IMMERSE YOUR SOUL IN LOVE (2011), Digital Art

BALANCE (PINK & GOLD), 2011

LOVE (FADE OUT TO STILLNESS), [...]]]>  

BALANCE (PINK & GOLD), 2011

LOVE (FADE OUT TO STILLNESS), 2011

Just thought I’d update on a new art project I’m currently working on.

I’ve had quite a bit of interest in my Identity Mind Map of late, from other artists, academics and educational institutions. Really my work on identity started out as a side project to other work, but over the years it’s [...]]]>

Just thought I’d update on a new art project I’m currently working on.

I’ve had quite a bit of interest in my Identity Mind Map of late, from other artists, academics and educational institutions. Really my work on identity started out as a side project to other work, but over the years it’s taken a more central role in my art practice, and I eventually ended up completing an MA on the subject. I guess you could say it’s organically developed.

Anyway, with this in mind I’ve started researching a greatly expanded mind map, which will attempt to explore identity with much more granularity. It’s my intention to create a highly detailed map of identity, in a similar style to my original, but refining each level to create a visually complex & layered ‘web of identity’.

I’ll keep you posted, in the meantime be sure to check out some of my other work in this area, including my ‘Identity Mind Field‘ which is the basis for the next iteration of the identity mind map.

I D E N T I T Y. Identity, identify, individual, diverse, divisional, diluted.

My work has focused on areas of Identity over the last several years, of which you will find numerous references throughout this site, taking various perspectives on how art can be seen as a reflection of identity, and indeed how [...]]]> I D E N T I T Y. Identity, identify, individual, diverse, divisional, diluted.

My work has focused on areas of Identity over the last several years, of which you will find numerous references throughout this site, taking various perspectives on how art can be seen as a reflection of identity, and indeed how identity can be seen as a reflection of the art we create.

I’ve come to understand that the process of creating art changes the artist in some way. We apply such a focus on externalising our emotion, our inner ‘vision’, that the process of looking actually changes that which we look at- an exorcism of sorts. The externalisation of thought, processed and transformed by our consciousness.

The outcome of the artist is usually for the viewer to feel something, to have a reaction to the work in some way- to disrupt the everyday patterned thinking and lodge a new idea or emotional fingerprint into that person’s experience. To achieve this, the artist must first experience that which they wish to convey, and in reality, experience a graduated array of emotions and thought as the process of creating the work progresses.

The artist ‘feels’ the work is complete at a certain stage, and often must fight logical impulses to keep working. This ‘feeling’, an emotional waypoint, is the critical moment in the works history, and must be listened for and respected if the emotional content and effect is to be conveyed with full, raw intensity.

When I think back to art that has impacted me in some way, I find that there is commonality. The work in question often caught me unaware, or disrupted my chain of thought to such an extent that IT BECAME MY REALITY for a few short moments. This communication is below the ‘logical’ level of the mind and interfaces more directly with our emotions.

Of course not all viewers would be similarly affected, the work instead lies in wait for those predisposed to its message- silently waiting to memetically hatch from its frame, it effectively has an ‘identity’ target market. Our identity, our current focus, our current priorities all affect the response, and often that response will be to walk on by, our minds filters never letting the work past the first stage of awareness. However, from time-to-time a ‘match’ wil be found, and our attention becomes attuned to the work.

Arts effectiveness is in appealing to those core human facets of identity and emotion. Everything we were, are and hope to be reflected back at us as if we are experiencing it for the first time. Identity in art is more than creating art that is personal to the artist- all art is personal to some degree. Our identity provides the ‘environment’ in which the work is created, and perhaps more significantly- defines the audience with whom the work will most intensely resonate.

