I remember attending last year’s Sketchbook Circle exhibition and being struck by the diversity and seemingly limitlessness of those little humble sketchbooks. I absolutely had to get involved. Imagine my excitement (and intimidation) at drawing the RT honourable Susan Coles (Past President NSEAD) as one of my partners. We began our negotiation of space and materials with fiery responses to news events both political and social. We layered text, appropriated images to create satirical collage and damning statements against our useless education minister. Meanwhile, in book no 2 playful shapes and patterns by Nikki Allan provided a different approach altogether. When else would I get the chance to collaborate with 2 artist teachers? The time I set aside to work on my books would rarely be found otherwise. I make quite a bit anyway but the attention required to respond intelligently and creatively to others’ work is what made this process so valuable for me.

There’s a reason it’s not called the ‘sketchbook line’. Our reciprocal dialogue is symbolised by the never-ending path of a circle. Sure, our monthly exchange of ideas moves rotationally but I’m inclined to say that the circle goes deeper to represent our community. We are all connected by the circle and we know that our practice, as artists also never ends. Marlow Moss says ‘Art is as life, forever in the state of becoming’ and so we move into another year, another cycle, another sketchbook circle.

I graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in 2005 with a BA in Drawing. The course was rooted by the idea of visual thinking where the art 'object' is replaced by art 'process'. For this reason it's hard to catogorise my practice by media or discipline. However, photography has been dominient in recent years and this has helped me explore an underlying theme of 'relationships', be it with people or place. I have worked with documentary video, animation, printmaking and digital collage as well as design and various drawing practices. I have recently launced several school based projects. 'FlipED' uses digital media to connect students with working artists and 'Action It' is an arts activist organisation, which aims to engage young people in social issues through art making.

I am currently studying for my MA Artists Teacher at Goldsmith University.

Website: http://www.oliverbriggs.co.uk/

Twitter: @obrigo1