PITZ – Can you tell us a bit about you and what you do?

John B Ledger –

I’m a 39 year old artist from Barnsley. My work is what you’d call multi-disciplinary,
because I make film, write, and use map-making. But if I’m known as an artist it’s
usually because of my large-scale drawings.

I’ve been a practicing artist most my adult life, although I’m having some artistic
downtime at the moment.

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PITZ – Tell us more about your art and creative process?

John B Ledger –

It’s basically like writing a book that never ends, but a book that is 3 dimensional.
I never used to read as a youngster, and I sometimes wonder if I’d been able to write
with confidence at an early age, that I’d be able to think visually in words more so, and
create worlds through writing instead.

Saying that, words are still very important to my work, sometimes as important as the
visuals. I used to make as much music as art when I first started out. I still do use this
experience in my work on occasion, but I never felt like I could do what I wanted to do
through sound – but the rhythmical nature, the poetry remains in my work from this.
There’s a lot going off in my work, whether it’s drawing, film, or map-making. You
could say they were about issues like capitalism, mental health or climate change, etc.
But as I’ve grown older I’ve realised that they’re not so specific, because they’re about
trying to frame a moment, an experience, where what’s going off in your own life
reacts to situations going off in the wider world. But isn’t most art doing this, in some
way?

They certainly have intent, poise, aim, and I guess this is what potentially makes them
‘political’. But I wouldn’t say my work take sides, not on the level of the pantomime of
parliamentary politics anyway – maybe on a deeper level. We are all very complex, and
we often simplify ourselves down to caricatures when it comes to politics. I’ve always said that there’s a part of me in every single thing that’s going off in my drawings.
That doesn’t say very much about the style of my work. I don’t know how to describe
it. Some people have said it reminds them of ‘outsider art’, but depending on where
you’re positioned in the art world, this can often feel like damaging. I’ve been through
art education, worked in galleries for years, but, I dunno, I still make work in the style
that comes to me, it feels right, even if it doesn’t feel like it belongs in some spaces.
At the start it takes a lot to have the confidence to create and show your work to your piers, it takes ever much more confidence to own it in what we’d call more ‘cultured’ more ‘professional’ environments (the kind of environments where their are invisible codes of conduct, and people only laugh like they’re posing for a wedding photo, (haha) and I’d say that after around twenty years since I started defining myself as an artist, I’m still working on this confidence.

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PITZ – Your artwork is very interesting and extremely unique, what initially inspired you to create such works?

John B Ledger –

September 11 2001.

I’m being serious. Back then, the 90s had only just ended, and the internet hadn’t
really started, and nobody had ever really seen something like 9/11, at least outside
the movies. Regardless of the political aftermath and conspiracies, it changed me
overnight. The world felt permanently different.

I went into college the day after and I started working on a painting which was just
somehow different to what I’d had done before that point. It was a terrible piece of
work, but it marked a change in my sense of self. As pretentious as it sounds, I
suddenly felt like an artist.

Saying that, I don’t think there was anything else I could have been anyway. I initially I
did art without really knowing why. I didn’t have the grades to do A levels straight after
school, and didn’t have any academic confidence anyway. I thought being creative
was what I wanted to do, but I had no idea why. I had no vision.

I was a very aimless teenager, I wasn’t either studious or a stoner, just a bit lost,
lacking the confidence to even envisage the idea of having a career, car, and other
young adult things. Yet, there was obviously a big pressure to go forth and be
something ‘useful’ in this society. So when this art ‘light switch’ came on, there was
kind of like a “fxxk you, this is mine now” vibe to it. It gave me a sideway exit out of
becoming something I couldn’t become anyway. Obviously the truth is never that
simple, and very very few artists survive financially on what they produce. But it gave
me a sense of self which has enabled me to navigate this world.

I was never a particularly technically gifted person, and my work has always been
about the importance of the ideas. But ideas are just ideas if you don’t have a way of
making them physical. It took a good few years after this moment to finally develop a
way of actually making my ideas into works of art that I felt were of a standard I was
trying to reach.

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PITZ – How has your journey progressed and where do you see it taking you?

John B Ledger –

My journey hasn’t been linear in the slightest, and in hindsight has been blighted by a
lot of self-sabotage. I’m also very protective about my work, because it feels like an
endless story I’m making, so I don’t like selling originals willy-nilly, or letting them
being used in other projects. This has maybe come off as ‘stuck up’, as I struggle with
bands, for example, wanting to use my work. But it’s no disrespect to anyone else’s
work, it’s just very important to me how my work is used and in what context.

But admittedly this and a lack of confidence has meant that, in some peoples’ eyes, I
have missed a lot of opportunities. But these days I try not to lament over this.

I know the purpose of these questions is to give good advice to people who are maybe
just starting out. The best advice I have is not to lose youself to the world, and to
remind yourself that you have a right to do what you desire to do. It’s a thunder storm
out there, of commonly held opinions and judgements, and it’s not always easy to
remember what works for you.

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PITZ – Have you collaborated with other artists or creatives?

John B Ledger –

I have done many group exhibitions throughout the last 15/16 years. Some more
involved that others.

I have also had people with specific skill sets work with me to help develop ideas,
especially a film i developed, which was scripted to songs I co-wrote.

But I have always been part of what is called an ‘artist-led collective’ for just under a
decade. This collective is called ‘the Retro Bar at the end of the Universe’. We don’t
often exhibit work. But we work well as a support group, sharing ideas, etc.

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PITZ – What have you struggled with the most in your creative work?

John B Ledger –

Trying to succeed in a professional sense.

In many ways this is because I dislike compromise, or when I can clearly see
somebody looking at my work and seeing price tags. As if everything is on sale,
whether I have said so or not.

But I know that in the world we live in this means that it makes it harder to make it into
a profession.

Art as a profession is roughly split into two; those who make a living by directly selling
their trade, through commissions or workshops. And those who pursue a more
academic route, who pursue a career looking for funding grants, residencies, and
often do teaching within art education institutions.

So far, I haven’t really managed to figure out how to be either of these things. I think
my work is good enough, and I value it highly. But I’m still working on understanding
where it’s place is in this world.

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PITZ – Of all your creative works, which would you consider to be your favourite to date?

John B Ledger –

The film I mentioned above is probably still the most important project in my life. I have
never invested as much time and energy into one project. The film was called ‘Wall, i’

But it probably isn’t my best film work. This is probably a film work called ‘IT’S WAR,
THEN!”, which was just one of those rare works that you then spend years trying to
better.

Regarding drawings, there’s a handful of works that for some reason or other are just
more important to me. These drawing are called ‘THE LONG NIGHT OF A
NEEDLESS STORM”, “The Place of Dead ends”, and “A New Spring has Sprung”.

All of the works above can be seen on my website.

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