CHASING YOURSELF TO HELL Painting

Brisbane based artist, Patrick Duggan, is a contemporary abstract painter and began exhibiting in 2017, throughout various locations in both Melbourne and Brisbane. Patrick’s work focuses on human psychology, our relationships with ourselves and the world around us, through different life challenges or special moments. He aims to deliver powerful and meaningful pieces that leaves a lasting impact with each viewer and promotes discussion and transformation. In his earlier works he explored a variety of different mental health issues, ones he has struggled with himself, and many others, to provide us with a raw and intense collection of artworks. He has since moved into his new period, where he is focusing on the outcome of transforming oneself from the restraints of suffering to states of power, positivity and freedom. ARTISTIC APPROACH My upbringing was one that left a sour taste in my mouth for years on end, until I decided to face it, understand it, and in doing so embark on a journey of transformation. This was the point that art came into my life. I suddenly had a new scope to see, a firm trigger to pull, on all the trapped and concentrated feelings that had engulfed me for the majority of my young age. Depression and social anxiety, as well as the off shoots of these, such as loneliness, alcoholism, and the process of transformation itself, are pivotal reference points that I choose to explore and develop into my artistic approach. My creative process is not rigid, it’s rather flexible. I seek new alternatives or additions to my process, as I believe diversification has the potential to uncover hidden gems that can add to the story in which you are telling. Intuitive whims and visions are extremely important in my work, they are something that I regularly employ. Through my work, I intend to visualise our joy and suffering as an opportunity to find or to create a wholeness inside ourselves that will make a substantial impact on the world.