Yikes I have something in common with Grayson Perry

Just watched last night's prog and was enthralled.

I shall definitely visit the National Portrait Gallery to view the portraits.

DBH wasn't interested at all until he saw his huge vases. They look so beautiful from a distance and it's only when you get up close that you see the detail in them and what it consists of. So when we saw that the tapestry was on show he was just as keen as I was to see it, and he watched the Loose Women programme with me and said what a lovely and intelligent man he is. So we will both watch the programme on catch-up together.

We were trying to work out why he was called 'the most well-known artist in the UK', wondering why the likes of Damien Hirst and David Hockney had been omitted, but then realised that it is his appeal across all classes that has made him a household name.

I wonder if men [in general] relate to his work as much as women?

I think that Grayson Perry is fantastic, with such a huge artistic talent that he is willing to share and explain without making me, the audience feel inadequate. He can paint, make pots, do tapestries.....I would settle for being able to do just one of them half as well. He is definitely high on my fantasy dinner party list.

jane, when you think about it, it's only in humans that the male of the species is the dowdy one. In 'primitive' cultures men decorate themselves to attract the females

Such creativity enthralls me. Give me a blank canvas and a week later it will be, errr, a blank canvas . I had no idea how he would portay these people and the ideas he came up with were incredible [I didn't even get the 'Essex' bit for a while]. As for Chris Huhne, I kept thinking to myself 'are all politicians so lacking in remorse for anything they do and so self important' ?[kept thinking of Jeffrey Archer and, alas Tony Blair]. But the one that had me in tears [even more so when compared to Chris Huhne] was the sex change lad [Alex]. How brave and eloquent he was; his whole being was beautiful. As for the statue that Grayson made; I was in tears looking at it. Then there was the modern day twist of them all doing 'selfies'; the modern day 'portrait'. My theory is that it's Graysons cross dressing, given that he is such an intelligent person that makes him try to understand himself and then extends it to other people. I always used to say how strange 'masculinity' was in that the most masculine of men were those who, say, played rugby, drank lots of beer, hang round most of the time with other men which, if you look on sexuallity as a circle brings them round to men who were gay [does that make sense?]. You only have to go to a Rocky Horror Show to see how readily a lot of totally straight men will dress up in the most outrageous way given the opportunity. At the same time I do realise that some transvestites are very troubled/dangerous people. I didn't quite get the muslim lady [found her very shallow] I found her brother far more interesting. Then again, watching the repeat of Simon Reeves programme about China, I caught a comment about how the Chinese, as an atheist race are now, having become more affluent are turning more and more to religion as a way of making sense of their lives. My brain hurt so much after watching both these programmes that I had to have a cherry brandy to get myself off to sleep....

Thanks for the link nightowl. No, I had not seen that one. I have seen many others, of all kinds so to me that is not sinister, just another aspect of his exploration of women's clothing, I suppose.

I read somewhere that if only boys were allowed to try on their sisters' clothes at roughly 3 years old, which is when they usually ask to, then there would be fewer identity crises later on because they would have got it out of their system. One of my friends used to bring her son over to wear my daughter's dresses during the day because his father was so incensed by it. He was just three and his father shouted at him for putting a hairslide in his hair. Of course I had no idea back then that boys have a bit of a struggle choosing between male and female at that age, and need to explore all options, I just did what I thought best but I ended up with a large box of my daughter's old clothes becoming 'dressing-up' clothes for small boys as word got out that I was a safe and nonjudgmental harbour for mini-crossdressers. All of whom are now fine and upstanding young men who I am hoping will become millionaires, as I have the photos...

Virgin media TV was playing up last night, so I missed the GP programme that I had rushed home from bookgroup to see. Looking forward to watching it on catchup.

I find Grayson Perry and his work endlessly fascinating. Last night's programme was fantastic. His caricature of Rylan was insightful and the Chris Huhne pottery really cheeky, but spot on.

Tegan yes, and thought it fantastic but then I am a huge fan of Grayson Perry.
I saw the tapestries at The R.A. Summer Exhibition last year, they were, by far, the best thing there!
Before that at the British Museum where he juxtaposed his work with an exhibit from the museum..... magic!

Have you really never seen Grayson Perry dressed as a little girl janerowena? He collected the Turner Prize in 2003 dressed in a little girl party frock.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3298707.stm

I watched Grayson Perry on tele last night. He's an interesting chap, isn't he. And rather lovely too. I like him.

No, not yet but I did catch up loose women, which was great - and he wore leggings and a tunic! It also showed him in normal clothes, and a fabulous mother of the bride purple outfit when he met the queen. As for little girl clothes - that never entered my head. Rag doll, perhaps. He made his clothes to display the fabrics, the best way for that was an unstructured shape falling widely from the shoulders. He runs an annual art contest for students, and wears the winning creations.

His poor wife has fewer clothes than he does!

Anyone else just seen his programme on identity on Ch4? Wow.

Thanks ruby. I'd've missed that. How long has Judy Finnegan been on Loose Women? I'd watch it every day if she was on [used to love This Morning when Richard and Judy did it; Judy, when interviewing someone always asked the question that I wanted to ask].

He's on Loose Women today.

I was converted to becoming a true Grayson Perry convert when I saw his exhibition on class at Manchester City Art Gallery. Previously, I'd felt a lot like night owl, been put off by Grayson dressing like a young girl. I have no doubt that prejudice was linked to years of working with child abuse. Anyway - the exhibition was a glory, his work is spectacular. A dvd of the channel 4 programme he did on class was showing in a side room. I was spell bound. He is such a good communicator, so gentle, easy, positive and empathic with people.
janerowena's comment (20.10.14 22.39) sums up my feelings, I also now believe he is and extremely pleasant and intelligent living work of art

No Ana you're not alone. I have absolutely no problem with cross dressing but I find it very odd, even disturbing that a grown man wants to dress as a little girl. I'm afraid that gets in the way of his work for me.

Can you see all these images?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+walthamstow+tapestry&rls=com.microsoft:en-GB:IE-Address&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=vH9FVNP5JJLe7Ab414HwCA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1148&bih=731

I'd say, it's about life. It depicts a mainly 'lower-class' lifestyle and the aspirations of the working class. So along with the images of popular entertainments, lifestyles, items people covet and own, there are shops and brands and it's a pictorial record of the life of people who Grayson Perry grew up with. It's beautiful, but you could never see the whole thing in one photo, it's vast. I would love to see a slow-motion video of it.

No Ana. I thought he was downright weird when I first came across him, now I think of him as an extremely pleasant and intelligent living work of art.

Oh dear, I've never heard of him and did a quick Google.
He might be a bit extreme for me.....but did like the trainers.

Am I the only one who can't stand Grayson Perry?

He's definitely one of the most intelligent and entertaining people on television nowadays. When he did his programmes about class he seemed to get on well with everyone, whatever their background and appeared really interested in what they said.

Well thanks for the compliments about the trainers looking better on me, however he has more shapely legs than me.

I must watch out for him on HIGNFY. I like it when Jack Dee is the host. Also Baroness Trumpington who I saw recently at the Henley Literary Festival, she was great both on TV and in the flesh.

I like him too, and his art. He is intelligent, witty and honest in his opinions.
Janerowena, what is the Walthamstow tapestry like?

I love him too and all the TV programmes he's made. He's really good at TV presenting and thoroughly unpretentious - not talking about the clothes ofcourse!!