sketchbook page Print

Born in Scotland.Commited to drawing, believe it to be the 'polygraph' of the soul for an artist.I consider my sketch books as a thousand compressed art shows, acting like 'FONDS' (from Beuys'use of the word as battery)Influences:beuyskiefertwomblytapiesmardenpicassodinepalladinodebuffetrothenbergrauchenberg especially the 'eraser' strategy inflicted on De Kooning. Practice: diverse = painting, sculpture, artifact creation, industrial archeology, mixed media.photography.Photography/digital and videoHave shown in London with Orient- Michaelson also Art Site in Bath, was part of 'The Box Show'.'Surface to Surface'at Turnpike Gallary, Leigh.Arts coordinator for the 'Tin Angel'.Have undertaken extensive'alternative' shows and art production, in disappearing factories and mines around the Coventry area. Partly as a critique against the negative political and social decissions that have affected the environment, but also to re-inscribe a personal language onto highly political and remaindered sites.wrote attendant essay for 'Reaching for Tacit Utopias' at the 'Surface Gallery' ONGOING CONCERNS NON PLACES/SPACES the fascination with the urban and built environment has been evolving for some time now. Marc Auge and his book 'Non Places' has been important for me in defining this area. memory-space-place-identities-historical usage and events all come into play and inspire ideas and works that consistently overlay and re inscribe my growing body of work and responses. The search for locations is continual and is never forced, simply move through the environment and something will present itself. The creation and changes in our built environments cannot but help to produce non-places and spaces. The generation of the object,thing,structure simply creates around it the remaindered. These 'negative' sites are never signposted or inhabited they simply exist in and among our used spaces. Drawing attention to theses zones is not intended to be illustrative or instructional, but simply a quest to represent the overlooked and seemingly inconsequential in our culture.