I'm an artist designer and maker with a profound love of colour. For me it has a lyrical energy and exuberance that really resonates and it's at the heart of everything I create. I’m naturally curious with a very loose approach to making so I find it easy to work with multiple mediums, always with the same intention of using a visual vocabulary which crosses all materials. Experimentation and play are key parts of my practice and embracing the accidental or unpredictable are essential parts of my work. Painting is the foundation and I work intuitively, playing with materials and mark making directly onto whatever surface I'm using. From there I can choose to follow any number of directions mixing diverse materials and methods to create sophisticated pieces. It’s a visual vocabulary that I express in abstract form.
Music has always been a huge presence in my life, it has an energy and music is often part of my day working in the studio. The act of mixing materials and processes almost feels like composing and I’m sure it’s a subliminal feed that I often see reflected in the gestures shapes and marks of a finished piece of work.
I learned my craft in a very traditional way and those hands on skills taught me process, chemistry and the science of colour. It also finely tuned the way of thinking in layers that has always come naturally to me so embracing digital technology in some parts of my work has been an easy progression. Used as a tool to enhance my skills, it allows me to innovate and produce pieces that couldn’t be created any other way.
I believe everyone has the potential to be creative and that creativity is present in the world around us all the time. Being an artist is what happens when you choose to engage with it. It can be elusive at times but I’ve learned to sit comfortably with its ebb and flow, trusting that it will be always be there when I choose to engage with it.
It’s often said that timing is everything and every artist has a different story. Mine has taken many twists and turns but always my choices have been made towards following a creative path and finding the courage to making life changing decisions when I have to. This is a favourite quote from Kurt Vonnegut that always seems to ring true:
"Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art no matter how well or badly is a way to make your soul grow for heavens sake. Sing in the shower, dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You'll get an enormous reward. You will have created something"
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