Images: Chris regularly worked with Chef Anton Mosimann at 10 Downing Street for Tony Blair and HRH Prince Charles at St James Palace and a Mesh Painting.

I left high school at 16 with little to no qualifications other than art & cooking. I wanted to do art, but it was not an option at that time, coming from working class family on an West Midlands housing estate - brick laying or catering college were my two career options. I had an amazing 3 years at Stafford catering college & decided a career as a chef was the life for me, got my first chef job in local hotels, restaurants & a few years later got a chef job close to London in Shepperton, working my way up the chef career brigade.

I later worked in London as a chef for a few years and travelled a bit, only then did I start to think about my lack of career options as a kid leaving school - so I found an evening life drawing class at a local art college in Wimbledon, it was a totally different world for me. I built up enough confidence at life drawing class, to then think about studying art for real. I went to a brilliant Saturday art class, for portfolio preparation, where I got support to build up a portfolio to apply for a art foundation course, and later got a place.

I finally made the move from being a chef to full time art school ‘mature’ student :) The art foundation year at Wimbledon school of art was the most amazing year I’d ever had, opened a whole new world - although I was still working as a chef most evenings, weekends, not free yet.  

For me the past year or so in the NFT space has been the closest to the excitement & energy I felt during the art foundation year. The NFT space is like one massive endless art foundation course.  

I was ok with the art side of things but one of my biggest fears was essay writing, but I somehow got through. I built up an art portfolio on the foundation course & applied for an art degree. I was happy to be offered a few places but chose to stay at Wimbledon School of Art. My time at art school was life changing, having time & space to develop and grow. I developed my mesh painting technique in the final year & graduated with a 1st. Again, the dissertation writing was the worst but I somehow coped. I was still a chef in the evenings & weekends.  

Leaving art school with a mission to change my career from a Chef to artist was a massive challenge & stress for me. I could not go back to working 16 hours a day in the kitchen, I really wanted to make the move into a new career, so I got a studio, and started painting. I survived a year as a full-time artist, selling paintings but I was also still working part-time as a chef. I decided being a full-time artist was not sustainable long term so with a heavy heart I became a full-time chef again & my gamble to move careers had seemingly failed.  

I still have nightmares to this day about trying to make the career transition from chef to artist. Giving up a job, career you know is secure, reliable & will pay the bills is not easy & very stressful - I see this kind of stress in the NFT space, artist looking to do the same.  

I found out about a 1-year multimedia course at South Thames College. Doing this provided the extra edge & was the missing link I needed, I learnt to do basic web code & more about computing. Suddenly an art degree + multimedia experience/knowledge meant I was employable.  

Finally, after about a seven-year transition from first starting life drawing classes, I had my first full time (non-chef) job that meant I could leave the kitchen, for the first time since I was 16 - my first ever non-chef new job was a multimedia technician at Wimbledon School of Art, later moving into academic team. I recall being so happy working a regular 9-5 job & having evenings & weekends free, to do what I want, no 16-hour days without daylight or any crazy chefs busting my balls. I was free & there was no going back to the kitchen. I managed to also paint in my spare time, wow.  

All my years as a chef I was treated like a workhorse. So I was shocked when my new employer seemed to care about me. An early sign of this was when I got offered a dyslexia test. I’d never been offered this test before through school, work or even my degree, so I did it.  

The dyslexia test just confirmed what I had known for years, I had severe dyslexia and had developed a whole array of coping strategies to get me through school, work as a chef and university. Would things have been any different if I’d known earlier, who knows? I’m happy to see people embracing dyslexia today & it’s a big part of the creative community.  

I continue to work at UAL & develop my art practice in my spare time. I never went back to being a chef, but still have nightmares of being in the kitchen & working my last shift - I’m also not a full-time artist, which is still very much a goal & part of this long journey. I’ve had various art studios where I’ve continued to develop my mesh painting process, achieved by pushing acrylic paint through perforated aluminum mesh, resulting in a pixelated image, which resembles a cross between a tapestry and a lithography print.  

Following eviction from my last IRL art studio space - a squat in Stockwell Studios, London & the subsequent closure of the manufacturer of a very specific acrylic paint & aluminum mesh supplier I used for my mesh paintings, I stopped making physical mesh paintings. So, with no art studio or materials to paint with, I tried mesh painting using VR & Blender, exploring various digital processes & I minted my first mesh painting NFT on hic et nunc early March 2021, this ignited a whole new wave of excitement & passion for making art again.  

Today I love working with emerging tech R&D at art school, having an XR business, making art again & being a small part of the web3 community.

Image below: Mesh Painting by Chris Follows - Isabella Plantation 1:53 PM - Atmospheric 2013