ARTIST STATEMENT 

My inspirations are often fragments of memory or thought of a certain time, place or encounter. A hyper-coloured non linear visual diary of sorts. My travels, nostalgia, popular and queer culture are recurring themes, as are ideas about identity, politics, mortality and commemoration, all bound together in a style which finds its origins in the cartoons of my childhood. The Beano, Quentin Blake, Morph, Hanna Barbera, Disney are all in there twisted by time and compounded by the influences of Kandinsky, Grayson Perry, John Minton, Frida Kahlo, Picasso, Wu Guan Zhong to name but a few.

Paper is saturated in layers of colour and line with a sense of spontaneity once the intimidation of the white surface is overcome. As the work evolves, in some instances beyond the paper itself, I settle into a state of reflection about the initial trigger. My mind wanders, emotions are agitated and experiences re-lived. Some details become less relevant whilst other elements are exaggerated, twisted by time, leading to a heightened, distorted, sometimes abstracted impression of the original idea. There is an ever present tension between black and white, life and death, and the colour of everything in between.

It’s an introspective, often subversive process underpinned by anxiety, ageing and a dark humour ; yet my childish and arguably ridiculous creations are my method of connecting with people. Infiltrating lives with a vivid playfulness I feel is generally lacking in our everyday existance.

BIO

Born in Germany in 1982, I studied art and fashion at De Montfort University and UCLAN, after which I continued to develop my art alongside a career in commercial photography and art direction. For fifteen years, my practice was almost solely photographic. It wasn’t until I spent nine months traveling across India, South and Southeast Asia that I began to draw again. I have spent the proceeding years developing a practice which encompasses drawing, painting, sculpture, textiles and ceramics. A practice which continually helps me work through perspectives and ideas relating to my experiences and identity, past, present and future.

I live and work in Folkestone, Kent. I set up my studio, White Paper Pen in 2020.

ART SHOP is an extension of my practice, an opportunity to get out of the studio, connect, curate and celebrate like minded artists and generally just to have some bloody good fun…