Consistent in my work is the depiction of the natural world, our Mother Earth, and the celestial bodies neighbouring it. The focus is on the primordial, with the images deliberately showing a world absent of humans and other species. Consequently, the stirring question is whether they represent a time before our arrival, or conversely, one following our departure. What is certain is that they are a return to a heliocentric universe where people are no longer the centre of importance. As the darkness in the world proliferates, so does the desire for light, and amid the turbulence a sense of centredness is imperative. The art-making process, for me, is a means to realise this centredness. Symbolic painting has the advantage of allowing polarities to co-exist, thus simultaneously representing life and death, light and darkness, despair and rapture. The surfaces of many of my paintings have been recycled, scraped off and then reapplied. In some paintings, nature is reinforced in a stature of prominence, while at other times it threatens to slip away. The worked surfaces of the paintings also exist as another form of landscape, fastidiously textured, with scorched black areas, at times distressed, at other times sparkling and jewel-like. Their surfaces are a microcosm within the macrocosm. Gold, silver and pearl-white paint are mostly used in these works, suggestive of precious metals, accentuating the invaluable creative world. As the world that surrounds me fragments, in my works I strive for inner harmony, and in essence I am driven by an abiding desire to put the world back together.

taken from   UNSEEN LIGHT   →