The basic premise of CHANGE YOUR MIND is that if areas such as science, business and education adopted the methods of artists and art colleges, they would produce more interesting and innovative results.

In CHANGE YOUR MIND I’ve tried hard to capture the spirit and thinking that exists among the writers and artists I mix with socially and at work, and also the methods and attitudes we encourage at Central St Martins College of Art where I have lectured for some years. I have seen the benefits of thinking creatively for students and fellow artists and I’m trying to find ways to push these methods out to a wider section of society.

When I first stepped into an Art College as a student at the Bath Academy of Art and later at the Royal College of Art, I instantly felt at home - for the first time ever. At school I had felt that creativity was suppressed and crushed - teachers and examiners feared creativity. They regarded it as dangerous. They steered students away from it in the same way they steered them away from drugs, burglary or gambling. But art, writing and music were my passions. I felt guilty and somehow wrong. At Art College I found the opposite. The spirit was one where mistakes were acceptable. Where you could try and fail. There was no emphasis on getting it right. All around me were people experimenting for the sheer hell of it. Doing things that made no sense – or rather doing things because they made no sense. There was a sense of freedom and release - while all around in the wider world people were being thoughtlessly reasonable, doing something because it was what everyone else was doing. Paradoxically the creative approach to life led to more worthwhile things (films, books, albums, paintings) than the logical, sensible approach.

Many years later when I returned to art education as a university lecturer at CSM I found the same environment. I have met many famous creative people; many are included in CHANGE YOUR MIND. I work primarily as an artist but I’ve also been involved in many international projects and exhibitions – with universities, corporations and cultural organizations. I care passionately about promoting and pushing the spirit of creativity that exists in art education out into the wider world. I hope CHANGE YOUR MIND is a step in that direction.

CHANGE YOUR MIND is really a summary of all the good things I’ve noticed in art education and the creative people I’ve met. There’s a consistent theme in CHANGE YOUR MIND and if I were to sum it up in a sentence - ‘to transform our businesses, education and organizations with a wider understanding of human creativity and intelligence.’