The Truth Is Out There
This work is tiny, 15 x 17. 5 cm.
I began this at dawn yesterday, worked on it all day while homeschooling my son (who was also drawing), and finished it early this morning. It took about twelve dedicated hours to complete. I like working like this but I often think others, who perhaps don't draw, don't realise just how much time and thought is involved in the execution of a drawing. I'll probably come back to it yet. adding highlights, emphasising dark points and shadows .... sometimes I need to sit with things a while before I am satisfied that they are finished.
This new work ties in with my recent series, which is still untitled. I have several series, in several different media on the go - Tears, begun in 2019, The Book of Shadows, begun in 2020 (which feels completed as a set of 40 collages, but may inform larger painted or mixed media pieces) and Love Letters, also 2020, Vessels, begun 2021, and now this series of surreal interiors which I have been affectionately calling The Dream House. There are a few series, dating well back a decade or so, that I also intend to continue on with - a series called Objectifications, another (which feels poignant just now with the Ukraine-Russia conflict, on war) called Somewhere in Dreamland, that I began in 2014, in response to the Syrian conflict, and another idea that came to me around the same time entitled The Other, exploring Xenophobia/ Shadows.
I often take my lead from the Surrealists in terms of "making the familiar strange and revealing hidden desires" but rather than rebelling against the subconscious and seeking a political stance, I seek to subvert the current of cultural narrative through my use of imagery and the juxtaposition of objects and symbolism. This piece continues my exploration of storytelling, myth-making, conspiracy theory, fairytales, the place of dreaming in the waking world, folklore and the shadows of everyday life and human culture.
My current creative practice is informed by many activities from watching a doco on Andy Goldsworthy to reading the science fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, and (of course) with a definitive nod to The X Files, and @russellbrand's podcasts. The prominent cross of the window pane is an intentional nod to Christianity, as well as the diversity of belief systems - positioned among the many trees of a wild Australian bush/ forest.