During the initial development of this series of paintings I became fascinated and inspired by a photograph I had taken of an industrial flytrap. The sensation and emotions associated with being trapped have become a central theme of my work. I am motivated by how I might provoke the sensation of entrapment and confinement in the viewer.
My paintings employ the grid structure of the flytrap and through layering techniques, the building up of surfaces, the application of paint, and the manipulation of transparency, depth, perspective, movement and colour seek to ensnare the spectator.
Geometric forms dominate my work. My deliberate construction of rigid, regular shapes is reminiscent of our urban environments. Viewers interpret my regular, angular blocks of colour as objects from their own environments: whether it’s buildings, rows of desks, escalators, filing cabinets or tunnels, each person perceives something different.
As an ardent student of rationality and spontaneity I try to allow the painting create itself. I think it unwise to try and fully control the work: firstly because I find it impossible and secondly, because control leads to sterility and deadens the work. I try to actively engage with aspects of surprise and impulse. However, I recognise an artist can never be utterly spontaneous: the selection of a colour, the choice of a brush, are all analytical, rational acts.
Thus, my work is visually and conceptually a combination of ordered construction and unruly abandon: an experiment to explore how order and chaos or spontaneity and rationality can interact on the same canvas: a confusing, uncertain landscape, which represents my spatial trap.
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