I would be miserable if I was happy all the time Painting

For as long as I can remember my living situation has been quite transient. Every place I’ve moved to has had its own cultures, accents and civil folklore that I draw from in my work. I’ve been living in Stroud for around 7 years now and I still recall my first week here, overhearing a little boy crying to his mum “but mummy I need focaccia”… I don’t think I knew what focaccia was until I was in my twenties. I once lived in a room that was reminiscent of an old ship, there were ubiquitous paintings on the walls of idyllic English countrysides scenes. When I discovered Steve Powers and sign painting something clicked. I couldn’t help but remember every picture I’ve had on walls since being a child. I started buying antique frames and using the glass to work on, ripping out pictures of flowers and bunnies and writing my own thoughts and experiences. Lettering has been the perfect vehicle for me to expand my practice and my mental health plays the biggest role in what to paint and why, contextualising my own folklore. Painting on the reverse side of glass is unlike anything else I’ve found before. The finish has a beautiful flat, untouchable quality, a quiet romantic melancholy mixed with a childlike innocence remembering things from my youth. Outrageous colour combinations in cartoons, garish shellsuits, jelly beans, and sega mega drive games. It’s a delicate duality, vague but sincere, drawing on some cognitive dissonance like a self perpetuating catch 22. There was a George Shaw lecture I attended years ago containing a quote that has stuck in my head since. He said his aim was to make art that a professor and his mum could converse with. I don’t know if I’m anywhere near that but I love my Mum and I’d love to hear that conversation someday.