Live from Firstsite Colchester (the Golden Banana). Exhibition programme manager George is born and bred Bas Vegas (aka Basildon) from Laindon Hills. His family grew up in a self-built wooden shack in the Plotlands - which fitted closely into the themes of Michael Landy’s ‘Welcome to Essex’ exhibition, George’s first project at Firstsite. Firstsite has seen artists like Ai Weiwei, Anthony Gormley, Grayson Perry - and now George himself! It began with a bursary in 2020 talking to autistic people about what art meant to them. Which led to an open call for artworks about technology, which lead to this autobiographical exhibition ‘Voyager 2000: Worldbeing & Wonder?’ where George tells his life story through other people’s artwork. George was trapped in an uninspiring retail job, and managed to hustle his way into doing what he wanted - by pursuing art journalism to talk about ableism in queer spaces in Gay Times and then using social media to find art mentors. As a child George visited the National Gallery in between hospital appointments, and he studied painting for human emotion which helped him mask. Art is very relationship based, artists being recommended by other people. George would use dating sites to meet men that would teach him about art history. He is interested in changing the power dynamics in the artworld. Hanging exhibitions at different heights for accessibility. Balancing accessibility needs. He advocates engagement over preservation, and wants people to touch some artworks. Making smellable artworks. George came into art through the art therapy programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital when he was a child. He had his artwork shown at Turner Contemporary at Margate, and acquired by Southend Museum. How did George include the Grindr app colours into his exhibition. Why you should make friends with caretakers! Getting diagnosed as autistic. Talking about the Disability Pride flag. Fetishisation of the disabled body. How technology in Essex has gone from the invention of radio all the way to location services in Grindr? How did a Nintendo Wii-U make George burst out crying? Mixing established artists with emerging artists within an exhibition.

George Morl website

George on Instagram

Are You Creative? recorded by Lawker Media, at Firstsite Colchester, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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It’s National Cheeseburger Day and Sangita isn’t here, it’s the legend Adam on the co-host - He’s been at Rom Skatepark chucking coloured powder all over the kids for the end of skatepark summer season. Over to our guest… Jake ‘The Burgerman’ Willis plays guitar in hardcore band Raiden, and being in a heavy metal band makes you have bad hearing. Prank chat. Hat chat. Wait for it… BURGER CHAT! Jake was named after Jake’s Hamburgers in Ilford, his Dad loves burgers too. Jake likes his burgers simple! Quality ingredients. No fancy extras. A beef patty between two slices of bread. He cooked A LOT of burgers to learn how to do it well. A flat griddle on his hob upped the game. Then during COVID lockdown, he made burgers EVERYDAY! And then made too many burgers for his family, so started delivering to mates. Food drops are exciting. Nick remembers the Meat Wagon in London. Jake doesn’t want to ruin his creative passion for burgers by doing it full time. He loves the exclusive drop format. Eating burgers with a knife and fork! What makes a good burger bun? Getting the perfect bun transformed the whole burger product - the secret was potato. Matt Binge from Food Review Club gave Jake’s burgers an incredible score when he tried it. A lot of love for Big Macs. What would be in the ultimate Essex burger? What are the secrets to seasoning. Has Jake eaten 10000 burgers? We hear about Hamburger by Hepburn in Shenfield - a restaurant with a butchers - sounds amazing. Nick rates Devine Burgers at The Vine in Great Bardfield. Adam likes to put a Birdseye Potato Waffle in with his burger. The Sistine Chapel of Big Mac made by the gods which Jake had at Hawksmoor (not Essex!). Nick gets dreamy talking about Burger Bear at Old Street. Has anyone made an amazing veggie burger? Halo Burger! Is perfecting burgers like learning the guitar?

