Artist Statement
I am a painter, drawer and a printmaker. In my work I attempt to convey the feeling of strangeness at the seeming contradiction of both existing in and being a product of the world and yet creating that world within myself – both a part of and apart from. Art, like life, is full of contradictions. Indeed I believe the things and ideas with most meaning have, at their core, a contradiction. Within my practice therefore I try to tackle this feeling both head on and at an oblique angle. Drawing and painting offer two approaches here. For me, drawing serves as the analytical element in the dichotomy, whether this be through direct observational work or through diagrammatisation. Painting on the other hand serves as the synthetic element, the bringing together of dissected parts to form something new and different: perhaps more, than the sum of those parts. Contradictorily, sometimes these roles reverse; drawing performs synthesis and painting, analysis. From this reversal, often comes the most interesting or, to me, most meaningful work. I see the world as an intricate and overwhelming web of meaning, of interweaving indexes, signs and symbols referring infinitely and beyond comprehension. I also see the world as a noumenal unity, the Spinozan monism.
