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A very big welcome from Seahorse.
‘Everything can be Creative’. DEREK MITCHELL
(Linda Jackson in conversation with Derek Mitchell, graphic designer)
At Seahorse Publications, I consider it a great privilege to work with the artistry and designs of Greenock born, Derek Mitchell.
A still of our zoom chat the other evening when I noted the yellow ‘bolts’ from his neck matched his specs!
Community
Always for fun and experiment, there is a very serious political edge to Derek’s commitment to enabling others to develop their own creative path. In his work as coordinator for the Greenock charity, Lyle Gateway he has organized festivals, teaches creativity, (art and photography in particular) and Derek sounds absolutely delighted about the community garden, run by the charity. ‘It is all about community,’ he says, and his energy for the projects sounds unwavering. In his previous employment, Derek worked with Inverclyde Faith in Throughcare, an organisation which facilitates young men finding their way back to a healthy lifestyle following release from prison. For five years, he assisted with housing and the practical aspects of living but as ever, Derek was there with camera and drawing books, to create opportunities for these people returning to their communities, opportunities to find an artistic outlet for frustrations and feelings of low self-worth. In fact, even now Derek is about to join his former work colleagues for a week’s outdoor activities for twenty young men trying to reconnect with a positive sense of themselves and their own health.
Attached as he is to these community commitments, Derek still makes time for his own learning and development in the area of music: creating instruments, exploring recording with modular synthesisers and as ever, finding a different, ‘leftfield’ way of doing things. Fortunately for Seahorse Publications, he is also engaged in his graphics finding astonishing takes on the book titles for front and back covers. Below Looking for Mae West, Poetry collection by Donna Campbell and Unshackled, debut collection by Martin Goldie. See Derek’s book covers on the catalogue of Seahorse Publications.
Earlier Days
I first met Derek back in 1992 when he joined a creative writing class I was tutoring, that was a very good year as they say, and there was a wealth of talent in the class, some of whom have gone on to have their writing published, including Derek whose writing on the dance scene in Glasgow and Berlin really brought rave and alternative culture alive and bouncing onto the page. Seahorse Publications has a new anthology out this year which features one of Derek’s stories, ‘Motionless’ and of course, he designed the cover for the book.
‘The music was loud enough to transform the bus into a silent movie. The bass had more eff you than any other headphones...but they still weren’t enough. Dave was craving more...’(Motionless).
Music has been a huge influence on Derek’s life, he describes himself as ‘strongly influenced by the little geographic blip that is West of Scotland scene, especially eighties and nineties.’ He still enjoys nothing more than going to a gig and rapping up the volume on those headphones on the home straight.
Inspired
I asked him where his artistic inspiration came from, and he talked long about the influence of his father, Bobby Mitchell. His ‘dad’ was a baker in Inverclyde following on in the family business but was, above all, an enthusiastic photographer and was a man who loved to share time drawing with his son. His father was also interested in alternative ways of using digital art. And they shared a life together on these interests. There was an edge to Derek’s voice as he told me of the last day they spent together. ‘It was in Edinburgh taking photographs, just taking photographs, all day.’
Below are a couple of photographs Derek shared of that memorable time. The first shows Derek being photographed by his dad while taking a photograph near Carlton Hill, the other is a photograph of his dad. ‘Just these two’, says Derek of his precious photos.
Pathways
Despite the obvious love and nurturing environment of his family life, Derek like many found himself on a very dark pathway in his early twenties which led to a short spell in prison, firstly Polmont and then Castle Huntley. He describes being allowed out of his cell for one hour a day, once a week and hopes things have improved on those times nowadays. He walked in circles seeking something to draw and during this time one of the guards observed his graphic skills and suggested that he enrol for Higher Art while inside. He did – and passed, of course.
Derek described his one terrifying day in transit when he had to ‘have lunch’ and stay at Barlinnie Prison. When I asked him what made that experience so different/frightening that he still reckons it was the ‘turning point’, he answered that there were two specific things: one was looking out the window and seeing nothing at all but one single tree, and the other was when joining other prisoners to watch television, the music on the screen was the video from Shakespeare’s Sister’s track, ‘Stay’. ‘In the silence of your room, in the darkness of your dreams’. Watch the video, you may understand where Derek is coming from on that. ‘You better hope and pray that you may make it safe back to your own world.’ Fortunately, he did. Attending Glasgow Art School in ...., Derek has not looked back and now does what he can to help others in Inverclyde back to a better life. Respect.
Pic below is Derek enjoying one of his much-loved trips to Berlin Art Show.
