BA (Hons) Painting
Fundamentally, the relation between art and the unconscious is at the core of my practice. Suffice it to say art has the capacity to express the artistâs inner world but my interest lies in the process by which this can be achieved, and can be allegorically known. C.G. Jung advocated irrational symbols to consummate the fusion of the unconscious and the conscious, which I believe can be held together in a work of art. I see Jungâs ubiquitous shadow archetype as the metaphorical creative force behind my work, which can evoke aspects of the artistâs persona, dreams, and unveil a private mythology ; the dark hidden away side of the unconscious mind. The surrealists advocated the technique of automatism as a gesture of the hand, I use it as a gesture of the mind, projecting free flowing thoughts on to the canvas in the form of biomorphic abstract shapes intertwined with more recognizable symbols creating an ultimate configuration between abstraction and figuration. My work embodies aesthetic darkness, reaching out to the viewerâs wildest imagination whilst expressing my own subconscious mind in a phantasmagoric and ambivalent space. I like to play on composition, by creating unsettling pictorial strategies and layouts of elements within a piece, which help to maximize the level of uncertainty in my work, which is of paramount importance to all my paintings. I like to create my own imaginary internal cosmos, my own psychological landscapes, creating an underlying fusion of the real and the imaginary. I am strongly influenced by the dream like works of Max Ernst, and the raw emotion that exudes them. I have developed my own repertoire of fantastical creatures I use in my paintings, but they are more like characters to me, personified aspects of myself. In a sense, I feel all my paintings are self-portraits, in their own way.