In Bad Dreams

​ ‘In Bad Dreams’ deals in dark, traumatised experiences, in catharsis and a purging of negative emotions and experiences. It uses the mystical/alchemical idea of connectivity – ‘as above, so below’. In the case of these paintings, the idea is that the sickness or suffering of the individual reflects something outside of themselves – the sickness of the world and society they exist in.
Each painting uses a similar layout - there is a ‘framed’ element within a loosely defined field. The field and colours in this series are muted, greys with flashes of colours. Instead of vivid images and colours, the idea is to visually mimic echoes, something emerging from memory into the present.
The series deals with ‘primal’ negative experiences such as loss, depression, self-harm, addiction, isolation and violence. Each of these is linked with a specific symbol and/or colour – from rust, stone and wood to blues, screaming faces and spattered – within an overall ‘industrial’ aesthetic, and with titles drawn from groups like Nine Inch Nails and God Machine.
‘One Last Laugh’ relates to experiences of addiction, with the ink transfer element, the screaming face, being from an old painting of mine dealing with the same subject, but from a more raw and immediate perspective.
 ‘In Bad Dreams’ deals in dark, traumatised experiences, in catharsis and a purging of negative emotions and experiences. It uses the mystical/alchemical idea of connectivity – ‘as above, so below’. In the case of these paintings, the idea is that the sickness or suffering of the individual reflects something outside of themselves – the sickness of the world and society they exist in.
Each painting uses a similar layout - there is a ‘framed’ element within a loosely defined field. The field and colours in this series are muted, greys with flashes of colours. Instead of vivid images and colours, the idea is to visually mimic echoes, something emerging from memory into the present.
The series deals with ‘primal’ negative experiences such as loss, depression, self-harm, addiction, isolation and violence. Each of these is linked with a specific symbol and/or colour – from rust, stone and wood to blues, screaming faces and spattered – within an overall ‘industrial’ aesthetic, and with titles drawn from groups like Nine Inch Nails and God Machine.
‘One Last Laugh’ relates to experiences of addiction, with the ink transfer element, the screaming face, being from an old painting of mine dealing with the same subject, but from a more raw and immediate perspective.

Title: One Last Laugh (2018)
Medium: Acrylic, ink transfer on canvas (100x80cm)
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‘Still’ deals with the idea of loss, the cloth hinting at bandages over a wound, while the circular splash of white can be understood as the emotions contained/buried beneath spilling out. My own experience with loss and the resulting grief, is that the emotions, however buried or distant we may think they are, erupt into the present very quickly and vividly.

Title: Still (2018)
Medium: Acrylic, cloth on canvas (100x80cm)

‘A Warm Place’ deals with the idea of self-harm or self-destruction. I wanted to use ideas of rust to equate with old bloodstains and the nails to mimic weapons or the tools used for hurting ourselves

Title: A Warm Place (2018)
Medium: Acrylic, nails on canvas (100x80cm)
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‘Less Than’ relates to ideas of isolation and dislocation – the feeling of being in the wrong place. The central form is meant to evoke ideas of stone, with the wood relating to fences (both things that would shut out or enclose). These are images I personally associate with the feeling of being an outsider, particularly in different cultural contexts.

Title: Less Than (2018)
Medium: Acrylic, sand, modelling paste, wood on canvas (100x80cm)

‘Something Real, deals with violence, specifically the effects of exposure to violence. The experience of violence can briefly cause us to feel more alive, to experience things more intensely (as represented by the orange and yellow – which also links to fire), but at the same time can desensitize us, make us something less than human. This aspect is represented by an ink transfer from an old painting of mine, made when I was living in an area where violence was prevalent.

Title: Something Real (2018)
Medium: Acrylic, ink transfer on canvas (100x80cm)

‘Painless’ deals with the reality of depression, the pain and self-hate being hidden behind a watery numbness (represented in the painting through the cloth over the razor blades.

Title: Painless (2018)
Medium: Acrylic, razor blades, cloth on canvas (100x80cm)