You may not be familiar with the name Simon Mills, but if you live in Bristol and engage in any way with its artistic subculture - and if you’re reading this, you probably do - you’ll have almost certainly seen his work. Simon is a prolific artist who has displayed work in exhibitions and galleries from Bristol to New York; not bad for an unassuming young man who grew up in Nailsea.

You won’t see his work on the sides of prominent buildings though, nor will you see his name in lights emblazoned across the front of the Bristol Museum - well, not yet anyway. This art is definitely for the people, and that doesn’t imply some sort of militant political agenda, just that it is art that does not distance itself from ordinary folk. There’s no pretension attached, just a clear sense of a schoolboy love of drawing that can’t help but escape onto any object that lies in his path. He’ll draw on anything, literally, from discarded 3-legged chairs, bits of wood and broken skateboards - the unloved flotsam and jetsam the city provides. This subversion of the intended use of objects, and the ability to see creative potential in things that are ignored by others, is likely the influence of a life of skating where the subversive use of architecture is the primary canvas for expression. A way of looking at things and seeing possibilities.

He is the resident artist for the Drawn Collective, contributing content for the Drawn-zine, creating or managing all the art and managing the live drawing wall at the gigs. He is part of the Inkygoodness collective, he creates t-shirt designs for Mild West Heroes (market stall in St Nic’s) and he’s an artist at Start The Bus. He has provided illustrations for this very magazine, as well as others, and recently was commissioned to design a t-shirt for the band The Egg. He also runs Cloud Neuf, a creative company offering artistic, design and web services.

Simon’s art has a very distinctive look, being hugely influenced by the ‘doodle’ movement. He likes to create characters and figures which populate his work, staring out inquiringly from the usually thronged scenes of which they are a part. His work often has a childlike charm which can belie the deeper strands of meaning that can be found upon closer analysis. Influences include: Ed Templeton, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Picasso, Miro, Futura and John Burgerman.

www.simonmills.blogspot.com

Gustave Savey