A (self) confirmation of artistic intention . . .



Genetic Drift (detail) 70cm x 70cm



I produce works of art using a wide range of media. Although my background in printmaking leads me towards the practice of making multiple images, I am excitied by the notion that no two images are ever truly 'identical', so instead of a more traditional 'edition', my work tends to fall into 'series' with images evolving through repetition and mutation, in a self-indulgent process of artistic 'natural selection'.



"Cirripedes" (detail) 52cm x 42cm



I feel comfortable with the title 'mixed media artist'. Stitch is beginning to find an important place within my artwork and I am happy to allow myself the freedom to use a wide variety of materials and techniques in novel and unselfconcious ways.



Genetic Data (detail) 30cm x 90cm

The obsessive, almost compulsive, quality of the work of a research scientist appeals to my own nature. many of my pieces contain precious yet seemingly insignificant scraps which have carefully been set aside and cherished from previous pieces of work. There is something very satisfying to me in the structures formed by repetition but it is important to remain aware of the thread of intent which runs through the work, forging a pathway through the piles of ephemera which often clutter the surface. I am conscious of the inevitability that over time some of the excitement of new ideas is dimmed, and yet constantly suprised by the vigour and vitality which remains at the core when the first flush of enthusiasm has passed.



The Entangled Bank



"It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us."

Charles Darwin (from The Origin of Species)