My style has emerged quite organically out of my fascination with drawing and a curiosity with the inner world of psychology. All at once, I feel that I have found my personal aesthetic and this is something that has come to me through my experiences, the things I ‘see’ and seek out and through the people with whom I associate.

 

I have drawn upon a psychological context, which has been a major influence on my bodies of work in the Senior School. It was initiated by the large drawing of my teacher in 2012; she was wrapped in a white cloth and I drew her in large sweeping marks with a piece of charcoal attached to a meter long stick. We progressed through various exercises with composition; balancing the composition as we added objects, background and details to the work. The final challenge was to add a wrapped object to the composition, a metaphor for the unconscious, this was were my motivation to investigate a psychological context began. This unknown object was the symbol of my sub-conscious; holding all my fears and secrets. To me, the unknown was something I was always scared about and hated discussing. I hated letting my guard down or showing my vulnerability. However, I found that if I understood the nature of my sub-conscious; I could potentially understand myself. Drawing upon this psychological context again in year 12 I created “Vereor: to respect, fear, dread”. This was a major body of work and explored my fears. I hate thinking about leaving Earth; and leaving people behind. The jellyfish is a symbol of my sub-conscious and after making detailed drawings in graphite, I created a series of jellyfish using a serendipitous approach with ink and water. For the final series, I scanned the ink paintings and superimposed them over the drawings using Photoshop. As Bill Henson once said, "Everything we know about the world comes to us through our body, not just through our eyes and ears. Having that total immersion going on in whatever you practice is invaluable." [1] These works suggest that visceral relationship between body and psyche.

 

In the second body of work, I explored the idea that identity is linked to DNA – memories are imbedded in the body. The idea that memories can fade but they leave a mark/stain, as we do, on this planet relates back to my fear of death and dying. In this work I used blood, ash and graphite as my media – relating the materials to the idea.

 

Pushing the boundaries of portraiture within my work was something I always wanted to do from the start. I am always driven to bring something 'else' to my work. As Brett Whiteley once said, "Art should astonish, transmute, transfix." [2]  This is exactly what I hope to achieve in my work. In "Vereor: to respect, fear and dread" the portraiture of the stages of life was drawn with the replication of realistic textures, which was inspired by Michael Zavros. The technique in which Zavros uses is something that I strive to achieve. His quality of line and his beautiful strong tonal contrast are elements of visual design that I hope are evident in my bodies of work.