BARKING CATS & DOGS

Storytelling is the comparison I make when explaining how I work/ create a painting. Its making something up, taking the advice of write (paint) about what you know (and care about). Disparate elements of people, places, words, phrases, characters, letters, patterns and design. Borne from a punk ethic and attitude of D-I-Y. Researched from the history of everything I have ever liked visually, aesthetically, intellectually. If that ain't too highfalutin. Copied out and coloured in. Stylistically it could be a comic book, a graphic novel synopsis - such is the influence of Atomic ligne claire Bande Dessinee of Chaland and Torres. Equally it could be the proto-cubist/surrealism of Picabia and Gris with overlapping images merging. The stunningly simplified and deeply humanistic portraiture of Holbein and Rembrandt. Artistic influences are far too numerous and varied but they are just a couple of constants, currently. And of course it's not just individuals - there are genres like early Russian graphics (Stenbergs), Mexican Muralists, vintage travel posters, Warner Bros. Cartoons, Film Noir, Psychedelia, Record & Book Cover art, punk - that's just a few thought bubbles emanating from the top of my head. Taking aspects from some or none of these, it really is a pleasure to sit down, start drawing and make something completely new and original. It all comes together fluidly - one item will suggest another and that in turn will inspire another. Like writing a story there are always elements of editing, revision, rewriting (painting). Helpfully stylistically my paintings are representative of differing graphic elements juxtaposed on a wall - worn, torn and fragmented, forming its own loosely abstract story. So there is no need for clarity, except in the execution of the images and text obviously. Nothing is badly drawn I hope. The transience of memory in images is the point of the story. Each story is made whole from fragments. A highly entertaining page turner - of barking cats and dogs. You just wouldn't want it as a bedtime story.