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| Toxteth Working in the dereliction and urban decay of 70's Toxteth Liverpool was far more relevant for me than working within the hallowed walls of the Art College. At the centre of Toxteth stood the massive Anglican Cathedral (a symbol of Victorian values and beliefs) encircled by the ghettoised Black area (a product of the Empire and 50's politics and planning), a declining China Town (the oldest in Europe) and the "60's" community of famous poets, writers, musicians, artists as well as art students and the many prostitutes and pimps going about their business as usual. In the streets many of the grand 18th and 19th century merchants town houses were now derelict and fated with inevitable demolition. Yet overall, the area was strangely homogenous and unknowingly gravitating towards the infamous Toxteth Riots of 1981. I had attended the lower school of the art school in this area in the early 60's and knew the area very well. I was now a young artist realising its history and intrigued by its potential. I was also rejecting what I saw as the insular predictability of art, art education and art galleries and armed with a small leather suitcase containing string, tape, chalk, charcoal, staple gun, note pad and pencil and the ethos "have art will travel" I refined my way of working. With these basic tools and materials I wanted to creatively respond to the cities urban reality and in fact, any other situation that was challenging. Unwilling to bring my work back to the studio and expecting others to respect this ethos I simply left notes and directions as to where I and the work could be found (of course, very few people responded). This led to the "Toxteth Series" and the "Park Series". It was an important period of research, experiment and challenge and led to national recognition in the 1976 New Contemporaries and later in Art Games which achieved European and International recognition.
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