I think it was probably my secondary school Art teacher who first put a collection of Surrealism in front of me, in the form of a book about René Magritte. It was a revelation. For years I'd loved this kind of stuff, without knowing that it had not only a name, but also a capital letter. The teacher in question was John Hicks of Caereinion High School, in Powys. I owe him a lot for showing me that book, despite the fact that he was also responsible for some of the most frustrating moments in my A-level years. Being a teacher of Art, it was only reasonable for him to point out to me that it wasn't enough to imagine - I had to learn to observe, too.

Unfortunately for me, I was stuck with one major obstacle: I couldn't draw; and observational drawing was a big part of the course. To my mind, the best work I produced was based solely on imagination. To Mr. Hicks' mind, it wasn't the best I could produce, because I simply wasn't bothering to do the supporting sketches. I frequently took refuge in the Paint and Animation packages on the computers in the library, partly because I knew that here was one place I could produce work that Mr. Hicks couldn't fault in the usual way.

Later on, when I started painting for pleasure, I realised how right he'd been. It didn't matter how pleased I was with my paintings - they all still had the flaw of lazy observation. I toyed with the idea of trying photography, but it was too pricey a hobby*. So the painting continued.

Then, in my early twenties, I developed Multiple Sclerosis; and my hands decided to come out in sympathy. A more patient person would have stuck with the painting, training themselves to overcome the tremors. I am not a patient person. I decided to look for another outlet for my ideas. That's when I rediscovered Computer Art - quite accidentally, when I joined the message boards of Cook'd and Bomb'd, a website dedicated to Chris Morris. It was there that I discovered the joys of Photoshop, and everything I've done since has been a metaphorical nose-thumbing at the humble pencil. Observational drawing? Pah! This is more fun!