Gallery one ------------------- “Tulips From Amsterdam” Which is now a sequence of over 200 paintings, drawings, prints and etchings whose inception lay in a two and half day trip there. My previous work was printing, using elephants and lace for my source material and thus I became enchanted when I encountered what was to become known a ‘the elephant bar’ in Amsterdam. A mural of two elephants adorned the wall of the bar and a beautiful Turkish lantern cast a lace pattern across the room. This whole body of work stems from this experience that mingled different decorative elements. This exotic influence was for me amplified by the subtractive Middle and Far Eastern decorative iconography to be encountered there, resulting from the Dutch trading empire. The lunatic craze of the ‘Tulip Fever’, where bulbs out-priced town houses, attests to a strange, obsessive thirst for the otiosely beautiful behind the Calvinist façade of the Dutch Republic. The juxtaposition of prostitute’ shop windows and the staid physical facades of churches seems a modern counterpart to this. I am fascinated by the precisely determined harmonics of domestic interior space to be found in Vermeer and de Hooch, which nevertheless significantly and exquisitely imprison their often-feminine subjects, I have tried to emulate this in the ‘Window’ series and have also incorporated the influence of other artists I admire. Whilst primarily oriented towards painting, printing and photography, I find that multi-media work permits me to push the boundaries of my artistic expression. I am concerned to develop the works even more within series of individual works that visit the sites of the history of my own imagination and experience, and also those of a collective social and political history. I admire, and am conscious of the influence of artists who have likewise attempted such a synthesis of personal and meta-narrative, such as Bourgeois, Kiefer, Beuys, Dix and Warhol. My work addresses entrapment, gender, and fragility of the human psyche. I have recently been looking at drawings by the American artist George Condo and the series of small paintings ‘L.on earth’ by Mike Rooney, There are three series within this body of work. –Tulips -Windows – Bar – Gallery two ------------------- ‘Red Roses Are Forever’ Is a body of work brought about by the tragic accidental death of two friends three days after they were married. This had such a strong affect on me making me question the state of my life and where I was going, why was everything such a struggle.  I could no longer concentrate on my fine art practice and had to leave my painting. I brought personal history into my work revealing layers of time and the fabric of memories my friends and colleagues knew nothing about. This work featured in my first solo exhibition in September 2003 at the Red Gate Gallery. ‘To Whom It May Concern’ and comprises several series of paintings, computer manipulated photography, textual works, found objects, video stills and flyers, all associable by their addressing litigation, marriage and divorce in a generic manner involving questions of romantic commitment, permanence and the desire to found personal relationships in a transcendental framework. “Is it love or the stardust of procreation?” I am intrigued by the way in which textuality can overleap temporal gaps and also want the work to challenge and create debate. This work was cathartic and enabled me to come to terms with the death of my friends. more