Numbers, Equilibrium & Painting

It all restarted with numbers in the spring of 1993, the end of one life for AMA and the attempted return to an previous one, that of being an artist. After leaving Uppingham School in 1965, AMA enjoyed life as an art student. On graduating, he was able to live through his art activities for eighteen months before eventually becoming a school teacher and then a lecturer in the graphic arts and art history in the university and colleges of Bristol.

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AMA is very mono-functional and having chosen to commit himself to art education, was unable to carry on producing artworks at any meaningful level to himself. Circumstances were such that he changed career direction in 1977 and after a year struggling to live as musician, he opened a music shop in Bristol, 'Atone Music'. The quality and experience of the venture were magnificent, but AMA was no business man and, after fifteen years in the business, it was fitting to bring that episode to an end. Being very independent of nature, he had always wanted to support himself through what ever activities he felt capable and in 1993 he had enough capital available to enable him to return to being an artist, for a time.

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In this section on AMA's 'Essays into Art', you will see a few images from his earlier work, obviously only those existing to be photographed. This early work is no more than that typical of a young student, and this narrative is not really about that; everyone has to start somewhere. However, in 1968, AMA started work on something that turned out to be really quite significant, his 'Light Organ', the influence of this can be seen on the pages relating to 'Light, Symmetry & Sex'. In this section you will see examples of his painting, his fondness for working with symmetry and equilibrium and the circumstantial restarting point of numbers.