Wow! Not quite all change at the top (yet) …
When I started the work for the festival I had a strong feeling that I couldn’t go on working in the same way as before so the opportunity came at a good time. It was hard to identify the exact reasons but I just didn’t feel able to work as I had done before. Even though my work is not political as in polemical, what is going on in the world has its effect; immunity isn’t an option.
My work is much more about the real world around me – there has been a figurative turn which I’ve felt coming on for a while, although there is a sense in which it also lies between representation and abstraction, as in this piece. For ages I’ve fretted about presenting work on paper and the need to frame it. Because of the way I work, I tend to just make the work and then think about how to present it and it’s always a problem. But, I am now trying to incorporate those considerations into the process earlier: so I have tried collaging a re-worked ghost print onto aluminium and then working into it with printed markets using slow drying acrylics. I think I’m finding a solution….
