, as part of the Artbridge project organised by Paintings in Hospitals.

Out of necessity, I have generated a 'portfolio' approach to my work and am constantly renegotiating ways of generating income from art-related practice. Having originally studied English at Kent University, I have been able to combine my skills by undertaking freelance editing work. Between 96-99 I was the assistant editor for Make magazine and, more recently, have provided information on art galleries for a Time Out shopping guide. I also co-wrote in 96 The A - Z of Art book, and this year a selection of my Polaroids was included in the Women Artists Diary published by the Women's Press.

For an update on Nicky Hodge's career go to Artists' Profiles Index

Claire Hope

Post BA was a period where I wanted to work out what to do with my work. I moved back Manchester because I realised it was really where I wanted to be.

You need time to put the degree show behind you and move forward and start treating yourself as an artist. Although my degree show was more gallery-based work, now I do installations using text printed on paper. I have a related gallery practice, but seeking funding to do things myself is an entirely different way of being an artist.

I'm not sure how far I looked ahead but I think I made an unconscious decision to continue working. I don't think I ever imagined that I would have been setting up my own projects, although this is absolutely key now.

Currently I'm making publicly-funded, site-specific installations. The billboard piece in Preston that was funded by the University of Central Lancashire started off my interest in the site-specific.

Running it myself made me realise how rewarding it could be. A solo installation for a weekend in a guest room at Manchester's the Palace Hotel was funded by North-West Arts Board (now Arts Council England – North West). My most recent work was in a serviced office space in the city.

It took a while to call myself an artist because I wanted to feel worthy of it. When I did the billboard I was working full-time and immediately afterwards I went part-time because I realised there was something to work for.

I'm currently working three days a week in a bank. I know a lot of people wouldn't want to have anything to do with a non-art environment but it works for me because I keep grounded in the real world.

I'd always wanted to do an MA, but to do this at a time when I felt I'd developed my work to a point where I had something to work with but could benefit from readdressing it.

Making little steps is as important as making big ones and a period where you're not making as much work as you want to, when you come out of university, isn't a bad thing and you shouldn't panic. I didn't make one of my significant works until two years after my degree. I think that gave me time to settle in to being an artist and develop things in my mind.

Claire Hope did a BA (Hons) Fine Art at the University of Central Lancashire (1996-1999). Currently based in Chorlton, Manchester, she is starting an MA at Chelsea College of Art and Design in September. claire.hope@btinternet.com

David Kefford

At college you're in a bubble. It's such a supportive environment, sometimes too supportive. It allows you to be creative but doesn't always prepare you for the outside world. When I graduated I was working in a group studio but after a while I began to feel I wasn't being intellectually challenged. The danger is that if you get isolated you become your own critic and then lose confidence in your work. I felt I needed to find a critical environment to enable me to meet a group of like-minded people and reassess my work. That's when I applied for a part-time MA at Brighton University. It worked for me because the MA group was really active, setting up exhibitions and projects in vacant shops and warehouse spaces and making things happen for ourselves.

I now primarily work on producing installations for galleries and artist-run spaces. I try to keep up with current art-related issues as much as I can. I read [a-n] MAGAZINE and Time Out to see what exhibitions are on. I'm based at Digswell Studios in Hertfordshire, so I visit London a lot, particularly to see work by young artists and if I'm making a particular piece of work I'll often seek out a specific exhibition or installation for inspiration.

I've been a professional artist for six years, and can't stress enough how much [a-n] MAGAZINE is a vital part of being a practising artist nowadays. When it arrives, pretty much the first thing I go to is the OPPORTUNITIES and work advertisements before I read the articles. I use www.anweb.co.uk (a-n's old site) as well now, ever since I saw a demonstration of it at an artists' training conference. It's particularly easy to navigate as well as being visually attractive. Even though my access to computers is limited I've used it for downloading information sheets and application forms from linked websites for organisations offering opportunities I'd originally seen listed in the magazine.

Early in my career I found it difficult not to compromise the creative and intellectual side of my work in the struggle to survive financially. Although it's still difficult to find a balance between paid work and making work which might not sell, the most important thing is to be excited about making the work itself.

For an update on David Kefford's career go to Artists' Profiles Index

Karin Kihlberg

Just before I graduated a couple of friends and I moved in to a studio in an old factory space in Birmingham. There was a converted flat there as well, so we lived in our studio. I thought, I'm not going to panic about this, as suddenly your student loan doesn't come in and you have to get a job.

I was lucky as I'd been working at Ikon Gallery through my degree so I got some casual work there that saved me for another six weeks. I've had six-week contracts there for almost nine months now.

I think that after the hype of the degree show I just felt it was all over. It was quite shocking somehow, even though I knew that this wasn't the end, that there was going to be something afterwards. I knew that I wanted to be an artist.

