People often comment on the repetition of the cell-like shape that appears in much of my work. So what's it all about? All those circles and stuff??
I love repetition and pattern. Pattern- both seen and unseen- is what drives our world.
Patterns in prints and rugs and carpets and surface decorations. Patterns on wallpaper.
The repeated stitch of a knitted jumper.
The weaving and intersecting roads we all drive on.
The brick wall that is made up of the repetition of that regular rectangular shape.
The way blood courses through our veins. In the same pattern. In the same way. over and over.
A field of grass is just one grass blade shape, one individual unit, repeated en masse, creating an expanse of green.
A feather shape, over and over, covers a bird, makes a wing.
Scales on a fish. Interlocking. Repeating. Fashioning a perfect armour for the deep.
A giant kelp tree deep in the ocean is the same leaf pattern over and over stretching down through water.
Individual units, grouped together to make a whole. A functional or simply beautiful whole.
But it's not just a rhythm of life, or a pattern of life, it is the process of life itself- cell reproduction. One cell, makes another just like itself, and repeats and repeats.... and so we breathe.
These cell-like shapes appear over and over in my work, as a representation of life: the patterns and rhythm and process of life.
If we took a microscopic view of plant life or animal life, male or female, flower or fish, we would see the same basic shapes.
We are all made of the same stuff.
Which is why these cell-like shape appear in clumps- not only do actual cells clump, but I think when we realise that we are all actually made of the same stuff, there is an instant connectivity. Grouping. