PAINTING
These minimal, geometric paintings are non - representational, concerned with reductive colour and are often in a series.
The surfaces are built up through intense layering and sanding back of oil paint over time to achieve physical depth in the paintings. These layers relate to the way in which layers are built up and worn down through the natural processes of time in nature.
This process also helps to create a sense of "Yugen" an Asian concept which means inexpressible depth or invisible beauty. This idea explores the fleeting moments of awareness and the realisation of the transient nature of life which we experience in the presence of the beauty of the natural world.
This idea arises from personal experience combined with the study of Japanese aesthetics and philosophy, in particular Wabi - Sabi which describes the inexpressible beauty which things especially natural objects attain with the passage of time.
It incorporates the idea of the beauty of imperfection and irregularity or roughness which avoids ornamentation in structure.
INSTALLATION
The use of multiples and repetition has always been intrinsic to my work and during my MA I did a huge amount of research into how objects are displayed in Natural History Museums.
This included a week in The Natural History Museum in Paris as well as a number of days spent in The Natural History Museum, Dublin, and also The Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, Colorado.
I am interested in the the visual sense of order created by natural objects when documented and displayed in museums as well as the sense of the fragility of life and the passage of time which these displays often create.