Artists Statement

​Creating artworks for me, is often evolutionary — a struggle between the intended, and the unexpected.  It happens; a record of an interruption.  There is an interplay between spontaneity, and the studious avoidance, and eventual acceptance of revelation of struggle.  The fear of obliteration by striving for perfection, to relinquish tantalising nuggets without knowledge of destiny.


Oops!  Out of Bounds
Transgressing Social Boundaries

Boundaries, as opposed to borders, are  barriers that seal off territory.  Borders are edges of things where interactions occur, but to trespass over a boundary is a violation.  My series, Oops!  Out of Bounds, explores social boundaries, territories, and the nature and results of transgression.  This is expressed primarily, and symbolically, as loss of the Mother, and betrayal of the Father.

Although the paintings have a nostalgic, lush, and dreamlike quality, it is clearly evident that all is not well.  There is a throat slashed, a boy with a gun, a dead cow, a caged hare, and predatory dogs.  The animal destined for slaughter is being led by the farmer, the carer, the provider, and trusted father figure.  There is historical context to pairing the spilling of blood with the loss of innocence.  A dead animal is surrounded by its predators, its killing consummated in a conscious, deliberate, methodical, and brutal fashion.

Transgressing boundaries is often a betrayal of trust and characteristically comes with violence or threats thereof.  Vulnerability to such is expressed in Oops!  Out of Bounds  Untitled 3, where the nurturing and protection of the mother figure is dissolving away.