house. welcome to this cultural life. your life has always run through your art but when did the art start? it took off at school because i missed so much school. i stopped going to school when i was about 13 and i had to go back when i was 15, i went back for three months and i had to do three days a week by law, otherwise my mum would have been in trouble with social services and things, ijust did whatever i wanted to do in art, and i think that s what it was, really, it had become me in a serious way and because the teachers took me seriously and trusted me, that was quite a fantastic thing at the age of 15 when no one else did, and i didn t have much else to hold onto at the time and if i had not have done art at school, i think god knows who would have happened to me. no idea. this was margate where you grew up. was there any access to museums, galleries, culture? no, see, i didn t even know art museums really existed. there was something like in my mind, when i was real
hello, i m john wilson. welcome to this cultural life, the radio four podcast in which i ask leading creative figures to reveal key moments and cultural works that fired their imagination and had a profound impact on their own art. my guest is tracey emin, an artist who has always put her own life at the centre of her work. in drawings, paintings, videos, sculptures and installations, she tells very personal stories. we met in a radio studio in the bbc broadcasting house. welcome to this cultural life. your life has always run through your art but when did the art start? it took off at school because i missed so much school. i stopped going to school when i was about 13 and i had to go back when i was 15, i went back for three months and i had to do three days a week by law, otherwise my mum would have been in trouble with social services and things, and ijust did whatever i wanted to do in art, and i think that s what it was, really, it had become me in a serious way and bec