On my degree, we didn't get that much information about what it would be like to exist as an artist. For three years we concentrated on producing artwork that was critical and had some sort of validity.

I always seem to have loads of things in the pipeline. At the moment, I'm having exhibitions and setting up a new exhibition space. My partner and I have booked a one-way ticket to Barcelona, just to go and see what happens. I'm sure I'll always come back, but I feel you need some inspiration from somewhere else sometimes.

I haven't produced that much new art work since I left. I've been exploring exhibiting the works produced over the last two years and reading loads of books and trying to push my work forward in a completely different setting. I've also had some work shown in the 291 Gallery in London.

I've met a lot of people in Birmingham too, that I didn't meet on my degree. We've set up some lecture days: it's a bunch of people getting together to talk about anything. Last time we had a mathematician talking about the concept of zero.

Sometimes I feel a bit angry that my tutors didn't tell me more about how to survive as an artist but at the same time I'm happy they let us concentrate on doing artwork for three years. I don't know what's the best way but I'm happy with the way it's turned out in the end.

Karin Kihlberg studied BA (Hons) Fine Art (1999-2002) at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, University of Central England.

For an update on Karin Kihlberg's career go to Artists' Profiles Index

Stephen Monger

Throughout the summer, after my degree, I posted packs of small prints and slides to various places and started to go to portfolio days. These are events where a magazine editor or gallery offers you some feedback on your portfolio. It's a way of really beginning to network and let people know who you are and what you're doing.

I think that's all you can do at that stage. You kind of hope that some magic will happen and then it doesn't. Things seem to be quite drawn out. That was something that I wasn't really expecting.

A number of things have been important. In 1998 I got my studio, it was somewhere to work in and from. I was involved in a show at Site Gallery Sheffield and that was a way of getting to know people and letting people know who I was. Later, I was in EAST International and got to meet artists from different parts of the world. It's amazing how many people got to see my work.

My work hasn't changed so much as progressed since graduating. I have maintained similar ideas, but the work has become more ambitious with larger budgets and a larger scale, and wanting it to do more things and be seen by more people. As you keep going, you feel more capable of doing bigger and better things.

The closest I've been to collaborating involved working with some curators. With Lynda Morris (EAST International), we talked about work and she picked pieces I wouldn't necessarily have chosen. It's an opportunity to really push your work into new contexts. So it's a different sort of collaboration. She wasn't saying 'you must show this' and I wasn't saying 'I'm going to show that'. Between us we worked it out. It was enlightening to have someone looking from a different angle.

I earn my living in a kind of triangle. I make more money from lecturing than directly from my art but I'm employed to lecture because I make art. I have a number of part-time jobs and occasionally get a gallery fee or some funding. It's about balance, working enough to fund what you do. Any money I've ever received from galleries has gone on making work.

Organisation, hard work and ambition are crucial. There's an element of being in the right place at the right time, and being able to take advantage of a situation. Maybe it's knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and realising it's ok to say no sometimes.

I did two years of a degree and for me it was like I finally got to discover what I was interested in. I had some particular questions about my practice to resolve. MAs are funny things but if you know what you want before you go in you find it easier to achieve, as you'll know how to steer the operation.

A main thing I discovered is email. I was a couple of years before I got an email address but now I'd be lost without it. The nature of my work means I deal with messages wherever I am, responding to things as they come in.

Stephen Monger graduated in 1995 with BA (Hons) Design: Photography, Exeter School of Arts and Design and in 1998 got an MA in Advanced Practice and Theories: Photographic Studies from University of Derby.

Ben Sadler

Towards the end of the third year I set up a group show at The Custard Factory. It was about us leaving college and not really knowing what we were going to do. Debbie (Kermode) from Ikon Gallery came to see the show and that's how I ended up working there.

Meeting artists who were already established offered a lot as far as getting information as to how you can make your way through the art world. I quickly realised that sending my stuff out to galleries wasn't going to achieve much for me at that point.

In the third year of my degree course we had seminars that spelled out what it was going to be like to be an artist. A lot of people went straight out and started looking for jobs in other areas as they realised that this wasn't what they wanted. As I couldn't afford a studio this started shaping the work so it gradually developed into this other way of working which is more about process.

I did a residency at B16 Gallery in 2000 when I lived there for three months and used the postcode boundary as the boundary of an island. It became a more social way of making work and I've had quite a lot of opportunities come from that.

Doing the Grizedale residency with Phil Duckworth as juneau/projects/, has been my first big collaborative project. With the juneau stuff, I make pieces I'd probably never make on my own, but you put our two practices together and you get this interesting third entity coming out.

Although I still have an independent practice I have realised that the main way I was going to be able carry on producing projects was to have a range of fields of work so you can flip from one project to another.

