Foreword
Son of an artist. Treasure of a runaway. Abandoned at nine and conscripted into the care system. Shaped by an uncertain childhood. Vilified by academia. Inspired by myth and legend. Emancipated at fourteen. Chosen by Hip-Hop and befriended by dead poets. A testament to perpetual conflict. Always an artist.
At three years old, I began creating drawings in colouring pens on reams of perforated computer paper. I named these initial drawings ‘Snakes in Circles’. This was my first experience of making art and heralded my inception as a painter.
I entered the care system at nine years of age, subsequently moving between children's homes until just shy of fifteen. By sixteen, I had enrolled myself at college to study art and design. Four years on, I was offered an unconditional place at university. I left uni with a degree in surface pattern. For me, this was a seismic achievement, after leaving school with no qualifications - as a result of being expelled. Two decades later, I am happily married and have made peace with my past. Art has played and continues to play a vital and defining role in my life. Whether it be painting, or writing and performing Hip-Hop, I have retained my creativity throughout. Like distant stars in perfect alignment, I did not arrive here by chance... this moment was promised.
My work is emotive, it incorporates raw energy and pattern. Layers are used to create depth and a weight of meaning. The art I make embodies an internal struggle. I see my work as a means of therapy, aligned with a desire to find purpose and affect reality in a visual sense.
Influences include; Jean-Michel Basquiat, Henri Matisse, Charles Bukowski, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, Gustav Klimt, Jai Cahlil, George Orwell, Antoni Gaudi, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Sylvia Plath, Stanisław Szukalski, Franz Kafka, Khalil Gibran, Wu-Tang Clan, Nemrot and Griselda.