The primary reasons for me making the work are based in entering the viewer into a critical and emotional arena, when confronted by a particular image, this is linked with a necessity to find a way to approach certain matter subject matter through the language of paint and contemporary practice.
2 What do you intend your work to convey to an audience?
My work should convey a sense of underlying anxiety and certain forms of violence coupled with a driving for the image so that it can be taken to a different place through the use of paint.
3 Why do you work in your chosen medium and format?
I choose to work in my chosen medium, that of oil painting due to its obvious art historical context, the fact that its possibilities seem both limited and limitless. The fact that the act of painting is a solitary occupation and that you are confronted with a blank space that seems an ever present confrontation regardless of its placement within time.
4 Technically speaking how do you go about constructing your work, that is the image or object itself? What devices do you employ?
To arrive at a desired image the devices I employ revolve around a constant re-looking and questioning of the image I am trying to construct. The handling of the paint in certain areas, the degree of how much is given to the audience or left more ambiguous, how the image will work at a particular size and how certain editing will push it into opposing areas creating the desired tone as I need for each work.
5 Which period(s)/artists/specific works of art are you influenced by and how directly? How does this manifest in your work?
Although I admire work of differing periods and movements my main interest that is a constant through out my practice has been that of Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Bacon and Ribera. This is juxtaposed with the work of Terry Richardson, Larry Clarke and the films of Steve Perry. A painting in relation to portraiture in my work that I feel captures certain element's of longing and power is Riberas ' Santagio Apostal ' c. 1634, a painting that relates to both an inner and outer world, compositinally bleak and inspiring, beautifully constructed and relating to the work of Caravaggio.
6 What stimulates/informs your work from the world around you?
The current art scene and world seems to inspire me in a way of making it possible that I have an audience that I understand and don't in ways of consuming the work. The current state of boredom and apathy that surround certain modes of practice and thought and how you can move on from that. I find the hysterical constant pushing of sex and violence in all domains both weak and conservative in its outlook, this stimulates me into both a wanting to destroy and create my practice.
7 What stimulates/informs your work from your own personal experience?
Personal experience with my work is at one distanced and removed yet totally involved. When speaking about the work I enjoy letting the viewer add up and come to certain conclusions or answers. There is no doubt that my life as an adult has constantly evolved through my work, to a point that I ask whether my life dictates the work or the work dictates my life. The personal experience of friends, family and the fact of living itself all feed into the practice.
8 From where do you derive your other visual source material (i.e. non art historical) and how do you implement this material within your work?
Other source material I use comes from the internet, mobile phones and D.V.D. The use of the internet with its plethora of images can be both compelling and frustrating, there seems to be a constant 'searching' for that vital image. Mobile phone clips that I have made and d.v.d. where I search for specific 'parts', are implemented into the work by either lifting certain elements or using specific colours or lighting. The overall sense, composition and atmosphere are then taken into a completely different realm through the painting process.
9 What are the main problems that you face in making your work?
Problems that I face generally arrive from a specific image, this manifests itself in how this potential painting will be read or consumed. I do not set out to shock or repel yet I know that I need a certain content, a certain 'thing' to push the work into my desired place.
10 Where do you intend to take your work from here?
The work will gradually progress both in the actuality of paint and the images themselves, a constant battle that I hope will never subside wherein I feel comfortable with the practice, the underlying anxiety and desire to push the practice further and further through the use of paint.