the goings on in the street with Martin Morris, another artist and drawing teacher. Local characters of the road formed new fantastic identities, powers and histories through our joint observations. Our flat became known as Snake Mountain because of the terrible state it was in, and because of the otherworldliness of Stroud Green Road (or Cloud Green Road and Shaolin Green Road as it was also known), experienced through art and other elements from Martin’s and my collective past. All of this strange procession of life up and down the Road has been recorded in my art, particularly in my collages. SP: Ah Woody’s! I know both the street and this store intimately. It was a 24-hour, cheap wine lover’s dream and I’m sad it’s gone and is now a Sainsbury’s. I’ve also lived in flats above shops on busy main drags and would recommend that everybody does once. The people-watching, the everyday carnival on the street below: this is a rich source of everyday life with which to make up fictions and parafictions, isn’t it? JG: These processions – people going about their daily lives, not knowing that they are being observed and drawn – are, for me, more profound and strange than processions I have seen for organised religions, festivals,
previous spread, left to right: The Sneaker King, from the series: The World Masks of The Rhondda, James Green, 2014–2015, ceramic with acrylic and mixed media The Mask of the Unknown Mask Maker’s, from the series: The World Masks of The Rhondda, James Green, 2014–2015, ceramic with acrylic and mixed media Doom Bag, from the series: The World Masks of The Rhondda, James Green, 2014–2015, ceramic with acrylic and mixed media Ex-Telles Reliquary, James Green, 2015, Acrylic, toothbrushes and mixed media on board The Portal of The Rhondda, from the series: The World Masks of The Rhondda, James Green, 2014–2015, ceramic with acrylic and mixed media this page: A Day in the Life of...., detail, James Green, 2005 – present (ongoing project), collage on paper