an artist
a painter working with figures, words and wallpaper [amongst other things]
Photo by Gareth Easton Photography
Over thirty years an artist, incredible years of paint splattered clothes and pencils worn down to stubs. Creative years of endless sandwiches, too much coffee and loud music in drafty studios. The excitement of not having 'a real job', the sheer unexpectedness of being an artist. And most recently a Masters Degree at ECA and a fundamental change in my outlook.
Handmade books, paper sculptures and a liberation of sorts. Words, so long important to me now find their place, sometimes in the background but frequently grabbing the limelight. And at the heart of this new found confidence lie a series of sketchbooks that get heavier and heavier with accumulated paint, an unintentional homage perhaps to Kiefer's lead books.
Old obsessions still underpin the work; wallpaper, hoops and stripes, Pasolini and Chitty Chitty. Again and again I take inspiration from home, where gas masks and laundry, books and domesticity meet. Metal horses race from room to room, boats sail serenely down the hall while wooden planes and paper birds fly overhead. Archive photos make the past ever present. Time is suspended, albeit temporarily.
