I use my art to try to express myself and also to communicate my thoughts, ideas and emotions to others without words. It is often difficult for me to express things with words so for me to try to explain my visual art is nearly impossible, that’s why I make my art!

 

For my pleasure or my goal I use and play with many different implements and materials and use both 2D and 3D techniques. For me the creative process is a voyage of discovery. I sometimes try to create something I see or which I imagine, but frequently I have the sensation that my hand moves the pencil or brush without conscious control, then without preconceived ideas or planning it is a surprise what appears. My errors often provide me with new techniques and ideas - happy accidents.

 

I produce my lines, forms, marks or symbols in different ways: clear and strong, incomplete, vague or confused. I like and use black and white because they are strong together but I also love the millions of greys and bright or pale colours, each has its place. I enjoy making lines: spontaneous, fluid and curved or straight. 

 

I use brushes, a sponge or found objects to create coloured blocks of colour or prints and I often scribble/scratch into these while the paint is wet. Sometimes I cut a stamp out of lino, balsa or other material to print from - I adore how we can print from the same block but every time it’s different: patterns and textures change. My collages are often a mixture of papers I’ve created in the past and in different ways and using various techniques but I also make papers and cut-out images for a specific purpose. 

 

I use abstract and pictorial forms and pattern, often mixed together. I return frequently to the same themes of faces, heads and bodies (and masks, rôles, identity, movement), of human characters, creatures and aliens from my imagination. I sometimes write phrases or words on the work, at other times I use symbols - well known and understandable or not. I mix up my memories, my thoughts and my ideas which may end up rather a jumble!

 

I often feel like an alien in a world that moves too fast, is too complicated and incomprehensible. I am assaulted and injured by noises, smells, lights and signs which shout too loud and overwhelm my eyes and brain. My art helps me block out these sensory intrusions and my traumatic memories and feelings, it helps to calm me, it is my therapy and my medication. Therefore I need and love simplicity, but often my subjects are not simple: each artwork I make feels like one part, one facet, of many complicated stories and vast subjects, mixed up and always in flux.

 

I love nature and often use the shapes, patterns and visual languages of our world: pebbles, fish, jelly fish, the sea, plants, flowers, trees, insects, animals, birds, people, clouds stars... For me, everything on earth and in our universe is connected and I feel the invisible cords which join us. I see and feel both the micro and macro and I use my art to ask questions: it interests me how, when and why we try to control and change nature and our own human natures/behaviours. Through my art I contemplate the natural and built environments we construct for our wants and needs and question who decides what and how we do this. What is art and can art help change the world?

 

I am my history: I have survived unusual injuries and experiences which have changed me greatly and have educated me, so my art is now more sensitised to these vast and important subjects. My emotions are extreme: when I see the sea and its colours and movements or a tiny beetle with a pretty design on its back I feel overwhelming joy that I am alive and full of wonder at our incredible world, but I also suffer extreme sadness, fear, grief and despair because I am outraged by things which are enormously horrible, unfair and cruel. My art reflects these extremes.

 

It is for others to see what they want in my art, they will add their own histories, memories and ideas - everyone experiences the world differently, happily, because our diversity of experiences, understanding and being is wonderful. I continue my life’s voyage and follow my personal paths and way of living the best I can. The ‘average person’ does not exist but in one way I am ‘normal’ and like everyone else: everyone and everything influence me and almost everything interests me.