Simon Croft is a London based trans-man and visual artist with a particular interest in the rapidly evolving artistic expressions of the FtM trans experience and how they contribute to trans community and culture. He has exhibited in LGBT shows both in the UK and US, and also occasionally writes, curates and provides publicity images for other trans events.

NUTS by Simon Croft

 What brought you to begin work as a fine artist?

Transition, really.  I’d done nothing artistic since I was about 15.  Looking back at what I was doing artistically at that time, I was repeatedly drawing myself as a boy though I didn’t recognize it at the time!  Then I just stopped doing anything art based – I guess my art was telling me things I wasn’t ready to deal with.  I started making work again at around the time I transitioned about 13 years ago, to try and re-engage with my creativity and it was only five or six years after that, that I started explicitly working with trans themes and deliberately drawing on my trans experiences.

Side view - NUTS by Simon Croft 

Are you often, if ever, pigeonholed as a “trans artist”? If you are, does this bother you?

I describe myself that way.  I work with and from my trans experiences so in reality it’s a fair description.  I want to make work that speaks to other trans people; I’d like it to be seen more widely but I don’t know how realistic that is, at least for now.  I’m conscious that as and when I move on from working thematically in this way, I could be stuck with a label I don’t want, but at the moment it doesn’t bother me.  Ask me again in 5 years time, if I’m trying to paint landscapes or something!

HAIRSHIRT by Simon Croft 

 Being a trans identified person, how does this identity lend itself to being an artist?

Transition is a creative act – as are most other ways of trans-living.  Art is a good way to reflect on it.  It gives you something to say, a different perspective from most people; we see things many people never get to see and that’s quite a privilege. 

I also feel that living long term, it’s important to have a space to consider and value my transness, which will always be part of me – that’s very important to me. 

As well as creativity, transition involves risk – if you transition physically, you don’t know what’s really going to happen.  Changes to physical appearance, how you think and feel, relationships – it’s just not certain.  Pretty much everything is back in the melting pot.  At a certain point I just had to trust myself to handle whatever would come along when I made the choice to transition. 

I see taking risks and trusting yourself as part of making good art too.  Some of the ways I work parallel the transition process; I’ll set a process up – like dripping ink onto a cardboard house - and let it run and see what I get at the end.

Close up HAIRSHIRT by Simon Croft 

What words would you give to those out there who are interested in beginning their careers as artists?

That’s a difficult one! 

Find a way of working that fits with you and your life – whether that’s a little everyday or setting aside intensive bursts of time, or some other way – but make sure you deliberately set aside time and actually make work.

Take a look at the constraints you have to work with – usually time and space and funds - how can you make them work for you as opposed to blocking you?

Get your work seen – submit to shows and publications etc and get some feedback.

Be organized.  Making good art isn’t enough – you’ve got to have a whole load of other skills like self-promotion, negotiation (learn how to read a contract), fund-raising, admin (it’s no good missing the shipping deadline for a show).  As an artist starting out you have to do most things for yourself because you probably won’t be in a position to pay anyone else to do them for you, and that is likely to mean self-discipline to do the bits you don’t naturally take to.  Take a deep breath and don’t leave them to the last minute.

Probably the best tip is to read Michael Atavar’s book – ‘How to be an Artist’.  Someone suggested it to me and I revisit it quite often.

 Good luck, and don’t forget to have fun!!