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Artist Statement

In my work I seek to confront the instinctive realities of human and cultural challenges in a world which fluctuates between the familiar and the unknown, an odyssey that shows humanity’s struggle to find ways to inhabit the planet in a peaceful, productive and co-operative way. From Plato’s Simile of the Cave, to Job in the belly of a fish, the paintings assert that the basis of the problem lies in the individual’s personal struggle to integrate the physical and the spiritual realities of human existence.

Employing a vocabulary of symbols and characters in the work often distorts the line between painting and drawing, and sometimes can provoke an emotional and instinctive response from the viewer. These works though not allegorical, undulate between the perceptible and the concealed, the vibrant and the hazy, and implicit is a struggle between memory and imagination.

My work shows the influence of the patterned, symbolic, colourful images of ancient and primitive art where the creations are a celebration of life that is simple and uncontrived – an art without “art”. It is a response to all of these influences and yet none of them – a separate entity created from the inter-mingling of both major and minor influences. The work is an expression of a vision of the world, an invitation to observers to share that vision and create their own. It is both a statement and a challenge.