Viva Brighton Issue #58 December 2017

GRAHAM CARTER
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Graham says. “This year it’s children’s books. I
suppose having two young boys and reading them
stories every night – it’s got me wanting to do my own.
I do buy a lot of books under the pretence that they’re
for the children, but I secretly choose ones I’d enjoy
myself…” His first book, Alphamals A-Z, started out
as a set of prints illustrating an animal beginning with
each letter of the alphabet. When he first approached
the publisher with the idea of turning the prints
into a book, he says, “I had tried to pick the more
obscure animals, but they did veto some of them…”
(Somehow the ‘quoll’ still made the cut.)
“I’ve always dabbled in screen printing. About
ten years ago I decided to take a little break from
illustration and dive right into print-making – that’s
when me and my wife Alice set up Boxbird; she’d
always wanted to run her own gallery and I’d always
wanted my own print studio, so we combined our
ideas and got a space in Hove which was half gallery
and half print studio.” The Boxbird Gallery has now
moved online, but you’ll be able to see work from
Graham and some of the other Boxbird artists at their
Christmas Open House in Seaford, from Friday the
1st to Sunday the 3rd of December. For more details
see boxbird.co.uk.
And there’s a further chance to see Graham’s work
exhibited that weekend, this time at our own event,
the Viva Cover Story 2017 exhibition. The show is
a chance to look back on the last twelve months of
artwork that we’ve been lucky enough to feature
on our covers, for both Viva Brighton and our sister
magazine Viva Lewes. We’ll also be exhibiting a
selection of portraits by Adam Bronkhorst and comic
strips by Joe Decie, all at The Regency Town House
from the 1st to the 3rd of December. See you there!
Rebecca Cunningham
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