ARTIST STATEMENT

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​As I explore printed remnants of the promises of post-war culture and advertising, I collect weathered and discarded paper, vintage magazines, old book pages and found imagery which resonates with me visually or emotionally on some level. I also gather off-cuts and scraps of painted paper, stained paper and the occasional worn street poster.
My aim is to then construct tactile representations of transitory feelings or visions that emerge as I sift through that array of collected material.

 

On my preferred working surfaces of paper, canvas and wood panels, I have utilised a diverse range of mediums including collage, acrylic paint, oil pastels, spray paint, pencils, markers, dry-press lettering and gold leaf. I have also extensively explored the possibilities of gel medium transfers for reproducing images and typography on a large scale, as well as achieving desired transparency effects.
 

Most of my larger scale mixed media works are designed and mocked-up digitally before I mark-up and construct the unique handmade artwork on canvas or wood panel. My collages on paper however come together through an entirely organic and spontaneous process of cutting and pasting - which is free-flowing and immediate, while at the same time visually coherent and deliberate.

While allowing my source material to present aesthetic directions, I arrange, rearrange, crop, cut, fold, tear, scratch and peel back selected pieces to find interesting connections that reveal an ongoing visual dialogue between graphic design and fine art. After every selected piece of collage is eventually fixed into place through a series of calculated movements, it is the viewer who ultimately completes the work - constructing their own individual stories based on what they observe.