Artist statement
My style is unique without sacrificing fluidity — I move between drawing, painting, and illustration with an intuition born of experience and the necessity to express oneself. My works are mirrors: reflecting my history, knowledge, emotions, and memories. They map experiences and the world, through the language I understand best — the visual language of the relationships of line, color, symbol, and space.
Drawings, in my view, do not come together as an assembly of separate parts, but rather arise continuously, gradually as if from one continuous line. There is no strong sense of distinction within the work and the transition between working on depicting various objects can be best compared with changes of rhythm within a piece of music.
Although there is a tendency to make use of classic form, techniques and motifs, there is nothing portrayed that is simply a matter of habit or convention. Sometimes the intent is ironic, sometimes somber, but every detail contains meaning and is always rooted in an impulse: to portray the world as it exists as I experience it at the moment of work.
The way in which I paint makes heavy use of figures, without denying the use of abstraction or allowing myself to be limited by the use of nature-derived forms. My brushwork is textured, as if resulting from dry strokes, and the lines suggest restlessness.
Alongside the conscious use of technique, is the narrative it is being used to portray. Narrative is central to my work. What is especially key is depicting the relationship between characters, the environment and in this way strengthen the sense of story. The stories my paintings and drawings tell are emotional stories—subtext and symbol, shape and color, figure and space participate dynamically together.
As is the case with all art, each subject depicted contains the shadow of the artist, of myself, in the case of my works. These subjects are created as they exist under the lens with which I see people in my non-artistic life, as characters on a stage: shy, resigned, naïve, full of inner life and strange contradictions. Beneath the quiet surface lies a universe of ceaseless movement and transformation.
The ceaselessly moving, restless water of the sea is a prominent figure in my visual lexicon. Its beauty is of the kind that is alluring, dangerous, secretive, and always in motion. It is a metaphor by means of being a concentration, a microcosm of reality - a place where life mutates, truths are hidden, and explanations evaporate.
Contrasting to the sea, and reality, all subjects are depicted motionless, but their sense of stillness is vulnerable and unsupported. I always like to catch in my work, this moment of transcendent, fragile, and ethereal order; before gravity, the physical situation, or an outsider's aggression changes it. The subjects in my paintings and drawings are simply pretending to be solid, highly present, and above the natural order. It is this short-lived balancing act that makes us believe in its static existence.
Aware of the necessity of being a lifelong learner; libraries, myths, art history, and cultural texts help me with keeping my visual imagination alive. I am most fond of trying to excavate the mythic core of traditional fairy tales. In several of my works, I have tried to give new life to these stories with hope of stimulating a new appreciation of the timeless tales that form part of the basis of our collective culture in an age of fast-paced entertainment. It is an invitation, in the guise of an illustrated story, to savour, rather than inhale.
Expanding upon the above, an artist can only continue to offer and create new pieces if the artist and their inner world continue to grow as they progress with their career and life. It is in recognition of this truth that I dedicate myself to continuous growth and improvement. Commitment to this is a commitment to life, for life, for the duration of one’s lifetime, and without life, there is no art.