Chaos and Thread

Throughout my life, I have been creating and exploring my artistic side. From illustration, design, abstract painting and stitching, I have always undertaken to explore a variety of mediums. My love of fine art has always been the constant in my life.

Although my background was originally illustration, I have now evolved my practice into pure abstraction, driving my need for self-expression without the constraints of reality.

INSIDE AWAKE

I create out of my studio in Waihi, New Zealand and am fortunate enough to also work from a studio in The Netherlands for a number months every year. Moving between the southern and northern hemisphere, helps me embrace both cultural and social aspects of these very diverse countries. I have been fortunate enough to show works in both New Zealand, Europe and England and I am currently working on a solo show for New York.

SO THIS IS LIVING DETAIL

Apart from creating artistic expressions, I enjoy spending time outdoors, reading, walking and meditating. An eclectic range of music plays an important part in my creative process. It can evoke moods and emotions that can impact the development of my artwork and the direction it is going.

Through my abstract practice, I am striving to methodise visual material in way that enchants and captivates. I endeavour to understand and be open to the unconscious mind; the myriad of feelings that often present themselves conjunctly, sometimes presenting as confusion, sometimes with clearness. Emotional interruptions that intercept each other and the cross-pollenating of every feeling at one moment in time, is explored as a whole rather than considered on an individual basis. A ‘snap-shot’ illustrating an unabbreviated moment in time.

SUNLIGHT-AND-THE-SEA

“Man’s task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious” - (Carl Jung), is a statement which I find thought-provoking and often at the forefront of my initial exploration.

This investigation into unlocking the all-inclusive hidden parts of oneself and exploring how to communicate these visually, leads me on a personal journey to understand the essence of self.

In most recent times I have begun working on a new body of abstract landscapes which are challenging me to observe and interpret vistas not only on an emotional level, but to also give the viewer, through descriptive titles and imagery, something they can clasp and hold onto even though they remain in abstract form. While still using shape, line and colour familiar to previous collections, artworks are easily identified as one body of work.

SUNLIGHT ON THE SEA DETAIL

Appealing to both the need for limitless spontaneity coupled with the need for some semblance of order, my process is my enabler to freedom. The uninhibited self and the esoteric self are represented by loose and free paintwork controlled by meditative threadwork. The simple square as a visual reference to the esoteric shadow self, is often found in my work. Whether it appears as a solid form, covered by thread or boarded by thread; or whether it appears purely as thread-work in a net-like construction, a feeling of safety and security are mentally and visually felt as the esoteric is protected. The uninhibited is left exposed and the esoteric hidden away.

As a process driven artist, I enjoy experimenting with a combination of paint, ink, graphite, charcoal and thread. My paintwork often embodies a fabric like quality as it is removed from one surface to another and hand-stitched and/or adhered into place. This rather slow aspect to my process, enables me to settle into a piece; quietly and methodically stitching calmness back into chaos. Placed on either a solid background or an expressive, loose background, my solid paint ‘fabric’ offers an original application of mediums. As light bounces off foil and metallic thread, I am attempting to draw the viewers eye back, causing them to pause, reflect and re-examine the artwork.

I endeavour to walk a fine line between art and craft, negating a division between these two practices. The Vienna Secession has been a relevant movement to my practice. By giving applied art equal standing and value to purely painted works, it has given me the freedom to experiment combining both processes and not to undervalue my own discipline. Balancing both the pure paint element of my works and the almost handcraft element of my thread-work, I have endeavoured to give each component equal merit and meaning without one dominating the other. I believe this ‘Decorative Function’ draws the viewer in. It is not for its own sake. It is to move the observer deeper; to attempt to engage them with the very essence of the work.

DISCOVER MORE

www.chaosandthread.com