Memory is a starting point WHAT INSPIRES MY PAINTINGS? People often ask , “what kind of art do you do?”. It’s a straightforward question but somehow the answer never seems straightforward. Rhetorical language trips me up when trying to describe a seemingly simple process: I go to the studio (or out to the landscape) and make things. I don’t wait for inspiration. I just start. To be clear, I am a painter and make contemporary artwork, mostly paintings and collage, but also video, and installations. Like many artists I am a magpie, inspired by glimpses of colour, found objects, real…
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Inspiration
What is the strangest thing you have ever found on a beach?
BLOCK ISLAND, RHODE ISLAND, USA The 4 miles of beach past Southwest Point on Block Island in the summer is hot, littered with trees, boulders, the detritus of the shipping industry it is also empty of day-trippers and family beach parties. The wild ocean facing side of the island here evidence and artifacts lie everywhere but the people are far away, the arc of existence described by a million pointless objects. Decisions that were made elsewhere and long ago. GYRE, The piece I created for Reuse, Reinvent Reimagine started with the beachcombing ; the process of acquiring junk, trash,…
In my studio – prevaricating
Spending what feels like half my life in the studio these days – probably should be more than that given the show is only 6 weeks away….This weekend went to the Ambulance Depot to work out what kind of lighting I should use when there is 2D work and moving image in the same show. I was really lucky to be able to borrow lighting kit from Screen Academy and to have Drew on hand to run up and down a ladder but I am afraid I am no clearer….I need ‘lots of lights’ and then ‘no lights’ ? Really?…
Is Painting Nostalgic?
Memory is where I start. A core dislocation, the sadness, a lie that I tell myself. To start. There is longing but also relief. There is no going back. There are limits but there is potential. I was meant to be here…….. When it’s going in the right direction nostalgia disappears. You don’t look back and risk that your experience of the potential of desire, of joy, of beauty will disappear, vanish before you have sense enough to recognize it. Leaving not much in its place but longing and regret. NOSTALGIA. The point is to keep going, make the…