Andy Warhol, Man Ray, David Bowie, they have all had a big influence on me as a person and as an artist. But then, so have original TV series such as Randall & Hopkirk, UFO, Captain Scarlet, The Avengers and The Prisoner. They were all present during my formative years, and the one thing they all have in common is a high level of creativity. The negative aspects of my life have also helped shape me, such as having an art teacher who tried to stifle my talent, and the hypocrisy I saw within the churches where my parents were caretakers. But, you know, I took the good with the bad, and came through it strong enough to form my own opinions, and to construct for myself the sort of life I wanted. Today, I have an art practice in the centre of Wolverhampton called Stored Images, and I also write a horse racing column for www.attheraces.com I used to think that these two areas of interest (gambling and art) would create conflict, and for many years kept them apart, but now I allow them to collide, feed off and interact with each other. And from this mini ‘big bang’ comes a good deal of my work. I'm interested in risk, chance and the gamble of life, and how people behave in order to shift the odds more in their favour. I hope, when you look at my work, you will see some of these influences coming through.