Meet our artist community: Q&As
Part of an ongoing series, members of our artist community share insights about their work, their stories and their relationship to ACAVA. Visit this page to read more.
Jon Paul Green is a multidisciplinary artist from Stoke-on-Trent, working across graphic design, public installations, collage, craft, typography, poetry, and performance art. Over the past few years, his practice has focused on large-scale public text installations, alongside analogue collages, performance pieces, and meditative craft exercises.
Jon Paul is the winner of last year’s ACAVA Hosts: Three Counties Open Residency, in partnership with Keele University and the Three Counties Open Art Exhibition.
Read on to learn more about Jon Paul’s creative process, what inspires him, and his plans for his upcoming residency at ACAVA Spode Works Studios.
Your name?
Jon Paul Green
Your type of art practice?
My practice seems to jump around across various mediums, with lots of different projects running in parallel. For about a year I was obsessed with making analogue collages, and I also enjoyed producing several instructional performance pieces. I then moved on to large-scale public text-based works, followed by making hand-crafted paper plants — though that was more of a meditative craft exercise than artistic expression.
I must write down at least one idea for an art project every day. Admittedly, when I look back over them, I’d say 80–90% are terrible (in my mind anyway), if not logistically and financially impossible to execute.
I find that writing ideas down frees me from them, and allows me to move on to the 10% I’d actually like to see come to fruition, which often lead to interesting experiments and projects.
I feel there has been a very linear path between an installation I made during COVID and winning the Three Counties ACAVA Studio Award. It was a large-scale text-based installation made using gravel and a stencil, which led to multiple commissions executed in a similar way. I later developed this approach for use on canvases, and I’ll certainly be continuing with this aspect of my practice during my time at ACAVA.
So even though there have been constant themes and specific approaches I’ve enjoyed exploring over the years, I do tend to struggle to pin down exactly what type of practice my art is.
I think I’m just someone who has to constantly exercise their creative muscles, and that creativity will manifest in whatever way feels right at the time.
Would you like to tell us about yourself?
I was born in Stoke-on-Trent. I studied Art and Design at Newcastle College, before going on to study Graphic Design and Advertising at Huddersfield University.
I knew I wanted to be an artist in some form from a very early age, but even as a child I was more interested in concepts and design than illustration or painting. I remember asking during my Art GCSE if I could make a piece of experimental typography (I probably didn’t word it like that). Thankfully, the teacher let me get on with it — if I’d been forced to do a still life of fruit or flowers, I’m not sure I’d have carried on pursuing art academically.
For that project, I wrote each letter of the alphabet in a different font using a different medium. Come to think of it, that’s not a million miles away from what my practice has been over the last few years.
I also feel the YBAs (Young British Artists) of the 1990s had a big impact on my outlook on art. It was a time when a piece of work could make it into a national newspaper and would invariably split opinion. I think a sweet spot for art is when half the audience absolutely loves what you’ve done and the other half is really annoyed by it.
I remember visiting Tate Liverpool with my parents around this time and being inspired by any work where the phrase “my five-year-old could do that” might be said about it. Seeing pieces like Carl Andre’s Equivalent VIII (the pile of bricks) and Tracey Emin’s My Bed in a gallery setting — and watching people be transfixed by them — showed me that artistic expression doesn’t have to be constrained to paint on canvas. That was hugely influential for a kid who loved art but felt they couldn’t really draw.
What are your plans for your upcoming residency at ACAVA Spode Works Studios?
Being given such a large, open space to work in offers a great opportunity to experiment with larger-scale works.
As it’s a three-month residency, I may give myself the loose structure of creating three new works in three different mediums — three installations, three canvases, three sculptures, etc.
But I’m also going to give myself permission to fail on any of these undertakings, and try to approach them with a more exploratory mindset rather than having a fixed goal. That’s something I’ve struggled with in the past (as I’m sure every artist has). Everything I start doesn’t have to end up perfect.
