My painting practice combines figurative painting on two dimensional surfaces with props within a framework of poetic/ narrative text.
The current work Between Land and Sea examines the hybrid figure of the mermaid, half fish, half woman that goes between land and sea, known and unknown, conscious and unconscious.
The work considers diverse cultural narratives that have contributed to mermaid mythologies, the border spaces between land and water and the significance of her associated objects: the comb and mirror. There are references also to mermaid artefacts in collections in the Horniman Museum and Buxton Museum.
Through painting installation and the accompanying written monologue 'I AM a Hybrid Being', the viewer is invited to critically engage with the representative frameworks for mermaid mythologies and to reflect on the process of identity construction on a personal and socio-cultural level.
Elements are separated, oil on canvas, 61 x 46cm
Installation view, The Annex
The Scream (after Zuiryuji Temple Mermaid), oil on canvas, 36 x 56cm
Between Land and Sea, oil on canvas, diptych 164 x 92cm
Installation view: Inside and Outside, oil on canvas; A Curiosity (after Karukayado Temple Mermaid), oil on canvas
Pattern for a giant mermaid, papier mâché, paint, fabric, varnish, 210 x 62cm
Mermaid Comb, foam board, paint, fossilised rock shelf, 13 x 12cm
Mermaid Comb, foam board, paint, fossilised rock shelf, 13 x 12cm
Boundless Space, oil on canvas, 82 x 92cm
Distancing Device with Selkie skin, foam board, jesmonite, paint, white rug underlay with paint, 60 x 93cm