FAT PIGEON ART

THE ART OF COMMUNITY

By Jaq Bayles

Jaq Bayles chats to multimedia artist Sid Spencer, aka Fat Pigeon Art, who is the designer of this month’s front cover

Multimedia artist Sid Spencer runs Fat Pigeon Art, which produces beautiful digital prints, photography, homeware, cards, shirts and much more. Sid is also the cover designer of this month’s Scene magazine, which is the annual HIV/AIDS edition published to mark World AIDS Day.

Tell us a little about yourself?

I’m Sid, husband, father to two teenagers, artist and writer. Brighton born and bred.

Why ‘Fat Pigeon’?

It took me months to settle on a name. I wanted something catchy and easy to remember and had thought about Big Bear, Old Grey Gay and so it went on. Then I was walking home one day and a huge juggernaut lorry pulled up at the traffic lights and on his dashboard the driver had a numberplate that said Fat Pigeon and it made me laugh to myself so I pinched the name. My apologies to the driver.

Where do you get your inspiration?

My art mainly came around at the first lockdown. I was stuck at home with the two kids and my husband and needed to be able to have a bit of me time occasionally so just started doodling on my tablet.

My art, I hope, is always bright and cheery. The topics I pick are pretty much LGBTQ+ themed. So famous supporters, bands, drag queens and old much-loved films and TV series. I’ve been mainly doing digital as it fits well around my life, but I’ve just also started to work with oils and clay sculpting, so let’s see what comes next. It’s all experimental.

What informs the various styles of your art – how do you decide which medium to use?

I’m a huge David Hockney and Andy Warhol fan. The bright, solid colours they use really appeal to me. I love street art too; we have some incredible pieces in our city.

Who are your heroes?

For me the heroes are the strong survivors of our community. The drag artistes that are out there making us laugh, helping us to forget the grim world for an hour or so, as well as using their art to fight for equality, diversity and raising much needed funds. The people of the trans community, every day fighting to be who they are, changing the world as they do. Those working so hard to educate people to be better, to understand more, to put themselves in others’ shoes. That’s my kind of hero.

What is your passion?

My passion is our two adopted kids. The strength they have to move on and thrive after the horrors of their early years is so powerful. To hear them talk about their friends who are queer, trans, disabled and/or BAME without a hint of judgement is fantastic. I’m in my 50s and remember the ‘70s and ‘80s, the hatred and intolerance of our community and the world. I don’t see that in theirs. Who you love, how you look, where you came from, what your history is, is celebrated and praised in their group, which is fantastic.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m currently exploring oil painting. Portraits mainly, which is a lot of fun, and also clay sculpture. Working on figurines of drag queens that have passed on, such as Phil Starr, Dockyard Doris and Danny La Rue. I find the clay great to work with and can get a likeness quite well but I guess I’ll leave that judgement up to others.

Thank you so much for agreeing to illustrate the cover for the our HIV/AIDS issue. Why was this important to you?

I’m very honoured to have been asked to work on this month’s cover. Sadly, like many, I have lost some dear friends to this disease over the decades, so being asked was, for me, a great way to say to them that they are not forgotten and they are missed greatly.

HIV / AIDS is still here and we need to keep supporting those who are searching for that cure, we need to keep up the fundraising and we need to keep tackling the ignorance.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on a series of six digital pieces that are focused on social media and sex. How people portray themselves on dating apps and the reality of it.

To see some of Sid’s art, including this year’s Drag Queen Christmas Cards, head to https://fatpigeonart.uk.

All profits from the Drag Queen Christmas Cards will be donated to LGBTQ+ mental health charity MindOut.