What are you working on at the moment?
I am currently producing a number of drawings based on designs I have created using Photoshop. I always take a lot of photographs of my paintings using a macro lens so the minute details of the paint are revealed; using this lens means there is a very small depth of field which confuses the scale of the painterly marks. The designs I create with Photoshop are done very quickly, even crudely with the aid of a magnetic lasso tool and then cutting and pasting these various elements into an image, hence the name Paint Amalgamations. The compositions are drawn directly from my laptop screen which also determines their scale; the interest lies in the contrast between the speed of the digital designs and their translation into a more archaic medium which seems to distort further the layered aspects of the image.
I am interested in the statement that accompanies your work featured on the NAC website. Where has the inspiration for your current work come from?
Inspiration comes from a wide variety of sources; film, anime, graphic novels and first and foremost painting. There are a number of questions inherent to my work: what are the limits of a painting and how far can these apparent boundaries be pushed, how can I use the gesture to make marks without falling into obvious clichés and how can I combine the digital with the physical material? I am inspired to make paintings that have to be seen in the flesh, to experience the work from all angles and lighting fluctuations to see all its facets.
You talk about De-Kooning and Van Gogh and it’s clear that their work has had a significant impact on the style of your current work. Can you tell us about any contemporary artists whose work particularly interests you?
There are a number of artists whose work has had a huge impact on my approach, Fabian Marcaccio and David Reed’s work is of great interest, they are the two artists I find myself going back to time and time again. Both of these artists provoke so many questions as to what the act of painting is and also the use of gesture through different means.
David Reed’s work has had the most obvious influence on my approach, his comments on the light of screens and the intensity of the colours on those screens provoked my use of the bright colours I use. I always bear in mind his statement that it is up to artists to use these new pigments and experiment with them before others get there first.
Marcaccio is so intriguing, the constant twisting and distorting of painting through its language while defying any notion of categorization is fantastic. His work is always in the back of my mind so I constantly think about the possibilities the work could go in, which can be distracting.
My approach to painting changed the most dramatically after seeing Pia Fries’ exhibition at Bernard Jacobson in 2007, I spent so long scrutinizing the work and paint marks, they really were a great collection of paintings and just made me readdress the material I was working with, it really opened up the possibilities of the pigments versatility.
What are the theoretical or conceptual concerns that inform your work?
I have mentioned some of the conceptual concerns in the other questions as it is hard to untangle these concerns with my approach to painting, what I would like to say is that the process of painting is directly linked to the images we view on screens.
Can you expand on the choice of titles for your recent work? I am thinking about (Existenz, ITCAMEFROMWITHIN, Kaneda, Virus, Untitled (0269)
Many of these titles come from films particularly David Cronenberg’s work who is one of my favorite directors, ITCAMEFROMWITHIN was the American title of his early horror Shivers, I am a huge horror fan, not the gore filled slasher films more the psychological stories or the body horror, something with an original idea involved. Videodrome (1983) is one of my favorite films and has always remained in my creative imagination. I believe that at certain points in your life you see or experience something and it just opens up your head to new visual ideas, Videodrome did this for me, so did John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and Alien (1979).
Kaneda is a character from the manga and subsequent film adaptation Akira, it has a fantastic seen near the climax of the film when another character Tetsuo’s body begins to morph and change incorporating metal and wires, but it also name check’s Shirley Kaneda who is another contemporary painter whose work I admire. So as you can see it seemed quite natural to use this gesture as I have such a strong visual relationship with body horror. What I like about film and in particular this genre is the reaction it provokes in the viewer, you either love it or hate it, there is no room for sitting on the fence.
Recently though I have let the computer take control of the process of naming the work through the cataloguing of my photographs on my external hard-drive. The referencing of the films is something I enjoyed doing and knew that fans of this film genre would recognize these titles but I think this new method has a greater involvement with the direction the work is moving in.
Would you like to talk more about your process?
Every mark I make is an attempt to create a sense of movement or flux so they have to be positive marks, this becomes more difficult as the forms intermingle or as the layers are built up. A number of the marks have been repeated and have become a motif and a repetitive physical act, while, in my mind, they were intestinal or umbilical yet they are usually rendered in stainless steel or iridescent pearl paint so they have a more synthetic appearance. The image is then built up from this foundation using this initial mark to create and inspire new forms using other processes like smearing oil paint or dripping acrylic. Colours, layers and forms can then be merged together enabling play with positive/negative marks, colour relationships and processes with the aid of a substantial amount of stenciling and masking. It is the stenciling that gives the images their digital appearance as it enables intricate details in the forms even though the initial form is made from a single brushstroke, smear or splatter.
Having recently graduated from the University of Northampton, it would be interesting to hear about your educational experiences. How do you feel the experience has influenced your artistic development and do you think it has prepared you for continuing to develop and practice in the future?
Being challenged and probed by practicing artists and tutors provided me with the incentive to take the work seriously, although it doesn’t mean it was all plain sailing. I did have problems because I was using gestural marks contrasted with more formal elements, instead of letting the work lead me I attempted to illustrate my ideas which is the wrong approach. The studio spaces at the university are very generous so I was able to work on a larger scale which loosened me up and allowed a more physical engagement with the work. But I could only really see the painting from a distance if I took photographs, so I worked from a photographic digital image but could only take a look at the whole thing on my laptop later which led to the ideas I use at the moment. The experience as a whole was very positive but does not fully prepare you for engaging with the industry as a whole once you have left.
What are the practicalities of being a practicing artist soon after graduation? Do you currently have your own studio space
I did look into studio spaces while at university but continued to work at home which is restricting in terms of the scale I choose to work with. I have been lucky enough to get myself a studio space at The Artists Sanctuary in Northampton which has a small community of artists occupying a number of studios. But having graduating so recently it is important to be realistic in terms of how my work will progress and am trying to create a new body of work, developing the ideas used during my time on that particular course while allowing the work to evolve. I’m also very aware that this is just the beginning and know I’m a small fish in a big ocean.
Can you give us some insight into your recent activities? Have you been involved with any recent exhibits or projects?
Again I have been lucky, the University is developing a room for staff and students to gain experience with new technologies and wanted a piece of work that would express this innovative place. I put forward a proposal which they accepted and have been producing work for this particular site. They then inquired if I would produce some work for the computer suites, this seemed even more appropriate for the ideas I was working with and created a new set of restrictions. Because I am interested in the intensity of colours on screens and movement in our peripheral vision I created a canvas which is very long in comparison to its height.
When installed in its location, alongside rows of computers, I am hoping that it will constantly shift and flutter as people are at work making them look again at the painting. The piece for the innovation centre has lights installed in it, both fluorescent and fiber optic and this has led to some new thoughts concerning the intimacy of the work. The iridescent and interference colours already shimmer and glow depending on the angle viewed or light falling up on the work so to control this light more intensively seems like a logical progression.
Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art?
Well I think it was Charles Bukowski who said that art should have an immediate impact on the viewer, to drag them into the work and I do agree with this to a certain extent. I hope that my work does this and provokes a reaction, positive or negative. Even though there are many new types of media and approaches, painting has the ability to bridge them all yet remain allusive and relevant if it is given the time.