This work will be shown in Darlings 2021, Curatorial+Co.’s annual small works group show. Darlings was created in response to the 2020 pandemic as a joyful way for artists and collectors of all backgrounds to come together and celebrate creativity and unity.

My paintings ‘dreaming of’ and ‘our nature’ are about a world beyond ourselves, taking inspiration the natural environment, society and the distorted nature of human experience.

My body of work is an exploration into the psychological self and the cognitive distortions that we all experience, and how they shape our life and our identity. I primarily focus on figure as a vehicle to explore these ideas, creating works that are surreal, beautiful and haunting.

I find myself contemplating our place within society and nature deeper in these unprecedented times as well as seeking comfort in the natural environment. So for this exhibition, I aimed to extend upon my body of work, looking at how these cognitive distortions not only manipulate our experience, but also how it alters the way we perceive the world around us.

To represent the natural environment, I have taken inspiration from light filtering through trees that has been manipulated through camera distortion. Further abstraction has been applied through digital manipulation, shape and colour inversions. These techniques have been applied to both the natural environment and the figure, creating two distinctive paintings that respond off one another.

Signed on front.