The Art of Letting Go

Mixed media on paper

24 x 30cm (inc white wooden frame)

2024

The world around us shapes our inner world and we in turn shape the world around us based on our internal experience. This painting reflects this process, a portrait of a figure, sitting in their dreamworld. The abstract forms, symbols and imagery which make up the scene around them are a projection of their fragmented mind.

This piece is from a series of artworks that explore portraiture and dream-like imagery. I am inspired by people, philosophy of mind, and psychedelic experience

With each piece, I want to tell a story that celebrates the mystery and strangeness of life and human experience, each with the tension between the real, the surreal and the abstract.

This piece was created using acrylic paint, graphite and coloured pencil on paper. My creative process is very playful, experimental and always evolving. I take images that I think look good, of things I connect with and have some poetic symbolism. I try many combinations of images, colours and text to try and find balance in a composition. Many iterations and a continuing process of creating, layering and destroying images lead to these portraits' fragmented and fractured aesthetic.