I do have a few ideas that continue in the vein of the work exhibited at the Three Counties exhibition, but I also think it will be interesting to see what inspiration comes from spending time in the building itself, alongside all the other artists.
Who are the artists, thinkers, or creators who have influenced you?
I could write numerous essays on this, so I’ll simply list a few names that have unequivocally impacted my creativity and career:
- Gina Green (my sister)
- Bill Drummond (both as part of The KLF and as an individual artist)
- Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer (particularly Vic Reeves Big Night Out)
- Richard Long
- Gilbert & George
- Rachel Whiteread
- Herbert Bayer (and the Bauhaus school as a whole)
- David Carson
- Robert Montgomery
- Paula Scher
- Neville Brody
- Marina Abramović
- I could go on, but I’ll leave it there — and add pretty much every local artist who’s ever put work forward for an exhibition.
What inspires you to make art?
Other artists, news articles, music, film, interviews, gigs, conversations in smoking areas, fashion… just life, basically.
What inspires you to keep making art?
For me it feels quite innate. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a need for artistic expression — whether that’s through art, poetry, fashion, or even dance. Anyone who expresses part of their individuality and puts it out into the world instantly inspires me.
And Stoke-on-Trent has such a rich and varied pool of creative talent that it’s hard not to be inspired to keep making work.
Did you study art formally? If so, what and where?
I studied Graphic Design at Newcastle College, and I feel very lucky to have studied there. The lecturers were genuinely passionate and extremely knowledgeable — it was a perfect introduction to design, illustration, and photography.
I knew I wanted to be an artist or work in the creative industries from a young age, but starting at Newcastle College really cemented that idea. It’s where I found my tribe.
I then went on to study Design and Advertising at Huddersfield University. At the time, it was the only university offering a dedicated advertising course. It was quite intense — we were effectively working 9–5 every day, constantly developing concepts and ideas.
Looking back, what part of your art school experience has had the biggest impact on your practice today?
Studying advertising meant you had to be an ideas factory. It was all about developing initial concepts, usually for a very specific end user and product. There were often quite restrictive parameters involved — certain images or fonts you had to use, or lengthy brand guidelines that had to be followed.
As an artist, I actually find the idea of unlimited freedom quite suffocating. The work I’m most proud of, both in my artistic practice and my design career, has been born out of creative restriction and tight boundaries.
That approach has definitely carried through into my art practice.
What materials do you use? What do you like about them?
I love paper, card, stencils, tape, glue, and road-marking paint. As I have a full-time job as a graphic designer, I really value time away from a screen and enjoy working with tangible materials.
I’ve used string, bricks, distance, nature, disco lights, and even a kayak in previous works. For the Three Counties piece, the element that brought me the most joy was incorporating the passage of time into the concept — it involved a setup, then a 12-month wait, followed by a kind of punchline.
Do you collaborate with others?
I’m friends with a couple of extremely talented photographers who’ve documented my work over the years. Jenny Harper from Urban Wilderness took some amazing shots of a text-based commission I made for them across multiple locations.
Natalie Willatt is my go-to photographer for more surreal performance pieces. We’ve also worked together on a music video, and she filmed the kayak piece that formed part of a larger collaborative project for B-Arts called Tomorrow’s Garden.
It’s invaluable having someone you trust to capture work and know the results will align with how you imagined it.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given as an artist?
Accept that you are going to fail — but know that those failures will be stepping stones to better work.
Easier said than done, though.
Where can we find your work?
I’m terrible at sharing my work outside of public installations or gallery settings, but during my residency I’m committing to sharing more on social media.
You can find most of the work I’m happy with on Instagram. You can also read a guest blog I wrote for Urban Wilderness, which includes the short film “Dance Alone No More”. My analogue collage portfolio is also still available at Cargo Collective.
About Jon Paul’s residency
Jon Paul Green has won this year’s ACAVA Hosts: Three Counties Open Residency through the Three Counties Open exhibition. He joins our studio community at Spode Works Studios for a three-month residency, exploring new installations, canvases, and experimental projects.
