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Artist's Statement |
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While the present bombards us with information and the past provides influence via memory and the future is available but all too readily becomes the present then the past, identity is spelt out in an elusive, yet somewhat identifiable language, partly persuaded by a prehistoric scent and encouraged by inquiry. I partially know who I am when I hear the Glenn Miller sound. |
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In 1991, after many years of painting and exhibiting, I realised that the formalist abstract nature of my work was becoming less meaningful. I felt that I was no longer experiencing any form of engagement with the practice of painting. I decided to stop painting until I felt that I had a subject matter that bore relevance to the world in which I lived. |
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Alongside this, I questioned the position of abstract painting in the 1990's. Socially and politically, I could no longer rationalise the need for an art form that, for me, has over the past twenty years slipped into a less emphatic message than it was designed for. I felt it had become particularly unsympathetic to contemporary issues and through its passive nature was once again flirting with a simple decorative solution. |
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I decided to go with my instinct. leave well alone and wait for both a relevant subject matter and equally importantly, a manner with which to execute it. Nine years later, the light bulb came back on. I realised that my subject matter had not significantly altered, but the means of expressing it had radically changed. |
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My current work deals with questions of identity - which I acknowledge has always been the underlying current of my work. However, gone is the now redundant decision making process of abstraction and in its place is a figurative experience, involving text, contemporary song lyrics and the ordinariness of dialogue that has developed through advertising and the general manner in which information is put across. I am intrigued by 'what's on offer' in the world and how we are affected by it. I feel a need to pin down some evidence of who we think we are and how, in turn, we put ourselves 'on offer' in the world. |
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The Kids Have Got The Guns (1) The Kids Have Got The Guns (2) Paintings 1 The Three Graces Paintings 2 Drawings 1 Drawings 2 Drawings 3 The Seven Deadly Sins |
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