The horizon line is not where it should be - it has tipped. The division between sky and land is off balance, as after a disaster, when all the chaos has settled and the birds come back only to find things not quite how they used to be. But the blue sky returns, announcing a future that is sure to come...
I have chosen to marry both photography and paint in my mixed media pieces I call; Paintography. My creative process is inspired by how I understand we create our night dreams. As a lifetime dreamer and member and Chair of the Arts committee for the International Association for the Study of Dreams since 2007 I have learnt a lot about dreams that has since inspired my creative process and the resulting works.
I use photography to capture the symbols of our everyday life and then use these images to collage onto a canvas with no pre-determined layout but rather attempting to leave the ego out of it and allow the unconscious to take over as much as possible. Each canvas depending on the size can have anywhere from 25 for smaller works to 50 photographs collaged onto the canvas of larger works. I then use acrylic paint as the emotional energy needed to create the Dreamscene within each piece again allowing for the paint to be generously expressed over the photos with no pre conceived ideas. I have learnt to trust this creative process and be ready for anything to happen as when we wake from a dream with no idea of its meaning. As with a dream I take the time to decode and understand what I find and focus these abstract dream scenes that appear on the canvas. One of the most interesting parts is discovering the Dreams hidden within and to help bring them into focus (like returning to the photographers lens) without ever destroying the original brush strokes and expressions of the original piece. Once the scene becomes clear I invite the viewer to enter into these portals of the imagination, ready to see what lies within.