While my work is primarily print based, my process is very experimental and often results in mixed media work that combines many contrasting techniques and aesthetics into one work. With my recent self-portraiture work, it is not uncommon to find elements of screen print, pastel, embossing, collage, watercolour, as well as woodcut included within the same piece of work.
Using ideas inspired by Freudian psychoanalytic theories such as the uncanny, doppelgangers and the unconscious, as well as strong influence from media like film and video games, my work aims to invoke a sense of altered reality or perception and challenges the viewer to confront themselves and become complicit in the work.
Studying Visual Art at ARA (A New Zealand polytechnic) helped me to bring the ideas that were festering in my head for years, to life. Being exposed to new techniques like the various printmaking methods and having access to a wide range of tools and equipment allowed me to develop the skills necessary to create work that matched the macabre landscape of my mind.
The skills I have developed during my time studying art have given me many unique opportunities in the “real world”. A few years ago, I started working as an art tutor at Ōtautahi Creative Spaces. OCS is a specialist creative wellbeing initiative in Christchurch, New Zealand supporting people with experience of mental distress. We do this through studio groups, artist mentoring, collaborative projects, and exhibitions.