Art Thursdays

Guest blog by Ben Myers

The life of a writer is a good one. For every down side – abject poverty, creeping paranoia, obscurity, isolation – there’s an upside.

I am what you might call fiscally bereft, but time rich. Some weeks – those when there is no work to be had –  I’m the Donald Trump of time. But time is money, right? No! That’s what they tell you to make you work harder. The rat race is for rats.

So, on behalf of all those stuck doing jobs they hate, or dreaming of days when they don’t have to listen to her in the next cubicle spewing endless mouth farts about some semi-famous non-entity, or those obliged to go out for drinks after work for fear of being talked about if you don’t, I try to spend my free time wisely.

Because writing fiction involves a lot more than just typing; the writer needs inspiration and impetus. Ideas. Sometimes the best thing one can do when gripped with the desire to hammer the keys like Jerry Lee is to step away and not write. Creative writing teachers call this “composting” – letting ideas breed and fester, though hopefully with a less fetid end product. The ideas one starts out with invariably morph into something else.

While working on my next novel, Pig Iron, a novel about the violent legacy of a bare-knuckle boxer set in and around rural Durham (due out in 2012), I made a concerted effort to draw on new influences. So I created The Art Thursday Club, Est 2009. Membership: 1. Chairman: me.

Art Thursday involves getting out there and seeing art. Good art, bad art – it doesn’t matter. Paintings, photographs, sculpture, film. Anything but banal TV. Again – the medium doesn’t matter. The aim is to see the world from a new viewpoint.

Thanks to a number of galleries Leeds is a common destination to go and sit and contemplate art. Yorkshire’s artistic legacy is of course extremely strong, by anywhere’s standards: Henry Moore, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Atkinson Grimshaw and Barbara Hepworth all hail from the area, and their presence is rightly curated and celebrated across the county.

Living in rural West Yorkshire I’m also well placed to explore the galleries of Halifax and Bradford (home of the National Media Museum and the impressive contemporary photographic gallery Impressions, both regular haunts) and over the border in Manchester, Rochdale and beyond, too. A potent symbol of post-industrial regeneration done well, the rabbit warren of former factories of Dean Clough in Halifax is an excellent place to spend a day  – and I definitely recommend the cafe – while Touchstones in Rochdale is a small but perfectly formed. Well-curated space.

Writing Pig Iron I drew particular inspiration from 20^th century photography – the work of people such as Don McCullin and Martin Parr, and also Chris Killip, Keith Pattison and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, artists whose work I explored during Art Thursday, and who proved to be as much of a literary influences as any novelist of poet.

Art is considered a luxury by many, yet with most of the best Yorkshire galleries offering work for free, the only thing stopping people is themselves. The area’s visual art scene is thriving, despite the government’s recent swingeing cuts across the creative industries. Some things will always belong to the people – art is one of them.

Ben Myers spent his twenties travelling the world “interviewing silly rock stars”. He has written about music and the arts for publications includingNME, Melody Maker, Mojo, Arena, Bizarre and The Guardian. His fiction and poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies and he is the author of two novels The Book Of Fuck and Richard.

Ben Myers’ latest novel Richard is published October 6 2011 by Picador. You can win a copy by simply answering in the comments box below ‘What country are the Manic Street Preachers from?’ Usual T’s & C’s apply. We will use a random generator to decide. Closing date 20th September