Statement
On the edges of suburbia, supermarkets, out of town shopping and huge business parks are surrounded by vast swathes of concrete. Spindly saplings and a gesture of greenery, planted by developers to pacify planners, supposedly softens the stark hard surfaces and ticks the small environmental box. Consumers hungry for their next fix arriving daily in their gas-guzzlers are unaware of these tiny living things as they bump up against the spindly legs, mere markers for parking. It is the collision of these two worlds, the natural and urban environments, that provides the dynamic for my work.
Floating trees and buildings appear rootless, reflecting a common spiritual emptiness. An emptiness which manifests itself as an insatiable appetite, relentlessly seeking satisfaction in consumerism and the next purchase. However satisfaction is never really attained. The sickness is evident, the desperate need to fill the void with cheap disposable goods and fast food does not sustain us, instead our energy is quickly drained and sucked out at the same rate as our money is sucked out of our wallets.
The spatial backdrop of clinical white is suggestive of a sterile, sanitised and dehumanised environment; the hard lines of buildings at the heart of contemporary culture are juxtaposed with the irregular shapes of the natural environment. Vigorous, fluid, expressive brush strokes and thickly applied painted bark, contrast with the flatness and clean lines of modernist buildings.
Thrusting upwards and reaching out, above and beyond the edges of the canvas, the textured and painterly surfaces of the trees, express sensuality and a life force. The reality is something different. Wanton and selfish squandering of natural resources has made our world vulnerable; a world now under threat from our own greed and disregard for nature.