Artist Statement
This is what I do.
The major themes of my work are Identity, Place, and Purpose.
I am interested in exploring how we move into, through and inhabit space. How we navigate the physical environment. How we negotiate the elements of the environment. How we relate to space; owned, shared and unclaimed.
It is in the point of interaction between us and the spaces we claim or borrow where I find much inspiration. Working within formal Abstract, Non-objective, Brutalist and Reductionist concerns I engage in ongoing dialogue with concepts of edges, boundaries, environment and habitat.
I care about human impact on natural environments and also the impacts built environments have on us. Our surroundings and how they function have a direct influence on how we think, feel and behave. Perhaps we are not always as mindful of these influences as we could be.
I hope my work communicates some of the questions and answers that occur to me while I experience place, and contemplate my place within it.
While I am planning, designing and making my work I am in turn mindful of how it will sit in private, public, or commercial spaces. I find this a deeply rich topic to explore.
My practice is process based, concept heavy, and extensively planned.
I tend to start with the end in mind, then make plans to achieve my goals. There isn’t a lot of spontaneity or improvisation when it comes to making the final work. Any change in direction comes from exploring options in the development stage. I can be flexible, but still my process comes down to; conceive, develop, test, refine, repeat.
I use my training and background in graphic design to inform my practice. I work within a given framework; the physical dimensions of the piece, the materials, palette, and rules of composition. Within this framework I build a visual language to express my experiences and my understanding of these experience.
I find having a strong, but not rigid, discipline provides the means to convey a complex thing very simply.
Having this approach, process and framework my work is as much about the act of designing, painting, drawing, making as it is about the themes which fascinate me. This process means my work can be experienced and read purely as formal compositions. I like to think my work stands firstly as speaking to concept, process and medium. But if a viewer is inclined to look further I also address what it means for me to live in both the natural and man-made environments.
I like to think my work is non-objective art which, nonetheless, has an objective.
My art practice is about exploration and discovery. I hope to achieve expression, engagement and connection.