Artist Dick Frizzell steps into the Canvas Confession Box.
PRIDE
Which sin would you like to start with?
Let's start at the top: pride. I have been reading a lot about the Renaissance lately and I
thought how silly the whole list is, even the idea of deadly sins. It's kind of meaningless these days. Like pride, what's wrong with pride? Christians have a lot to answer for. When I get a painting right, I feel pride - especially if it's been a difficult one to finish. I Iike to come into the studio at night and turn on the light all of a sudden and look at it and go, "Wow, did I do that?"
Isn't that an earned pride? I think when you look at pride as a sin, it's vainglorious, it's not warranted or it's getting in the way of other things.
That's just delusional stupidity. Is stupidity a sin? It's not something you can correct.
You are known for painting ordinary objects and making them beautiful.
It's a strange sort of sentiment, getting attached to a Wettex sponge cloth. I express my faith in the material world through the painting. I don't have any sort of value hierarchy, so a diamond isn't worth any more than a Wettex sponge cloth. For some peculiar reason I am capable of looking at them in that detached way. There's no moral high ground.
Are you a collector of things?
I don't collect them; they just seem to accumulate around me. My studio is insane because of that superstition about hanging on to stuff, that sense that these things might be handy any day now. People might say that's a collection but not really. There's no curatorial ambition.