WillisyBurger Instagram

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam at Lawker Media, Chelmsford, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Alternative wedding dress fashion designer. Born and bred on the wrong side of the tracks in Chelmsford, Essex. Not everyone likes to wear white at their wedding, so Lucy Can’t Dance make more individual items. Dip dye is a big thing for them, Dresses that look great and still allow y ou to eat, drink, dance and not have ten people have to help you to the toilet. Ease of going to the toilet in a wedding dress is something not enough people think about! Lucy started out learning performing arts, singing and acting, not wardrobe. She’d customise her own charity shop clothes, then interned at a dressmaker. Learning pattern cutting, and getting to make gypsy bridal wear with crystals and other amazing additions. Nick invents the Colin The Caterpillar wedding dress. People want custom weddings now. Crazy wedding cakes! All about Nick’s medieval wedding and hiring suits of armour. Don’ mention the W word! Lucy Can’t Dance think it’s important to have transparent pricing. Lucy Can’t Dance has no size limits, total body positivity. Fittings and alterations, especially if people are pregnant for their wedding. Organising fake weddings for photos shoots is fun! Designing to scale up designs for sizes from 8 to 30 and ensuring it looks great on everyone. Summer is a busy time, so straight after the weddings Lucy starts designing the new collection. Lucy started designing on paper, but now uses iPad, but she can’t draw hands. Nick wants to change his surname to McAwesome. Lucy is aiming to develop a rainbow dip-dye. Tequila Sunrise is a very popular colour. The Prince’s Trust backed Lucy Can’t Dance early on with business development. Lucy has employed her interns in the past and find talent that studied fashion and textiles at Colchester Institute. How to get into fashion. Why don’t people have more lemurs at weddings? Choosing colours that will dye together. The brand has customers from as far away as Australia. Are wedding dresses just lace mullets?

Lucy Can't Dance
Lucy Can't Dance Instagram

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam at Lawker Media, Chelmsford, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Artist, educator, curator, and rebel. A portfolio worker - someone that has lots of different artistic things going on. Creative variety keeps life interesting. Elaine created Birdland on a roundabout in Chelmsford, it is a birdhouse city - commissioned by a housing developer - and created in collaboration with local kids. More on the housing crisis and the return of peregrines to Chelmsford. Bronze plaques with collective nouns for birds. Training robins to land on your hand. Elaine’s creative career started at BBC Essex, as a receptionist, then a news Radio Production Assistant. Blue Peter’s Katy Hill worked there too! Elaine also got to run the first BBC Essex website. She tried three times to become an artist in her life. Finally someone at BBC Essex suggested she should try to become an artist. It started at Chelmsford College with a foundation degree, part time, which she completed in one year (instead of two). And then a five year art degree at Central St.Martins. While looking after two young children at the same time. Legendary commitment to art! BBC Essex kindly allowed her to work the degree around her job. Then she did a Masters degree. What is the difference between Art and Fine Art? Creating the alter ego Aileen Liberty and becoming a professional artist. Making fake For Sale boards for a non-existent real estate agent. Funding art - paint and canvas is expensive. How to get into art when you aren’t rich. Painting sales science - dark green and gold paintings are big sellers. Why did blue and purple blow people’s minds back in the day (back back back in the day). Creating a new evaluation system for Chelmsford Museum exhibitions. Sand timers for appreciating art. Can digital art be counted as ‘art’? Yes. Using art as a catalyst for discussion about the environment. Painting road art for Tour De France in Essex. Reclaim the Seax! Elaine got EXPELLED from school at 15 - but made up for it with adult education. Artists should never work for free - but value exchange in volunteering is ok. Elaine is a fine art gangsta.

