I was lost, until I went inside the Labyrinth

I've never blogged before, so I figured I'd start at the beginning...

Like most people when they're little, I was creative. I loved to read and write, to tell stories, and draw pictures. I thought I would grow up to be an artist and paint fairytales. It was all I wanted.

But in secondary school my art teacher said I couldn’t just ‘be an artist.’ I said maybe I could illustrate books? No, too competitive, you’re not good enough.

(To be fair there was no such thing as a website then, online shops and social media were years away from becoming a reality. We couldn’t even have begun to imagine a way of directly showing your artwork around the world in seconds. But still… )

That ‘you’re not good enough’ stayed with me. There was no talk of draw every day, keep practising, study artists whose work you love. Just ‘you’re not good enough’.

By the time I was 13 I knew I’d never be good enough. I stopped drawing. I only ever did the bare minimum I had to do to get my homework done. I hated everything I drew. Without practising I wasn’t improving, so everything was terrible. ‘You’re not good enough,’ became louder, and it was all I could hear and think when I picked up a pencil.

Then one weekend afternoon a film was on the TV. It was called Labyrinth.

If you haven’t seen it (and you absolutely should) it’s about a teenage girl called Sarah, who lives in her magical daydreams, but has to babysit her little brother Toby.

I have a little brother, quite a bit younger than me. I immediately identified with Sarah, her love of fantasy, her distaste for baby brothers. I fell in love with the movie, just completely enthralled by the whole thing from beginning to end. I had never seen anything like this, these magical creatures, this whole incredible world that Sarah fell into. It all looked so real, it was mesmerising. I absolutely loved it. I couldn’t move from the TV. At the end I fell back to earth with a bump, as the voiceover announcer said after the break there was going to be a documentary called Inside the Labyrinth.

Obviously I was going to watch it!

It was one of those moments. Just an insignificant Sunday afternoon, sat on the sofa watching TV. Then everything changes.

I remember seeing a lady painting the hands for the shaft of helping hands, and I just sat up. I can do that. I mean, anyone can do that! Anyone can paint hands. I might not be able to draw. I might not ever be an artist or an illustrator. I might not be very clever, but I can paint latex hands green!

So I turned to my poor mum and I said how do I get that job? How do I do her job? How do I make stuff for movies?

Obviously again, this was pre-internet.

We had to find out through the library, books, writing to universities and asking about their courses. I did my Art GCSE and A level, through gritted teeth! But I got onto the Art Foundation course at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design in Farnham. (And later continued to their Animation degree)

(I remember after my interview telling our little A level art group that I’d got onto the foundation course at my first choice college. My art teacher said ‘Anyone can get onto a foundation course.’)

After Uni I did quite a bit of work experience on various productions, and eventually ended up in Shepperton Studios as a trainee model and props maker on Thomas the Tank Engine. I loved working in the studios, I had so much fun working on incredible films and TV shows, always with the most brilliant, clever, funny and talented people.

I’ll end with this, because I’ve rambled on a bit. My parents had a beautiful florist's shop, with a small café and chocolate shop next door. One day two ladies came into the café and sat down. My mum went to take their order and recognised my old biology teacher, and… my old art teacher. My biology teacher asked how I was doing, and my mum took great pleasure in loudly saying that I was working for Tim Burton at Pinewood Studios, on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

My journey inside the Labyrinth didn't end here. Part 2 soon!