THE WORK

It’s difficult to attach any sort of language to my work, especially as I see my prints as non-representational images. My work doesn’t begin with words or fixed meanings. When I’m making, I’m not translating ideas into images; I’m responding intuitively, moving elements around until they feel resolved. Meaning often emerges later. The work is guided by a balance of technical skill and aesthetic judgement, shaped through practical decisions about what works and what doesn’t.

Beginning with colour, shape, mark making and texture, I collate a collection of source material. These elements are then developed digitally through layering and manipulation, allowing abstraction to emerge. This approach was taught to me by a wonderful man who is no longer with us, Bill Wright. His illustration course at Central Saint Martins showed me how to combine hand drawn elements with digital tools to create fully integrated images, a technique I later adapted and expanded within my own art practice. I wouldn’t be doing any of this without him. 

THE STORY

I found myself on a hill, an oak tree behind me and a beautiful view of the English countryside spreading out beneath. I took a slow deep breath and let the words out. Words that had been deeply buried, words that should never have been said to me, that I should never have said to myself. They had been stuck in my chest for longer than I could remember, and they had kept me away from connection and intimacy for years.

I could see the words. Some floated in the air before me, giant and black, moving away slowly. Some were small and fast, buzzing around me before blinking out. The words were fragments that I couldn’t, or didn’t even try to read as they all meant the same thing; freedom from myself.

I created this place with the guidance of a hypnotherapy session and it remains the place I go back to when I sit down to work. It takes a certain kind of bravery for me to create something from nothing and offer it out to the world, and I’m grateful that I’ve had that experience, real or not, to help me.