"Phantoms" is perhaps my most personal project.
Throughout my life, I have experienced all manner of dreams and nightmares, as I imagine most people have.
The initial idea of this project was to create and replicate the visual aesthetic of dreams and nightmares. As I progressed with this idea, my body of "Nightmare" work expanded, and an unspoken world began to emerge before my eyes.
A Phantom world.
As this Phantom world revealed itself to me, I had inadvertently tapped into an inner place I had no idea initially existed.
As an artist, it is my desire to explore and document this world for myself.
An unspoken story and narrative is slowly emerging as I explore further. However, as I delve deeper and deeper, my real world anxiety grins and latches onto me. This world is a secondary world.
I feel as though I recognise facets of this place.
A world in decay, mutating under the shadow of an eternal war. A culture in decline and apathy. Disease is rife. Nothing is real.
A great deal of anxiety and fear is conjured up and poured into these paintings, which for me, invites the notion of a cursed image, or a cursed painting. I wonder if such ingredients can be caught by viewers of these works.
This Phantom world is one in which I must continue to document further.