Elaine Tribley on Instagram

Elaine's website

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam at Lawker Media, Chelmsford, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Grub is a young graffiti artist from Southend. At just 11 years old he’s taken part in Southend City Jam and painted around the country. He is mostly interested in classic graffiti styles, rather than street art. Sangita looks through Grub’s black book (graf sketch book) and can’t believe he can draw so well. Grub is from a creative family, and his Dad is an excellent artist who has taught him to draw. One of Grub’s teachers, Miss James, spotted his artistic talent when he was 8 and motivated him. Grub now has mentors for painting - Ekto, Ster, and Rask. He met them at Southend City Jam 2023 and showed them his sketchbook, Rask grabbed the organisers to show them the work, and he was invited to paint there in 2024. City Jam has massively brightened up Southend with the colourful murals and pieces throughout the city. Big up Scotty Brave for making Essex more colourful with his murals. Grub has painted Leake Street in London, which is an iconic location - he even got recognised from his documentary on YouTube. Ben Mills from Hellfire Film made the mini documentary, and it has made Grub a little bit famous. Essex has a rich history of graffiti - the 2-mile long Lakeside Seawall and Rochford Mill are classic spots. Grub loves the illegal side of graffiti and seeing where people manage to get art up, enjoying the placement and cheekiness. He loves placements that are like a crime that doesn’t really affect anyone - like The Lurkers in caves, and tunnels under London. Talking about King Robbo vs Banksy. If you’re painting a legal wall like Warrior Square in Southend, you’ll need to go over the top of someone else’s work. Painting is expensive, so it would be great for Grub to get sponsored - come on Montana! Choosing a name to tag. When you start out you are ‘toy’. Grub’s previous name was ‘Cob123’, but one day he painted Grub and loved the flow of the letters. Doodle-grid is the way that artists map out their works on big walls to get the proportions and layout correct. Grub has been painting over tube maps and selling them on Instagram. Painting on Rod Stewart’s trainset. If you want to start graffiti - just go for it, don’t be afraid of drawing letters. Grub practiced can control in his garden on some old plywood. Limiting screen time and the ensuing boredom can stoke creativity. Hard work, repetition and practice lead to improvement. Grub is unique at graffiti jam events for being so young. Grub is in a few crews - UPC and CBM.

Grub on Instagram

Grub documentary

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam at Lawker Media, Chelmsford, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Radio presenter and audio documentary maker. Kaelyn created a documentary about the Chelmsford skateboarding scene, around Central Park between 2020 and 2023. Kaelyn is a skateboarder, so the subject was personal for her. Skate scenes are always in flux, and this was a busy time for the scene in Essex. Why do creative people gravitate to skateboarding? Or does skateboarding make people creative? Being a female skater is hard because you don’t feel fully included. Especially when a WhatsApp group was created just for the male skaters at the skatepark. Kaelyn tackles this in her audio documentary. Is it fun to be mean as a 15 year old? Kaelyn is studying radio and podcasting at Point Blank Music School in Hoxton, London. She captured the atmosphere and sounds of the skatepark with field recordings to bring the documentary to life. The field recordings bring the time and place to life, let you imagine you are there. Learning skating language and the terms - it’s an international language! How the audio documentary let Kaelyn go deep into her thoughts and feelings from the time at the skatepark, allowed her to address issues, and get closure on them. Documentaries about the human microcosms of society, like the skatepark, can be fascinating for outsiders - all of this microdrama and dynamics are happening everywhere in all groups of people. Sangita is intimidated by skaters. Kaelyn has an eclectic music radio show on CCR Radio (Chelmsford Community Radio). Why is 90s music so hot right now? Essex music is amazing. Doing work experience at a radio station, and leading to a future career. Big up Paul Dupree. The power of a great audio book or documentary, like watching a film in your mind. Tips for interviewing people. The creative podarpillar. Cheese dreams. Are radios more important than toasters? Edging with the toaster.

