Jasper Goodall Q&A

What was the first thing you thought about when you woke up this morning?

This morning, no word of a lie, it was the exhibition I'm about to do. But usually it's about who will hold out longest (me or Sanna my partner) from the onslaught of our cat, who acts like he's malnourished all day and tramples over our faces to get us downstairs to feed him. But we gave him a whole sausage last night and he conked out till 8 am... have to try that again.

What do you wear to work?

Well I work in my home studio in the loft, but that does not mean I'm a pyjama worker. I cant work in my dressing gown, it reminds me of when I was 25 and worked in my bedroom. SO I get up properly and dress properly. Nothing special - jeans and a teeshirt, usually under some kind of technical alpine mountaineering top (I have a thing about them).

What do you have for breakfast?

On a bad day, cereal; on a very good day waffles bacon and maple syrup; on an average day toast marmalade and coffee or... weird combo - peanut butter and sliced ham.

Do you read a newspaper/watch television/click online?

I don’t read a newspaper, I rarely watch the news, I figure 99 percent of awful things that you hear about on the news you can't do anything about and so they just serve to make you miserable.

I watch TV, I particularly like stuff like far out science, or nature programs, and I like Ray Mears even if people think he's too fat to be a real survivalist - maybe he's just a very good survivalist?

How do you get to work?

I walk upstairs, they are steep.

What time do you first check your inbox?

About 9ish usually, but I don't often reply straight away, if ever. Depends if I have pressing things to do. Email is a blessing and a curse as we all know.

Where are your desk and chair from?

My desk is a firedoor painted white from B&Q with Habitat trestles. Firedoors are underrated as desks. My Chair is a Herman Miller Mirra in sage and grey.

If you could save only one item from your office/studio what would it be?

My Canon, as in my camera. I don't have an old-fashioned piece of artillery in my loft.

Do you listen to music whilst you work? If so, what are you listening to at the moment?

Sometimes, I'm going through a 'don’t buy downloads' phase cos I'm trying to save the music packaging industry, so I'm quite slow to acquire new CD's. Right now it's Witch - Paralyzed (kind of dark metal, as opposed to your more black metal... if you see what I mean).

Where would your ideal lunch be and who would it be with?

There’s a wicked Japanese cafe in Brighton called Pompoko. It's only downfall is that it's slap bang next to a language school and cos it's cheap it gets inundated every lunch time, but if you get there early its brilliant and very authentic in my opinion.

Who with? I'm trying not to sound corny and say Sanna, but I'm struggling to find someone I like better. I think if it was Sanna and my friend Jim Stoten (Jim the illustrator) it would be even better, cos he's hilarious.

Summarise in three words your work ethos?

More in = more out, that’s 4... Here's an equation of it: in = out. That’s three words if you pronounce EQUALS.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Lack of self-confidence

What do you think is the most overrated virtue?

Um.... Chastity? That’s pretty rubbish. Is that even a virtue?

Is there any single person that particularly inspires you?

Like an artist or just a cool person? Favourite artist right now (well he has been since I discovered a book of his that my mum had when I was a youngster, which could explain a lot) is Allen Jones. Cool person? My psychotherapist.

Where do you feel most inspired?

Well I was really inspired in Berlin last year, I had an ideas haemorrhage! But I'm not sure it was necessarily Berlin, more just being in a new city.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Nothing ever; I want my greatest achievement to not have happened yet.

How do you switch off?

Ride my mountain bike off big jumps in the woods.

What did you want to be when you were a child?

I'm sure it was a spaceman.

What excites you/terrifies you on a daily basis?

Right now, the show I'm having on the 6th of Feb - Poster Girl. New work, new gallery, first show. One minute exiting, the next I want to run a mile! Someone recently comforted me in an anxious moment and said anybody not scared by their first show would be weird. But on a daily basis it’s more like what's the next biggest drop I can ride off. I'm probably at about 6 or 7 ft right now but I'm one of these people that has an inbuilt 'push yourself harder motor' so I have to go bigger soon.

Would you like to be your own assistant?

Yes I've always wanted to clone myself, then I could get everything done in half the time and spend the rest of the day bumming around. Or be evil and leave him all day to do my work while I piss off on holiday. He'd have to be a specially programmed to like working kind of clone - it'll happen one day, you mark my words.

Is there anything about retirement you look forward to?

Yeah, I'll try somehow to do it as early as possible so I'm still a bit sprightly, then I'll maybe move to Lapland and get a snowmobile, or travel the world snowboarding or move to somewhere in the middle of nowhere like The Cedarburg in South Africa and walk about the place looking for leopards. I dunno, stuff like that. I'll have to earn a bit of cash for all that.

If you could choose to come back as person or thing, who or what would it be?

Probably a yak herder. I think about a simpler life a lot. We can’t help being born into the lives we have, and I couldn't just up sticks and go and buy some Yaks and hope to survive in Mongolia or Tibet. I was meant to be a westener in this life so I'll stick with it and wait till next time round.