I tend to think in abstract terms: form, colour, and do not decide what I wish to depict before I lift up a brush. There is no drawing beforehand. I lay down strokes of colour and then stare at them until I find shapes and themes emerging from then. I am very concerned about climate change and the destruction or metamorphosis of life as we know it today; I often find bizarre life forms in surprising places. But I do have to look and look, under and through the swatches of colour in each painting. Oil painting is forgiving as one can paint over paint, or sand paint off. But it also demands patience.
Like a musical piece, an artwork is a composition from which nothing can be removed if it is to maintain its power. It is a whole, and cannot exist if a piece is taken away. (Actually, literature has a similar property.)

I look at each painting as a problem to be solved, and I stay up many a night trying to find answers. It is crazy, but it seems to work. It keeps me very busy during lockdown.

Drawing for me is unpremeditated, spontaneous mark-making, the desire to translate thoughts and plans into visual content using various media on paper.  Drawing excites me as it surprises; it has no why and wherefore; it bursts from my unconscience leaving me to question its meaning later.  Drawing allows me to connect with my subconscious and opens a path for deeper experimentation. It is irrational but allows reason to find meaning in its imagery and clarify its purpose. The cornerstone for all of my creative output, drawing is a great adventure, teaching me about myself and my place in the world. 

The exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2015 titled The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art, curated by Joanna Marsh, continues to be a source of inspiration for my new series of sculptures titled Birdspace. Today, in times of pandemic, a growing desire to meaningfully connect with the natural world has fostered a resurgence of popular interest in the winged creatures that surround us daily. I have been fascinated by bird species for many years. I have drawn, painted, animated and sculpted birds in an attempt to understand them more fully. Birds are the canaries in the coal mine, warning of imminent disaster in our natural realm. My birds are intentionally contorted, distorted, and reinvented mythologically after the destruction of nature due to climate change and human activity.  I am inventing my own mythology of birds and how they appear after climate change and human interference.

Photo credit on all images: David Williams