A One Man Riot ~ Interview with Vincent Godfrey-Glynn
Residents of Athenry will recognise the Artist Vincent Godfrey Glynn who lives and works in their midst. He can be seen walking miles each morning, impeccably styled in a great coat or a vintage jacket, with his signature long silver hair waving behind him, whatever the weather. Always cool. Known for witty remarks while passing.
I have heard through the grapevine that the council house he returns to daily is quietly transforming into a giant drawing interspersed with sculptures, an art project that is self-propelled and advancing at speed.
Today, on a misty late August afternoon, I arrive at his door to interview him and to take a peek. No clues from the outside. He opens the door, relaxed and welcoming, wearing a flowing white shirt, light baggy trousers and chunky sandals. ‘Come in. Come in.’ I follow him down the hall, clocking an oversize shovel standing sentry like at the top of the stairs.
He settles down by the table and gestures to me to sit across from him. I complement him on his hair which is glorious. ‘Just washed’, he tells me.
He bears a resemblance to John Hurt, the actor, except Vincent has two silver earrings dangling from one ear. The Idols are playing on a stereo system which has been transformed into a playful sculpture. ‘I work to music, punk, rock, metal’ he says. ‘Always’. His voice is deep and gentle, and he chuckles like a mischievous child. ‘Bowie was an icon to me. A rule breaker.’
I look around me. This house is animated, lively. Lines, points, coloured shapes, masks, objects, sculptures. One thing leads to the other, playful lines jumping to the next creation like shoots from a spider plant. His favourite spot is here in the kitchen, which he says is not finished yet. Sitting sideways at the table with his back against the wall, he has a view in all directions, to the hall, the back kitchen, the garden. Vincent loves the kitchen floor, the space and watching the Art move through the house. ‘Without Art there is empty space. Most of this is empty space,’ says Vinny as he gestures into his kitchen.
Interesting how he sees all this space. I see sculptures perched high and low. There is an electronic piano on its side holding up re-imagined objects. Large dots of bright yellow or red punctuate the drawings on the walls and the installations. The doors are works of art in themselves, with laughing creatures around the handles. Two doors form a diptych when opened towards each other.
‘I moved in straight from hospital, so first I had to recover. The whole house was new, a blank canvas. I hung a few drawings. Now I take it further. Have a little fun ‘.
If he had the means he would own a Picasso or DaVinci drawing. He can’t live without Art, Tea, Tobacco. He makes me a cup of tea and tells me he has some stories for me and begins.
Aged 15, he started doodling. He discovered Radio Caroline that broadcast all night from its base out on the Atlantic Ocean, outside of the Church’s jurisdiction. Then found New Musical Express. Into Galway to buy it weekly. Torch under blankets all night whenever there wasn’t a storm. Discovered a whole new world outside Athenry. Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, English and American music. NME was radical, left wing, hippy. Recommended lists of albums, books and exhibitions. Intrigued, Vincent got his hands on everything, read the whole lot, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Beckett, Proust. Bored at school with no Art class, he was expelled twice for lack of interest. ‘I’m happy I was born when I was, in time to enjoy the 60s. I was young and radical.’
He grew his hair long at 16. His Mother was mortified but never objected. Cars would pass him in Athenry and shout “Are you a woman or a man?” I sat the Art Exam in the other school in town and passed with flying colours.
‘After school, I became a proper hippy, did as little as possible, walked for miles. I wore a kaftan, in the brightest colours possible. I discovered drinking and loved to cause a racket. Pre-technology. Moved into Galway. Fun times.’
He lives for Art. He is always making, drawing or thinking about it. If he could get away without eating, he would. ‘All Art is line, play, form, composition,’ he tells me.
He has showed hundreds of drawings, his style a playful mix of lines, dots, brushstrokes, coloured shapes, textiles and objects. In recent years, inimitable sculptures inhabit his shows too. Vincent’s House-Drawing is a continuum but has added light, space and colour. And you can walk into it.
