As a child I spent a lot of time hoping for spiritual visions, slipping into day-dreams, imagining socialism and painting. At the age of sixteen I decided to deepen my relationship with painting, became politically active and set out on my quest for the spiritual. Nothing much has changed except I’ve got a few more words: alchemy, occult, mysteries, non-capitalism, yoga, rituals, matter, magic, spells, dreams, body, organs, soul, distributed network, protocol, webs, fragments, constellations. 

For me, the process of painting sometimes connects with a pre-organisational almost-consciousness; a constellation of energies, patterns and forms. Each participating fragmentary strand links with and transforms itself and others through incremental shifts.

I expand the parameters of my painting into the everyday practices of life such as cooking, tending, gardening, preserving, composting, mending, gathering and making. I root these activities in the cycles and rhythms of the calendar year and with reference to lived experience in late capitalism. This intimacy with the external world loops back into the internal; each informing the other.

Alchemical Landscapes: Union of Elements (Study), 2021. Acrylic ink, Acrylic Paint, Collage on Paper, 10.5cm x 18cm

Mystical Landscapes: Even Singing (Study), Acrylic ink, Water Colour Paint, Inkjet Print, Collage on Paper, 11cm x 16cm