artist's statement
My acrylic paintings are studio based reflections of my interest in the sciences. The rational, empirical and falsifiable world of scientific thought and experimentation have always fascinated me. The imagery produced by microscopes, telescopes and diagrammatic representations of the cosmos are of as much interest to me as the philosophical implications that they provoke. I discover beauty and truth in these systems and I feel compelled to translate these ideas into my abstracted work. I particularly enjoy exploring mark making and geometry in these pieces. The splashes, drips and streaks are created through action painting. By throwing, blowing and dropping ink in precise ways I am able to physically realise the hidden forms within chaos. The tight geometric patterns are applied with a dip pen and are inspired by the prehistoric rock art found throughout the ancient world. These signs and symbols left behind by our ancestors are pan global and suggest that we share a hard wired language structure. These carved and painted remnants show us directly how humans have engaged with the landscape, and have attempted to express their inner worlds by marking the surfaces of their environments. The meditative process of recreating these repetitive geometric patterns helps unclutter my mind and encourages meandering thoughts.
My oil painting are more concerned with intuition and emotions. I paint them primarily in the field and attempt to capture my raw, immediate and spontaneous reactions to the world around me. They are as much investigations of the weather as of the landscape. Rain, wind, cold and heat affect the mark making process and by reacting to these stimuli I am able to delve further into the gestural actions of painting with a brush. In my conflicts with the elements I discover new ways of applying paint that would never have occurred to me inside the controlled environment of my studio. The difficulties that I voluntarily impose upon myself force me confront the assumptions inherent in my painting techniques and adapt them to suit the environment. These pieces test my bodily resilience as much as my creative limits, as setting up an outdoor studio each day requires a great deal of physical exertion. However, exploring the environment in this way bonds me to the earth and provokes rare spiritual experiences.
Body art is an ancient form of creative expression which encapsulates many deeply felt concepts. By permanently marking the body with pictures, patterns and words we are able to solve inner conflicts and express our emotions. Tattooing the skin externalises our internal experiences, and in the process we commit to these moments and physically write our perceived narrative across the body. By marking our skin we can define who we are, where we have been and can project our paths into the future. The trust and physical sensations involved in the relationship between the tattooist and the person being tattooed creates an intense dynamic, and is constantly surprising and full of wonder. Taking my artistic explorations off the canvas and onto people seems entirely natural and helps me consider drawing techniques in a radically different way. Adapting a two dimensional picture onto a living three dimensional surface forces me to reconsider drawing within a moving, sculptural framework.
Rock climbing is a movement based creative process comparable with dance. It flows across all my interests and is intrinsic to my work. It motivates me to explore the environment and journey into obscure landscapes. It is a deeply emotional experience which constantly challenges my mental and physical boundaries, while simultaneously revealing the physics of tensions, levers, friction and gravity. Commitment, meditation and problem solving pervade rock climbing and help me physically work through theoretical artistic problems in an intuitive and immediate way. By handling the landscape directly I feel it enables me to paint it more truthfully, and I become an active element within the environment rather than a passive observer outside of it.
Taken as a whole, these seemingly disparate creative processes build up my personal philosophy. Most closely resembling Epicureanism, this system of belief drives me to explore the environment, my body, abstract thought, friendship and my emotions. They blur the boundaries between intentions and actions, thoughts and feelings, challenge preconceived assumptions, test the boundaries of my mind/body connections and provide a narrative which makes sense of the world around me and my place within it. I hope to express this philosophy through my art and want to share these experiences with as many people as possible.