'I am fascinated with how the human brain comprehends time frames, we can think in terms of seconds, minutes, days, years, hundreds of years and even millions of years. Yet still we can make sense of them. I used the Portal series as a device to capture the different ways we see time and space but still have the visual music as an essential element that holds the works together. The format of The Portals reflects how we understand the world in this age, through television, computers, mobile phones, etc. It also forms a barrier to understanding. Are we seeing reality or a construct of reality? The Mines grew out of the format of The Portals, but instead of holding us at bay, the Mines invite us into them. They are more mysterious than the portals because it is difficult to make out what is in them, so we must study them closely.
'The Life On Mars Black series came about from the Mines, (two of the Mines are partially titled “Life in a Mine…”). The Life on Mars Black series are fuller of mark making and gesture; they are concerned with movement and direction, and how we are controlled or left free to roam at will (LOMB I). This has included how the universe has grown from the Big Bang to Civilisation (LOMB III) and how town planning can be a form of control (LOMB IV) or how we are now subjected to social engineering (LOMB VI). After lockdown my work responded to the pandemic in The Squeeze series (in watercolour and in oil).
'More recently I have reacted to the diagnosis of having a serious illness, at first in several watercolours and drawings based on images of medical scans. Since my first operation I was drawing using pen and ink and colour pencils, I was determined to create at least one drawing per day and have achieved this. Titled Journey to Wellbeing the whole series will be organised according to where I was and what was happening to me at the time.'
