Way way back in 2002, when i was trying to be a serious writer, I accidentally did a book full of stickmen drawings. My wife said they were really funny and she’s nearly always right about everything. So, frustrated at not being able to get a book published, I realised i could do this one myself. I paid for 2000 copies and sold them shop to shop. Long story short, a publisher saw it and offered me my first publishing contract. I ended up doing 5 books. Then, while i was living in Abu Dhabi in 2007 working for an advertisign agency, some old advertising mates of mine back in NZ came up with a stickman to front a low-price supermarket. In a weird twist of fate, a few years later I came back to NZ and ended up working in the ad agency that handled the account, so I made Pak N Save stickman ads for about 10 years.

I have always identified with stickmen. They were the first characters I ever tried to draw. I copied the ones i found in letters my grandfather wrote to my mum in WW2. Anyone can draw stickmen. They’re not like horses. When I was a child, the question of whether you were artistic or not came down to how well you could draw a horse. My horses sucked, but I could draw stickmen.

I discovered a love of ideas and the possibility of being a creative type by stumbling into advertising, but the imposter syndrome has always been strong. After my stickmen books, I began to explore the idea of stickmen, like myself, as unartistic characters pretending to be creative. Arty imposters, if you will. Over the past 20 years, I have explored how they would show up in the world of art if they dared to. The work here is how some of those ideas turned out.

PS - I have a new book which my agent is trying to sell to a publisher at the moment. Message me if ya wanna see some of the new ideas. My wife thinks they are really funny.