Open Heart Print

Born 1951, Worthing, England. Moved to Australia soon after. From early 20s did only a moderate amount of art, mostly with great detail, some photorealism, but heavily influenced by illusory art, eg MC Escher. In my late 20s everything in life started to become pretty meaningless, including my art. By my early 30s I had found some direction in life and spent almost 10 years living in an ashram. When the time came to leave not only had this influenced my outlook on life, it gave a new and constantly evolving direction to my art. At first, much of my art embraced tantric symbolism: balance of energies; juxtaposition of inner and outer worlds. Over time the reliance on the symbolism has diminished but not vanished.The dualism of tantra has been left behind as a focus towards adwaita or non-duality tries to realise within the confines of two-dimensional images. There remains such symbolism as the interconnection of everything in life, as well as metaphors for the illusory nature of what is commonly assumed to be 'real'. Most are acrylic pieces, with many done on re-cycled aluminium printing plates. Not only is this an excellent medium, taking the paint in as close to a permanent way as I have found, it adds to the metaphorical play between physical and mental constructs. Whilst there may well be some elements of 'story' in any piece, my aim is for that to quickly recede. In many of my most recent works I have become more abstract, tended to eliminate or obscure the recognisable. I wish to produce art that is here to be with, where communion takes precedence over thought provocation.