Kaelyn's Evening Interlude

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam at Lawker Media, Chelmsford, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Chaz is from art duo The London Police - originally from Chelmsford. His partner Bob got attacked by a seagull on Chelmsford Tindal Street while they were painting at Concrete Canvas. The danger of painting very high murals - territorial gulls. At school he was into drawing, and then moved into photography, especially for bands. Chaz ended up on the music scene and sold t-shirts for 90s indie superstars Echobelly, as well as touring with Oasis, PWEI and Boyzone. Becoming famous street artists meant that The London Police could live the rock and roll tour life around the world as artists. Chaz started drawing little characters while he was running merch stands for bands - which was an early version of the classic The London Police ‘lad’ character. He always loved graffiti and followed the crew ERZ (Essex Rockerz) at Chelmsford gasworks. After moving to Amsterdam in the late-90s, Chaz’s little characters started appearing on the streets as Chaz jogged around the streets with a pen. TLP got famous pretty quickly in Amsterdam at the same time as street art got popular globally with Shepherd Fairey (Obey), Banksy and Space Invader. Chaz found his own style because he could do traditional graffiti, and it helped him develop a unique style. TLP pride themselves in craft and cleanliness of their lines and marks. Concrete Canvas and street art have transformed Chelmsford into a more visually creative and inspiring City. The multiple heads on TLP characters represent structures of control and influence. Chaz draws the characters, and Bob builds the world around them with precise architectural lines and the smaller minion characters. How to manage a creative partnership? Making each other improve and step up your artistic game. How do you repair a piece of street art after a tropical storm in Miami? How do you start making money as a street artist? Brands and shops would pay money for live painting shows and murals. Pasting posters with Shepherd Fairey in Tokyo. Featuring in street art books (big up Tristan Manco). TLP painted their first big murals in Hengelo and Enschede in the Netherlands. How did The London Police mural on Prinsengracht become a piece of UNESCO Heritage protected art? Creating art that will still be around when you are not. How to spot a good spot to tag? The glory days of Shoreditch street art. How do you learn the rules of street art and where to paint? How do you find your style? Enthusiasm and mean it! Painting Dua Lipa in Kosovo. Painting a 45 metre high 14-storey building in Berlin that you can see from a plane! Meat raffle.

The London Police
TLP on Instagram

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam at Lawker Media, Chelmsford, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK

Jeordie is the Programmes Lead at the charity Tonic Music providing mental health support to the music industry and music fans. School and Jeordie didn’t get on - except for Mr.Harris the sociology teacher who encouraged his path into sociology. His psychology and sociology dissertation at uni was inspired by the death of Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots - why do these entertainers that give us so much enjoyment struggle with mental health? He’s since published a book chapter on mental health in the music business, and gone on to a pHD. And this led him to a job at Tonic Music. They started with music workshops for the local community in Portsmouth in 2012, and gig buddy programmes. Now it's a national charity. Tonic Rider now provides support to musicians via an online support service. They are supported by artists like Libertines, Amy Beesting (OMG It’s The Church), Barry Ashworth (Dub Pistols), and Terry Hall from The Specials. The charity is for anyone from buskers to bands playing stadiums. Musicians need support because they have to create and perform their art which brings unique stresses - regular negative feedback, performance anxiety, hyper-competition among other things. Even Sir Paul McCartney still gets performance anxiety! What is it that makes musician’s susceptible to substance use? Tonic have been providing support to venues around the country, backstage, for staff, and the audience, with posters with links for support. Cradle of Filth and Ed Sheeran - will it happen? Big up the new Essex bands - Monumental, Myopia, Pet Needs, Meffs, Gasoline Green, Bridget, She’s In Parties, Fraser Morgan, Monster Florence, Rad Pitt, Slay Duggee. Musical history suffers from rockism, where other genres like bhangra and drill are overlooked in their cultural importance. Pick up some Tonic Music merch at a gig and help to fund them, and also meet them and get talking about mental health.

Tonic Music
Tonic Music on Insta

Are You Creative? recorded by Adam at Lawker Media, Chelmsford, ESSEX
Edited by Nick Hearne
Artwork by Alpaca Antenna

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Thanks to NGDA for their support

Recorded in Chelmsford, Essex, UK