I have for several years now produced paintings that observe our modern lifestyles, our obsession with appearance, desire for things and consequently the effects this may have on the world around us. Although alluding to the tradition of still life my paintings incorporate the tempting arena of design and the perfect, sanitized, utopia of advertising.
My most recent paintings are of mass produced objects, cheap odd looking figurines of seemingly little value but by the process of painting more is revealed about our relationship with them, for objects are not as innocuous as they appear and our relationship with them is far from straightforward.
"Objects are the way in which we measure the passing of our lives. They are what we use to define ourselves, to signal who we are and who we are not."
"The Bloom of attraction wilts so rapidly that passion is spent almost as soon as the sale is consummated. Desire fades long before an object grows old." Deyan Sudjic, The Language of Things.
Sudjic also argues that when design gets close to uselessness it becomes more desirable, more like fine art. I find this conflicted relationship between design and fine art intriguing.