STORYTELLING: IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY

I’ve been keeping lots of stuff in my diary over the past year of images from different artists to do with certain animals, some folklore, in particular little red riding hood. I liked the idea of little red wearing wolf masks. So people wearing weird animal masks also became a tangent in work. Images of houses in woods too dominated. I’d been looking over my old landscape paintings and got to thinking what would lurk within. The woods have always been a sinister place for me, a good thing not a bad thing. As is often the cause the eureka moment came from something I was reading. A particular phrase will stand out and sure enough it will sum up better than I ever could exactly what it is I’m looking for. The title of the piece’s in the show “Half Glimpsed Things Waiting Within” came form a small piece of text by the writer Sebastian Barry describing his mother and her love of ghostly things. As they passed a hut in a desolate place she casually remarked, “that’s where they put your one”. I love that many things can be read into this and the story its self probably has many versions. The phase “half glimpsed “ just clicked. It reminded me of these houses in two tiny towns in New Zealand. They just had this weird sort of timeless feel. When it comes to writing about the evolution of work I get like an angst ridden kid who just wants to go outside and play so I'll post one of my “flow” charts as well, this will illustrate my madness as regard my thought processes. The medium was just pencil on gesso, I did not get to paint which I wanted to do but I was glad with the results and kept them as simple as possible. Billy too being a mask made an appearance. You can make up your own stories as to what they mean. (sorry images are not the best quality)