I am Coolbox...I do exist as a person, Coolbox is a personality trait if you will. I am the artistic side of an ordinary Yorkshireman living here in the East Riding. I have a studio and office purpose built at my home and exhibit and sell my paintings in my locale.

Coolbox came into being many years ago whilst working as an Engineer. I used spare time and materials to create metal sculptures for my own pleasure. He wasn’t a fully formed side to my personality nor was he named, that came many years later.

I have had other personalities, one in particular was with me for just as many years but he was named right from the beginning. He has been retired now but I still keep in touch with him. He is called “Original Destiny” Tarot Consultant and Empath. I worked as a Tarot reader for many years and even did some time (much to my shame) as a phone-line psychic working for a very well known TV ghost hunter.

Other personalities go un-named some are only partially developed, some have come and gone over the years. In no particular order, Tarot Consultant, Engineer, Chef, Charity Worker, Publican, Contract Cleaner, Gardener, Insurance supervisor, Mortgage and Debt Mediator, Debt Collector, Private Investigator, Process Server, Counsellor, then husband, father and now loving partner.

I’m not unique in this respect, we all have many sides to our personalities, I’ve just taken it one step further. I have a personality order, if you like. It’s not a dis-order for I’ve acknowledged and identified my personalities many sides.

Coolbox became fully recognised as an artistic personality several years ago when I took my art more seriously. I learned from a professional artist, watercolour skills. I developed my way of painting as I learned. I wanted to reject restruction (constricting, restrictions) having been an Engineer for nearly 30 years, working to precision, straight, square, round, accurate. I wanted to break down an image into its basic form, get rid of its ridged constraints and give it life, de-engineer it. I want to treat my eyes to colour, contrast, brightness and simplicity and that’s what I paint.

Coolbox? Why Coolbox? Well that’s another story