Statement

I am primarily a painter, but not exclusively so. When I paint, I work in oils, but increasingly have also introduced photographic image, collage, textural mediums and found text into my work.

The bulk of my paintings have been based around my own collected objects – items are selected, re-presented as a small vignette and the scene then painted. These works reflected a long-held interest in collections and collecting, and of archives – both factual and fictioning.

My paintings are quiet and reflective, contemplative almost. (I like the idea of painting being a slow and considered process; unfashionable in an age of instant and constant information.) Based around notions of Self, what makes us who we are, and how do external factors (and which factors?) influence that perception?

Most recently I have been using repeated pattern in my work – mostly stenciled geometric designs on a large scale, but still within a bounded framework. I am interested in the expected order that is represented by the pattern. Also, that pattern is a universally understood language that we are readily accepting of. Within my work, I am beginning to investigate what happens when the expected order of the pattern is broken and disturbed; Foreground merges with background, past with present, nature with man-made.

I have specifically been researching wallpaper pattern. Wallpaper represents the functional, decorative, and invisible; it is the signifier of the home and homeliness, and yet it is also something used to subvert, to cover, and to disguise. I am hoping to use pattern, particularly these familiar domestic patterns, as a metaphor for the construction and understanding of self-identity and society.

My current work uses multiple photographic images to form a monochromatic repeating pattern. This is then overlaid with repetitive geometric progressions, which collide and merge as the expected conformity of the pattern is compromised. With each subsequent layer of pattern, the work becomes harder to read, until all original meaning is possibly lost.

Each of these pieces is reflected in a corresponding ‘ghost’ painting, intended to be forward-looking and hopeful in contrast. Using a contrast of matte and reflective mediums, the pattern catches the light, illuminating some areas whilst others are simultaneously lost. It is impossible to view the whole. These two pieces are then intended to be hung at right angles to one another.

My professional experience as an artist at this stage is fairly limited. I have participated in a small number of group shows, and also curated one show during my time at college.

I have become increasingly interested in writing within my practice, and was recently shortlisted for the Turning Point West Midlands/Grand Union Emerging Art Writers Bursary 2012.