I make enough money to fund my projects and then everything beyond that is dependent on doing other work like workshops. For the last two years these have been my main way of supporting myself, along with odd jobs like installation work at galleries. I don't make a fantastic amount of money from it.

I think you need almost a predisposition towards being an artist and you have to be professional about the way you do stuff. I think a lot of it is tenacity, keeping on going and taking the knock backs.

I'm quite glad I didn't know any of this stuff when I left college. Having that naivety then is a good thing as it helps you get over the first couple of years, which are really hard, as you've got this kind of blind faith in the whole system and the art world. I'm much more cynical now and I think if I'd been like that then I may well have just given up.

I'd always wanted to do a masters. On a practical level, I like doing workshops and lecturing and an MA will be really useful for that. For me, it's been a way of broaching London and of taking stock of what I've been doing.

You don't normally get to meet other artists that much to talk about work whereas now, on a daily basis, I've got thirty of forty people around who are all in the same situation. It's so much easier to get things done here as well and to learn new skills like video editing. I can consolidate things on my MA and come out of it as a more rounded artist.

Ben Sadler did BFA (Hons) Fine Art at Ruskin College, Oxford (1995-1998 and is now studying on MA Sculpture at the Royal College of Art.

Jeremy Wood

After my degree I went home and got a job to pay off some debts. I invested in a computer to develop a project called Spot Map that I thought was potentially commercially viable. I also began to teach myself web design in order to make a living.

My only thoughts were to keep ploughing on, as I knew it was what I wanted to do and what I was good at. I thought you'd have more freedom as an artist but the administration and management does actually prevent you from making work, as so much time and energy is spent chasing, calling up and emailing, as you try to establish yourself. It's not necessarily an enjoyable side of it, but you want to get it right. It takes a healthy dose of self determination.

In terms of developing my GPS drawing project I've had a strategy from the very beginning. Because it's digitally-based I set up my own gallery on the internet.

I was getting other people involved, such as skydivers and whale hunters and pilots and hikers and bikers - all the people that use this technology - essentially getting them interested and involved, collecting their work so that they would publicise the project in their circles.

Once I had a substantial collection in the gallery I steered away from the technical GPS side to promote the project as serious and viable.

My main collaborator is programmer Hugh Pryor. He translated the GPS data in to three dimensions, and we've been using this to get some of the incredible visuals that I would not have been able to get on my own.

There are also collaborations with other designers and artists. The 'Taking a Line for a Walk' exhibition was important for me as it demonstrated I could take this concept and make something physical from it.

By putting something on the walls and making 3D models from it meant that people could visit a physical space to see the work.

The exhibition led to doing workshops with Oxford's Museum of Modern Art as part of The Big Draw (National Drawing Day). When MOMA was refurbished in the summer, they displayed the project in the foyer alongside the Tracey Emin exhibition. I've since had other people coming in and asking me to run workshops.

I have been lucky because on the whole, I do get approached to do exhibitions, workshops and projects. Also when I exhibit, quite unexpectedly, I do sell.

I'm working on a sculpture project in London that links with web cams at www.rogerperkins.com, another thing I've been doing to support myself.

As far as MA's are concerned I took a year out purposely as I don't like the idea of people going straight from BA to MA. I think you need some time out, but then this whole project kicked off and I'm in a position now where I'm living and working and my practice is going well.

Jeremy Wood did a BA (Hons) Fine Art at the University of Derby (1996-1999). The GPS drawing project is at www.gpsdrawing.com

The writers

Libby Anson is an independent professional, creative and personal development consultant, who also works as a freelance lecturer and writer.

Abigail Branagan is a freelance consultant and marketing director of the Applied Arts Agency - a retail and gallery space in Clerkenwell, London. Originally trained in fine art, she has been working in the creative sector for eight years and has undertaken projects for a range of organisations, including Mazorca Projects, London.

Mark Gubb is an artist based in Nottingham working in a range of disciplines from painting to installation to video. His installation and film commission for Grizedale Arts references classic British horror and its cross pollination with American culture. A lecturer at the University of Derby, South East Derbyshire College and a regular contributor to a-n's publications, he is also co-director of artist-led initiative Loadstar.

Wendy Mason is a designer-maker in Yorkshire who also works as an arts consultant and trainer.

Graham Parker is an artist, critic, curator and lecturer involved in artist-led initiatives in Manchester. His work has been commissioned by Henry Moore Institute and Tate Gallery, Liverpool (Artranspennine), Manchester City Art Gallery, Compton Verney, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. He has shown extensively in the UK and internationally. He is Visual Arts Officer at Salford University and co-course leader of Tate Liverpool's University Network MA course module and artistic director (with Dave Beech) of floating ip project space Manchester.

Emma Safe is an artist and writer on the visual arts based in Birmingham.