The Self-Destructive Nature Inherent Within Virtuosity

The Self-Destructive Nature Inherent Within Virtuosity
Acrylic on Canvas 100cm x 76cm

With this painting, I wanted to explore using simple iconography how far the precarious nature of skill and focus can be pushed in the pursuit of accomplishment. To examine a profession that teeters paradoxically on the cusp of composure and fragility.  

The ballerina for me is a quintessential and very potent example of how virtuoso technique, talent and hard work coupled with the pressures manifesting themselves in these situations can often push the well being of the mind and body to a dangerous limit.

This artwork is taken from a series of paintings where I have been experimenting more freely with the warmth of golden hues, pushing the thickness of my brush strokes and the application of acrylic paint to express a more vibrant form of mark making.

Detail from Painting

 

Up On Celibacy Hill

Up On Celibacy Hill  Acrylic on Canvas 40cm x 30cm

As an artist and atheist I am interested in using the crucifix as an object for its heft, potency and weight. As a symbol it is unparalleled within our culture. This painting for me is of a grateful chore. As a non-believer I see the figure’s persistence holding nothing back, ascending the incline shrouded by orange humidity. The figure is giving up absolute control within life for God.  Salvation will present itself after death, if strict dedication is adhered to in life.  The choice of the word celibacy can be interpreted as the figure’s chastity, but I am also very interested in using this word to demonstrate the single-mindedness of someone seeking something, climbing to a supposed higher ground in the blind hope that could be read as delusional or oddly commendable.  I wanted to include the universal battery symbol to signify wavering faith, placing it next to the figure as a contemporary anchor to monitor the depletion of energy, the depletion of focus and the depletion of hope.

  

Detail From Painting

Can We Be Trusted With A Gift?

What if a legend stepped from a myth, from folklore, proclaiming itself naively to our modern world? What if a fabled mythological creature crossed over into our everyday lives? Our nature as human beings surely would be tested and therefore tempted. The initial wide-eyed gazing could turn into opportunistic squinting. Perhaps questionable entrepreneurial spirited individuals would find opportunities to exploit the once folkloric, in countless imaginative ways. How fast can the beast run? What worth can be attached to its hide?  How attractive would its head look mounted to a wall?  Could its meat be tender enough to be seen as a gastronomical prize, if drizzled with enough truffle oil?  How long would it take to turn a fortuitous discovery into a tarnished industry?

A Goat In Myths Clothing
acrylic on canvas 80 cm x 80 cm

                                    

Why shout abuse at a body in a box?

An old woman dies

An iron woman is smelted

A mother

A grandmother

A so-called milk snatcher

A heroine

A villain

A political first

A maverick

A ball buster

Not just a talker

Why cry, some would say?

A character that stood out through successes and failures 

Show me the perfect leader and I will show you someone who looks upon them as a tyrant and vice versa.

87 years of life placed in a box

People line the streets few cry, but they do clap or hold respectful silence

People line the streets and turn their backs; some boo, whilst doing so.

The media place a price tag on the funeral adding a few drops of hatred, hot sauce to the recipe

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Elsewhere people parade a woman’s effigy through their streets before setting it on fire. Young children sit atop the shoulders of their cheering parents as black smoke forces their eyes to water. Teenagers film proceedings with their phones for digital posterity. The toothless and those with wobbling dentures yelp the best they can.

An old woman dies

How deep will the past prove to run?