ByeBye talks.
interviewed by ByeBye

So ByeBye, can you tell me, why did you choose this painting to talk about?

Because this is my favourite self-portrait at the moment. It perfectly describes who I am. Both as a person and as an artist, (although actually I can’t separate those two sides of me, and if I had to choose I’m sure I’d pick being an artist and not being a person.)

As far back as I can remember I’ve avoided looking at my refection and I’ve avoided anyone ever taking a photograph of me. I live an almost totally reclusive life so that isn’t as hard as it probably sounds.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t wonder what I look like. So I paint pictures that might be me and make sculptures that might be me and see shapes in nature that might be be.

As soon as I saw this piece of wood I saw a face and body that might be mine. All it needed was a twig like arm to make it perfect. 

I think I already know the answer to the next question. but can you tell me why you refused to let anyone else interview you?

Donny Guy, the curator of incLLinC gallery, and who’s one of the few people I’ve actually met in person, wanted to interview me himself. But I knew it wouldn’t be right to be interviewed  by a person who actually knows what I look like.

ByeBye, you know what your younger sister Miss U Bye looks like don’t you?

Of course I do ByeBye. I look at her a lot and I look at her reflection a lot. They’re nearly identical. But the best is when I see her reflection in my old oak dressing table mirror, I have to be very careful though, and get the angles right so I don’t catch a glimpse of my own reflection.

So when you paint Miss U Bye, why do you always paint her looking like a tree?

Because I want her to be strong and trees are the strongest thing I know. And they’re so old – not that Miss U Bye is old of course – but trees being old makes them so wise. And of course Miss U Bye is very wise sometimes. It was her that told me to leave one of my painting outside Donny Guy’s back gate, I thought it was a waste of time and Uncle B thought it was am even bigger waste of time that I did. But of course Donny Guy found it and put in on the wall in his gallery the very next morning, I mean that’s pretty fast for the post-modern art world isn’t it. I bought Miss U Bye some yellow paint and some matching yellow ribbon to say thank you.

One final question ByeBye. Is anything you just told me actually true?

You of all people should know the answer to that question ByeBye.
Me, you, Miss U Bye and Uncle Good – we believe in art and we believe in each other. At the end of the day they’re the only things that matter.
Donny Guy says it’s important that we show our pictures in public. He knows more about art that we ever will so maybe he’s right. But the four of us were just as happy when we only let each other see them.

So do you regret leaving your painting outside Donny Guy’s back gate?

It’s much too soon to answer that question ByeBye. But what I’ve learnt is that when you finish a painting you don’t own it anymore. If it wants to leave home and go out into the wide wide wide world there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I just hope that one day it comes home again.

Click Here for ByeBye Says Hello (film)
Click Here for Bye Bye Paints