Artist’s Statement

The starting point for my work is process and I am particularly interested in how simple techniques or procedures can translate into more complex images. Mineralogy is an important source of inspiration and my work often relates to the colours and materials of specific minerals or to the mechanisms through which minerals form. There is a correlation between minerals from the earth and artists’ materials and I try to find ways of expressing this equivalence through my work.

Images are sometimes built up through the repetition of simple marks or routines. Another approach is to place combinations of materials in a watery substrate so that images develop over time as pigments and other matter interact and separate or change, for example through rust forming. I try to create opportunities for the materials to be the active agents so that each can express its own unique character and independence. Although my practice explores some of the basic processes of nature, it sometimes requires sophisticated contemporary materials to capture and reveal them. This is a contradiction or ambiguity which interests me.

It is important to me that my work has a role or constituency. It is the outcome not only of my thought processes and studio activities but also of the network of associations I have built up with mineralogists, collectors, and a variety of public bodies. It comes out of this community and I endeavour to find opportunities where it can go on to have an interpretive role. This has led to a variety of collaborative projects involving museums, schools, and protected landscapes and seeing my work within this broader societal framework is central to my practice.

Molecules, Minerals, Matter