I am at ease with the process of allowing imagery to flow from my unconscious onto the page. I look on with curiosity. The mind is always trying to work things out and just as it can deliver bizarre dreams into our inbox through day and night dreaming, a similar process can occur through art practice.
At the time of making these watercolours I also studied ‘Embodiment’ reflected on the difficulty of leaving an overactive mind and moving into my disenfranchised body. When I make imagery, I am the first witness to everything I make. Something is activated when an idea or thought becomes tangible on paper. I wondered what might happen if I physically embodied the drawings.
I made the necessary props and commissioned photographer Kevin Ralph to be my witness, photographer and digital modifier to create this piece. It is important to me that I am as I am at 58 years of age. It speaks to the absurdity of trying to magic away problems, of standing resolute like a spinning Catherine wheel in the face of what ever life throws next. It states that the magic of being one’s playful enigmatic self is enough.
It nods to the self-portraiture of Cindy Sherman and the ancient goddess Kali and Sooty and Sweep of course.
I can do magic, printed on fine art photographic paper has been selected for the Bath Open Art Prize @44ADStudio Gallery 12th-28th October 2023.