Dust & Innocence (2010)

Standing waiting for a sign Our Whispered words turn to hollow cries Loves falling from our hands, washing away with the sands It doesn’t matter

Seething quietly inside All the wrongs replace the rights, hurting My tortured soul’s bleeding now This barren field it needs no plow Only tenderness

This [...]]]> Dust & Innocence (2010)

Standing waiting for a sign
Our Whispered words
turn to hollow cries
Loves falling from our hands,
washing away with the sands
It doesn’t matter

Seething quietly inside
All the wrongs
replace the rights, hurting
My tortured soul’s bleeding now
This barren field it needs no plow
Only tenderness

This life is too special-
to leave without a sound
Better turn these old boots around,
and start fighting-
until the leaves cease to fall
and the rocks upon this wall, crumble
(to dust and innocence)

The loss of love,
it weighs so heavy
on this old heart now
Spent the days counting lies,
chasing shadows in the night.
Will this be forever?

Feeling empty and so cold
a man without a soul,
Wandering lost and so alone
Only Distance
A coronation without a crown,
got me thinking

This life is too special-
to leave without a sound
Better turn these old boots around
and start fighting-
until the leaves cease to fall
and the rocks upon this wall, crumble
(to dust and innocence)

This love’s not over,
This love’s not over,
This love’s not over-

Here is a triptych on the theme ‘England’. These photographs were made as part of my new fine art photography group on Flickr. You can find out more (and participate if you’d like) here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/monthlyphotochallenge/

ENGLAND (NEW HOPE), 2010

ENGLAND [...]]]> Here is a triptych on the theme ‘England’. These photographs were made as part of my new fine art photography group on Flickr. You can find out more (and participate if you’d like) here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/monthlyphotochallenge/

ENGLAND (NEW HOPE), 2010

ENGLAND (PEACE), 2010

ENGLAND (NEW BEGINNINGS), 2010

‘My Life In Post-it Notes’ started as a relatively small series back in 2006, as part of  a wider ‘Identity Art’ series. I’ve been using post-it notes as an artistic medium for around 10 years, and have a produced a collection of over 1000 works in that time. The following post-it note artwork [...]]]>

‘My Life In Post-it Notes’ started as a relatively small series back in 2006, as part of  a wider ‘Identity Art’ series. I’ve been using post-it notes as an artistic medium for around 10 years, and have a produced a collection of over 1000 works in that time. The following post-it note artwork dates from February – October 2010.

Here follows a selected number of those works, a wider collection can be found on my Flickr gallery.

A Falling Through (2009)

Dust does settle upon weary hearts From birth to death again we start Fade to black and back to white Drown in sorrow this day I might!

Echoes of a love so true Nature’s child framed in blue Even shadows mourn their loss Stillness of a heart that’s crossed.

Fate [...]]]> A Falling Through (2009)

Dust does settle upon weary hearts
From birth to death again we start
Fade to black and back to white
Drown in sorrow this day I might!

Echoes of a love so true
Nature’s child framed in blue
Even shadows mourn their loss
Stillness of a heart that’s crossed.

Fate had played its hand so cruel
Through the eyes of a dying fool?
Broken wing but you still soar
In my dreams forever more.

Oh how I yearn for your old song
Hope’s brave anthem, despite our wrongs,
Now in silence you are laid to rest
May this earth be your final nest.

And so we hold hands and pray
As petals fall where you lay
Freedom once danced in you
Now we wander lost, it’s true.

Sleep in peace now you’ve left
For this circle celebrates life, not death!
And know I’ve learned this from you,
Life is but a falling through.

Inspired by Tamany Baker’s photographic series ‘Living With Wolfie’, my poem is a eulogy to a garden bird. The bird has a rich history in symbolism, and in this context can be seen to symbolise the flight of man’s soul from the physicality of the body. Liberation-

A FALLING THROUGH, 2010 [...]]]>

Inspired by Tamany Baker’s photographic series ‘Living With Wolfie’, my poem is a eulogy to a garden bird. The bird has a rich history in symbolism, and in this context can be seen to symbolise the flight of man’s soul from the physicality of the body. Liberation-

A FALLING THROUGH, 2010
Mixed Media on Canvas