ABOUT

My work reimagines the language of camouflage. Using acrylic paints on canvas, I render my patterns slowly, pulling camouflage out of its usual world of speed, function and toughness. It stops being just military or macho and becomes a place to think about emotion, equality and the spaces where art and everyday life meet. Or fail to.

Where I was unable to find my voice through traditional schooling, the internet provided a prospect of being able to ‘blend in’. I define that simply as ‘getting good enough’. Whatever that means. However, being the social media personality required for such an angle is maybe not my calling as someone on the quieter side of things. As such, my intentions were to use the internet as a place to be transparent. A place to show all of my process, especially through the uncomfortable start-up bit. I’ve known from the very beginning that I was painting camouflage but finding a consistent pattern has come with its challenges.

Whilst the art world does feel less remote when peering through the lens of the internet, there is an undoubted tension that comes attached. I often question whether I am indeed blending in or losing myself in the process. All my paintings hold this tension. Between hiding and revealing, between working-class upbringing and art-world expectation, between what feels genuine and what feels like adaptation. The work asks what it costs to hide and what might happen if we let ourselves be seen.