“The Excavation of Artistic Process; Mining for knowledge, technique and materials to create form.”

Abstract

My judgement is purely out of excitement or joy I get from a work. I often work on multiple pieces at a time. Time is instrumental to the process as it involves repeat judgement and meditation. Creation of a work can take weeks and sometimes even months. Before any painting session I mediate on the outcomes in my head. This helps me visualize my goals and reduce the chances of bad outcomes. If I do not give the work room to breathe, it usually ends in the works death. But somehow what is created in the process of a mistake, something interesting can happen. In contrast a feeling of dread, or the implication of violence can also be of equal importance. The work needs to be formally exciting, with a quality composition and the illusion of space. I am not interested in creating a pretty picture or working from observation, but rather working from and sparking the human imagination. What was the original thought or jumping point for the work? Have I followed the path of conception, or has the work evolved into something else? Is there a certain level of confusion or disorientation to the work? In this Instagram age we are consuming images at a rapid rate. I follow a lineage of MC Escher and Optical artists. Their works are both disorientating and visually interesting. They force you to really think about what you are observing as a human. The science of the brain and eyes as a sensory system interests me. I ask myself what we can perceive as humans and why are some things invisible to the human eye. Are we in fact hallucinating as a species? Our brains have been filling the blanks in our vision for a long time.