My background as an artist is in Painting and this activity is at the core of my practice. Painting has the ability to transcend spatial issues. I enjoy how paint can be ordered and how a painting is constructed. Painting deals with flatness, how something occupies a space.
I work both as an individual artist and in collaboration with fellow artists, architects and members of the public to produce artwork and commissions that are connected to place and people.
My work often investigates the function and transformative qualities of ornament and object.
The personal and shared experience of creating work and the engagement with place and people is important to the social aspect of my work, something exemplified by artist Joseph Beuys in his following quote:
“Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and inform our lives.”
Objects have the ability to inform; therefore the creating of ‘art’ objects equally have the ability to re-shape lives. The transformation does not have to be immense to be important, it is the lesser and discreet change that interests me most. Recently, found objects have become part of the work, carefully composed into groupings and installations.
Particular interests have included the expression of materials and the integration of pattern into elements of architectural space. During my practice based PhD I researched the application of computer technology to new and traditional materials to integrate decoration into the structure of the built environment. My explorations into surface design include working with historic pattern, merged with my own work to create new interpretations of surface. I like the way pattern enables my work to connect with previous and future generations.
The ephemeral surface including the transitory nature of shadow and reflection are also significant. This quality I have explored through the medium of film and photography.