Interview: Artist & musician, Tommy Perman
Tommy Perman is an artist, designer and musician based in rural Perthshire. His creative work fuses traditional techniques with digital technology, often exploring the theme of growth and decay in cities and urban environments. Throughout his career, Tommy has won several awards, including a Scottish BAFTA, exhibited in the National Museum of Scotland and even had his work projected onto the Sydney Opera House.
We caught up with Tommy to find out more about his experience in education and beyond…
Hi Tommy! Can you tell us a little bit about what you do?
Creatives have to explain what they do to people all the time, but I still find it a hard question to answer. I can answer in a few different ways because the reality of being an artist is that you have to do a variety of different jobs to earn your keep. Over the 20 years since I graduated, I have turned my hand to all sorts of things to make money, and I have been lucky that they have often involved creativity.
When someone asks “What do you do?”, I perform a quick calculation to determine whether it would be easier just to say I design websites or - until recently - that I am a teacher. However, I think of myself as an artist. From being a tiny kid to the tiny adult I am now, when I am left to my own devices then all I want to do is make stuff. The other thing that goes hand-in-hand with that is collaboration; I love involving other people in my enthusiasm for making and sharing their great ideas.
What was your experience like studying at art school?
I left school a year early to do a portfolio course at a college in Edinburgh. After that, I applied to art schools in Glasgow and Aberdeen. I failed to get into Glasgow School of Art (my first taste of rejection) but got into Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. I had quite a tough time there and struggled to settle into art school life. I suffered from depression in my second year, just like many of the students I have taught since. Art school can be a tough place, as it is a time to question your identity. It forces you inwards when many of us are quite introspective anyway. Luckily, my passion for creativity remained a constant throughout. I have always dealt with things by making.
“My passion for creativity remained a constant throughout. I have always dealt with things by making. ”
- Tommy Perman
I was studying Painting, but I never actually painted. A course didn’t exist for the multi-media art I wanted to create, and painting seemed like the best fit because I loved to draw. Gray’s School of Art was best for facilitating oil painters - if you did that, you were grand. However, if you were messing around with sound and video like me, you were treated like a bit of an awkward customer.
I did an Erasmus exchange to Holland for my third year, and had quite a tough time over there too. The college didn’t want me there, and I remember one stern German teacher telling me he couldn’t teach me because I couldn’t paint. It was, however, really great seeing another country. I met some other artists in Holland who saw something in me and my work and gave me my first-ever exhibition at an artist-run cafe.
Did your experience at art school improve by the end?
I came back to Aberdeen for my final year and started thinking about what to do after art school. While I was away, I had decided that it was going to be crap to try and make it on my own so I needed to find the right people. I met some other artists who were working with sound, too, and we started making silly, fun work together. We had so much energy for making stuff and working together, and it gave us all something to look forward to after graduating. We even invented a fake art student and put on a fake degree show alongside the real one just for the hell of it. Coming out of art school with friends, I felt excited to work with was my route into the grown-up world.
What happened after you had graduated from art school?
I swiftly moved into illustration and graphic design, which is how I earned a living. I also made some money from selling prints and original pieces of art, but not enough to sustain myself. In the beginning, I did a lot of design work for very little money to build a portfolio, and that is something I don’t want anyone else to have to do. Without living at home and having support from my parents, I’m not sure whether I would have managed to have a career in the arts. There are a bunch of things in my favour: white, male, middle class and from a supportive family. So many things stacked up for me, and, although it didn’t feel easy at the time, I can only imagine how tough it could have been.
You’ve also worked as a university lecturer. What made you want to teach?
The teaching came as soon as I left art school. I did a weekend course in book binding at a printmaking workshop in Aberdeen called Peacock Visual Arts. As soon as I learnt some techniques, I said, “Everybody is getting notebooks for Christmas!” and they did for many years. I got to know the team there a little bit, and they asked me if I was interested in teaching a workshop in their youth programme for kids with additional support needs. We went around Aberdeen taking photos, which we then turned into digital drawings and screen-printed stickers. This was my first taste of teaching.
After that, I gradually picked up opportunities here and there and started to see teaching as part of the ethos of being an artist, as it was all about sharing and learning. I went on to teach evening classes at Edinburgh College of Art and then did some work at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee, which built up until I was a more regular face around there.
As someone who has worked within it, what do you think needs to change about the education system?
We could talk at length about this, but to give a digestible answer: the biggest issue is that our education system is based on capitalism and profit. If I wasn’t always a hippy, I am now. I am sick and tired of capitalism - it’s not doing anyone any favours. Education and health need to be removed from the economic system and valued differently.
I have fundamental disagreements with the current education system and the way it treated me, which is why I left teaching. I believe everyone, especially young people, deserves so much more, and it saddens me to my very core that the system is in such a mess. I had to stake a stand and step back, but I have never lost my love of education. I will still find ways to teach in community-focused ways. I believe so strongly in lifelong learning; we should be encouraged to keep learning for our entire lives.
How do you define success?
One thing that I have reflected on in recent years is my distaste for competition. I don’t want to win if that means somebody else has to lose. Competition puts pressure on an individual to repeat their successes, and it makes others think they will never achieve the same. It should be about collaboration over competition. I think these ideas get to the heart of what is wrong with our society and why there are a lot of unhappy people. I’d like to try and contribute to ways we can change things so everybody is working together and celebrating success in different ways.
I am re-evaluating what success means to me. Having the time to make work is what truly makes me happy. Success is when I have a few unbroken hours where I can sit and play with something. Anything that I do is striving toward that as an aim.
Finally, what advice would you have for someone wanting to follow a career similar to yours?
I’d be amazed if someone wanted to follow a similar career path to mine! You tell your story after the fact, and it looks quite neat, but that is only because I have curated it. Along the way, you are just making it up as you go along. It’s cheesy, but my advice is: just be nice to people. My desire is to work with nice people and to say nice things to people to make them feel nice. Let’s all do that.