My work is both figurative and political. There are two major conflicts in the world at the moment. I find I cannot ignore them. I don't wish to take sides. I simply want them to stop. My practice addresses those conflicts. 

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I wrestle with the question of whether or not, and if so to what extent, artists have the right to address a subject, such as a war, with which they are not directly involved. If the personal can be political, can the political not at times be treated as personal?

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I have looked at how both artists and writers have addressed difficult subjects, including wars, throughout history. I have chosen an allegorical, and in some instances satirical, approach to my current work, drawing inspiration recently from John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. Bunyan chose allegory for a reason - clothing, and so to some extent obscuring, a difficult subject in a  simple tale:

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"My dark and cloudy words they do but hold

The Truth, as Cabinets inclose the Gold." (Bunyan, 2003 p.6)

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Satire and irony have allowed artists and writers to confront painful or deeply distressing subject matter obliquely. For me, those tools aren't simply a shroud to conceal, and therefore avoid, images I find too sensitive to address; they can carry a weight which in some instances adds force to the underlying subject matter. When I adopt them in my work I do so to that end. 

 

I paint predominantly in oil, on canvas, but work also in three dimensions with wood, ceramics and layered acrylic sheets. The choice of medium is arbitrary. I choose what feels right for the work I'm making.

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Reference

Bunyan, J (Oxford World's Classics 2003) The Pilgrim's Progress: An Author's Apology for his Book