Artist statement

My art arises from the conflict between my complete intellectual conviction that this life is all that there is and my emotional difficulty in accepting that this is the case. I firmly believe that our consciousness stems from the neurons of our brain and that when we die that consciousness is extinguished.  I cannot see intellectually that it could even be desirable for it to be otherwise.  Imagine the boredom that would set in after the first few millennia, though I would be prepared to give it a try.

I like to explore the nature of time, the meaning of now and the part that entropy plays in the universe. While I can be found trying to make sense of articles about fundamental matter, my awareness of the brevity of human lifespan means that the human form is often to be found somewhere in many of my works.It may just be an outline, or a shadow, the suggestion of a face, or of the spirit in which I do not believe; in other cases it is more tangible and solid. I speculate about what people might be thinking about, their own belief systems and the impossibility of ever knowing for sure the state of any other mind. I am fascinated by the effect of random events on our lives and the impossible odds that allowed us to be here in the first place.

I am particularly interested the boundary between painting and sculpture; some of my works  are clearly the one; some the other but many are a mixture: three dimensional works that are painted, two dimensional works that are do not take the classic rectangular form. I am drawn to irregular shapes, changeable outlines, frayed edges and ambiguous colours.  I work in a variety of media including paint, resin, plastics, Jesmonite, fibreglass fabric and papier-mâché and have been influenced by artists who have chosen to work in unconventional and abject materials

Some of the pieces I create are not built to last but that does not matter. It seems to me fitting that the short flash of light that is our existence in the context of eternity should be celebrated by the ephemeral, by works that can survive for just days or weeks and then are gone.