Finding his place in a "proper grown-up art gallery alongside proper artists"
Shane O'Leary working under the trade name Using Glue offers an exhibition at The Clive Sawyer Gallery, 87 High Street, Rye until June 30.
“I am actually a local and enjoyed a happy childhood bouncing around the countryside between Wittersham, Rye and Hastings. As kids we always thought of Rye and Hastings as the big cities because there were cinemas, traffic, rooms for children in the pubs and lots of things to look at. When I returned to Rye as an adult, I lived in Military Road and enjoyed pottering around the various galleries in Rye, including the Clive Sawyer Gallery.
“I use a lot of photographs to make my works. Clive Sawyer is a noted photographer and we'd always talked a bit of shop when I slid in to gawk and steal ideas, but It didn't occur to me that any of my work could be a good fit for Clive's gallery until a few months ago when Clive saw some works I was taking to a client in Rye and asked to see more.
“Seeing that I'm a working artist I don't need asking twice so I slapped the folio down and Clive picked out a pair of my mixed media works; Instant (Pop) Art Collection and Instant Art Collection #1 and now they're both hanging up in a proper grown-up art gallery alongside proper artists.
“After no formal tuition or training but having an artist for a mother I have no idea where I fit on the art spectrum. I used to ask proper artists how to make art and how to get it shown and the responses varied from the hostile, ‘Get lost, art's full’ to the neutral ‘You have to find your own way’ to the genuinely helpful ‘Make what you'd like to see.’
“So, my work is informed or deformed by the things that interest, excite or annoy me and it's often difficult to tell which is which. Of course, that's the whole art thing in a nutshell: no one knows anything, but everyone knows what they like and I know that some people like some of my work and that's more than enough because my favourite artists are Caravaggio and Tracey Emin and I love most of their work, but they've still done some work I wouldn't hang and that's hope enough for the rest of us.
“It's especially nice to be showing some work in Rye because I've lived here, my son went to the local schools and Rye has an international reputation as a centre for the arts.”
https://clivesawyer.gallery/ and https://www.instagram.com/using.glue/