The patron Saint of doors

This is essentially an Urban Landscape in a metaphysical sense with a dark angel character lending significance to the action within the work. There is a depiction of the underbelly of the whole scene – a kind of catacomb with bat-like figures too.

I think good images constitute a fairly balanced coupling of the careless and the careful.

That is to say, room should be left for the viewer to continually complete the image in their own fashion.

A good painting should consistently challenge and entertain the viewers’ visual intelligence as opposed to disappearing over time to become some unseen element of household furniture.

Puzzle

My lifes' work is about communication.

During my passage, within and without, I have encountered things that absolutely astonish my mind and others that profoundly disturb me.

I think there is a deep correlation between cooperation and language, and I have become increasingly fascinated by words and etymology. There seem to be growth pathways within language that track and trace and map our increased awarenesses. 
Language and the ability to communicate seem to hold the key to which polar aspect of our human selves will gain ascendency, and therefore if we will remain civilized or not. 

Example sections of text from collaged inserts;

1) “[it was the riddle of life that was puzzling and killing...-Arnold Bennet] [why more visitors to South America...not take this trip mystifies my wife and n...-L.A.Keating]...
...PERPLEX and BEWILDER add the ideas of uncertainty and often worry to that of puzzlement, BEWILDER implying a consequent and usually complete intellectual disorder [ on their arrival they were perplexed by radical differences in language, customs, and environment...
DISTRACT suggests the pertubation of an uncertain though not necessarily puzzled or bewildered mind, implying, rather, strongly conflicting preoccupations or interests... 

2)...the transition from a state of perplexity to rational comprehension – William James) ...2 a : something that puzzles : a difficult question or problem [it is more than a comfort to see those children growing so fine and so straight -Claudia Cassidy]...a question, problem, toy, or contrivance designed for testing ingenuity...

Parameters

Life happens pretty quickly and as we get more urbanised as a race our thought patterns and capabilities are influenced and modified. Modern life seems at once confusing and exciting and artistically it is interesting to attempt to observe and document those changes.

To me there seems to be a kind of Ambivalence or Polarization at the heart of this new world and environment we are creating. People seem both optimistic and fearful, often at the same time.

Over recent years I've been living and exhibiting in Cities holding a greater population than the entire country of my birth. Quite naturally, one of the recent streams of work has been based directly on these experiences. Most of these images don't have a particular up or down. They are maps, suitcases, postcards, windows, grids, airports, architecture...and are an example of maintaining a practice whilst being on the move.

text (front);

The diameter of their world was tightly drawn

Whatever larger geogra-phy they held in mind was theoretical.

Locks

Theres a home-coming aspect to this work quite directly referred to by the text 'Homeland' and a collaged portion of the Australian map found on the insides of older style envelopes, but also the large black letters LKS stencilled onto the surface. LKS is one of the labels used in sheep shearing sheds to divide up the wool clip. It is not necessary to know these things to appreciate the image, only that from a makers' point of view the layering is a direct consequence of the things that are actually happening...

Flights are being taken, letters are being sent, a living is being made, and new visual records are being created. This is the time, you are of your time, your time is now.

I've never been able to divide off and create a space for my Arts Practice separate from the other disciplines that pre-occupy me. In fact, these days I'm not sure that I’d even want to, because these are our 'Locks'...the things that hold us and stabilize our transient lives.

text (front);

...eyes and walked with their legs...

...and its topography was confined to the coves and ridges and watercourses they had seen with their...

...homeland

(Ref: 'Thirteen Moons', by  Charles Frazier , 2013)

text (vers); 

“Working with abstraction is just like life...just when you think you've got something...it's gone.”

Transition

I was so busy moving along the edge of my personal maps that I happily didn't absolutely know what I was engaged in making, only that I wanted to again abandon direct image and key off a sense of overlaying, and to continue to include elements of language like a diarist. 

In this particular piece there are obviously textures that suggest landscapes and overhead views too. Perhaps interestingly in terms of technique and studio practice, several of this series where made on canvas pasted onto the tops of small packing boxes that held the materials that were used to make them during their period of direct transit. Also the set include re-interrogation of images cut into sections and pasted back together in alternate views. 

Text (front);

...as was the length of time it might take to traverse such unimagined space...

So the distance to the west was entirely abstract...

Text (verso);

...we disappear /disepia/

VERB

cease to be visible “he disappeared into the trees”

synonyms : Vanish, pass from sight, recede from view, be lost from view/sight, fade, melt away:

Hongdae University Gate

‘Inspiration comes not while you wait but while you work’

This is one of a smaller series of abstract works in a loosely referred to as ‘post’.

There is a play on words in that they reference letters but also images that are born from or inspired whilst in the process of creating other images, so post as in ‘afterwards’.

Other works in this set to be seen here might be the smaller Postcard or even the much largest of the three versions of Bois De Bologne

Usually the images are inspired by grids in the form of windows, doorways, or interesting architectural elements of buildings. Sometimes there is also an element of time lapse and always some experimental combinations of quite disparate mark making.

In this specific case I was looking at the one of my favourite buildings in Seoul, Korea, at Hongdae University Gate. It is a wonderful square span that seems to have its’ very own atmosphere and there is a wonderful spray of a strange orange on the periphery of vision.