Out of the blue, Vincent saw an ad for a new 2-year diploma in Ceramics at Galway RTC: Design & Fabrication. He marched in and put his name down. He loved it. Especially as it included a stipend of £15 a week. A brilliant English craftsman had set up the course and encouraged individual expression. Halfway through second year Vinny had mastered pots and started building more sculptural forms. ‘They offered me the Foundation in Art & Design. I jumped at the chance.’
‘And do you have any pots left from that time?’, I asked him.
‘One big pot, it was buried in my brother Noel’s garden for years, I recently dug it out.
I’ll show it to you. Follow me.’
We move to the living room. This impressive pot sits in the corner, on a new plinth with colourful objects placed on top. All of the walls have drawings that are directly on the wall with vibrantly coloured sculptures positioned high and low. Each is a playful response to the one next to it and on it goes. A never-ending artwork. This living room is an enclosed space and is now complete.
I do not know how best to describe it; it has to be experienced. If I stand in the middle of the room and view in all directions I can take in each detail. His turf sculptures excite me the most. On bespoke shelves he has arranged small slices of turf, each the thickness of a slice of swiss roll. These are neatly stacked on top of each other to form temples or Monuments, each slice painted silver halfway up the sides with an added bright yellow spot. Totally unique and arresting. They made me snigger. He chuckled in response.
‘That’s good turf. Johnny’s turf. Must be 3,000 years old.’
Back to his studies. The legendary Loughlin Hoare ran the Art & Design Course. Skills learned were textile, sculpture and painting with everyone feeding off everyone.
A dynamic year. On completion, Vinny moved into the diploma in 3D sculpture, straight into third year, as composition and making were already under his belt from Ceramics.
‘For my final show I opted for performance art. I made a big piece with mirrors and then smashed them with a hammer in front of my assessors. The title was Chance & Change.
It was a bit dangerous, looking back. My belief was that Art should be destroyed rather than sold. Art for Art’s sake! For my second piece I used the College Theatre. I put on a light show and proceeded to demolish a temporary wall with a chainsaw. One of the assessors in the front row was Nigel Rolfe. They wanted to award me a distinction. ‘
When asked to describe his art he replies ‘It is War against Chaos. The amount of light that we do not see, the amount of space everywhere. I try to get rid of order altogether.
It’s impossible! You have to totally destroy your own bias. What lies underneath the surface is what intrigues me.’ I want my drawing to be edgy, to have a bit of tension in it. I don’t need to please anyone.’
I wonder what artist is iconic to him?
‘Duchamp. His ability to just STOP making Art when he decided to concentrate on thinking about Art rather than making it. Imagine if I could take the leap and enter into the imagination and live there, outside of all of my limitations and my own bias?’
He moved to the UK when his first daughter was born. To London, Liverpool and then Aberystwth where he raised the kids while his then wife worked as a doctor. Vincent was always ahead of his time.
‘I worked through them, kept my hand in. As they got older, I had my own studio and regular exhibitions. Never lost the focus. Live for Art’ Now his two grandchildren have a door each, upstairs in his house, to paint freely up as far as they can reach. The youngest one loves that her grandad has saved all her pacifiers and they feature in his sculptures.
Vincent lives with an Eye to the Future. All has become fluid, strange, weird. He is interested in what people are going to do with it. He finds that as people get older they reminisce more, won’t let the past go. He wonders if is it any good philosophising? If we were all thinking all the time, that would be no good. ‘The Internet is a great invention. Downside is that it summarises too much. Takes the joy out of discovery. Any knowledge worth knowing is never easy to come by.’
Does he have a new show ready? ‘Yes. All ready to be framed if I can rustle up the money.’ Vincent does not receive any funding and is on a social welfare pension. How much would that cost? ‘€1500.’
And the title? ‘If you want to see everything, look for nothing’.
The show is made up of drawings, with lots of colour. He calls them pure abstraction and composition. Colour is invading and pervading his work more and more. The usual primary colours of blue, red and yellow have given way to a colour palette that includes rich, warm oranges and pinks in more expansive shapes and growing off the page.
‘Art is knowing when to stop. If I find it interesting, I let it go and appreciate it.
That is why they all have frames. The frames limit the chaos.’
I leave him sitting in his House-Drawing. He can cut loose now. I look forward to my return.
