I believe in the potential of art.
2 What do you intend your work to convey to an audience?
An intent; a timeline; a position.
3 Why do you work in your chosen medium and format?
Through quite an arbitrary decision I made a few years ago that continues to problematise and inspire.
4 Technically speaking how do you go about constructing your work, that is the image or object itself? What devices do you employ?
My paintings are very much concerned with process. Most paintings have some form of photographic referent, whether as subject or as re-documented information fed back into the process. I try to interrupt my painterly register through allocating different time-densities to different sections of the painting. The automatic, textural marks have become central in my new work, around which the paintings begin to form. These marks have a ‘presentness’ and an irreducibility which provides a counterpoint to the more absent forms of mark-making I use.
5 Which period(s)/artists/specific works of art are you influenced by and how directly? How does this manifest in your work?
Ernst’s ‘Europe After the Rain’ is quite a pivotal painting for me at present. Decalcomania as an automatic progenitor is something I’ve experimented with having read about Ernst and other Surrealists’ use of the automatic.
6 What stimulates/informs your work from the world around you?
My work is a receptacle for almost anything. Its sensitivity to stimulus can range from a colour placed in the studio to a text I’m reading, conversation I’ve had or exhibition I’ve seen. Most of these things find their way into the painting.
7 What stimulates/informs your work from your own personal experience?
Again, my practice is quite sponge-like - in any case it’s difficult to distinguish between my work and my personal experience. I suppose the relatively slow pace of my work is something that enables this, and a characteristic I can trace back to before I started painting as such.
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?
In terms of photographic source material, this can vary from photos I’ve taken to internet acquired images. These images are generally harvested under the authority of the painting.
9 What are the main problems that you face in making your work?
Recognising the shifts in how I relate to my work and being able to realise works at a rate equivalent to the evolution of the ideas behind them. The seduction of painting can both create and destroy works, either way with interesting consequences.
10 Where do you intend to take your work from here?
My work is currently entering into a phase where certain parameters are beginning to settle - elements are becoming more formal and economical. I think my work will begin to refine and reprise.