introducing...Russell Hackney

Where do you currently live?

Bowen Island, B.C

Tell us the best thing about that city.

The community; the raw, unpopulated landscape…the eggs benny at The Snug.

If you didn’t live there you’d love to live…..

Probably the Lake District in the UK or New York. Or maybe Paris. Tuscany…no wait…Toronto was cool…Yorkshire that’s it! or The Lakes, New York….

Outside of ceramic art what other types of art/design/fashion etc are you drawn to and does it influence your work?

If I had the time I would try to write. I am also really drawn to wood block printing; landscape painting….

If you couldn’t be an artist next best job would be:

What, there are other jobs?

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve done in the name of art?

Oh boy, I have been a mould maker for a few years now and I’ve been involved in a lot of ‘Interesting Projects'! Sometimes you just hope that the client discovers for themselves how bad an idea it is that they have come up with…but often in the past the idea has landed on my work bench! Making a mould of a client’s, freshly caught large fish was memorable for the smell that emanated from drying the mould…it took about a month for it to leave our small workshop in Stoke.

No cheating what’s the book beside your bed?

The Rattlebag: An Anthology of Poetry by Seamus Heaney & Ted Hughes (editors)

If you could exhibit your work alongside any artist, alive or dead who would you want to show with?

Van Gogh - should attract a decent crowd.

Name someone everyone should follow on instragram:

Hitomi Hosono www.instagram.com/HitomiHosono

Best tip you’ve ever been given on how to be an artist:

"Never envy the creativity of someone else, it will kill your own"

Favorite thing to listen to in the studio:

I am a bit of a BBC Radio nerd! So when I’m mould making 'Radcliffe & Maconie' BBC 6 is a must! If I am bleary eyed and want a calmer, left field start to the day, something that might get the creative juices flowing, then Late Junction BBC Radio 3 is amazing - it might be a really old blues field recording or some contemporary Japanese classical piece, then maybe an 8 minute micro recording of hazelnuts slowly roasting! Honestly you have to try this programme! When I am modelling I also like Desert Island Discs; The Archers; Private Passions…radio is hugely important to me (you might have already guessed that)

Creative blocks? How do you fix them?

Just keep turning up. Forest walks talking out loud. (BTW I have found that getting lost down a Pinterest black hole doesn’t help).

Do you have a super power? If yes what? If no what super power would you choose?

'Super power' is a bit to North American for me to attain, need to scale it down a bit - being English - so I have a Mildly Useful Power: here on Bowen, at the beach, I have demonstrated that I can throw a pebble quite far.

One goal, art related or otherwise, that you want to accomplish before you die?

To write something good! Novel, play…just to enjoy writing.

Check out more about Russell on his profile page.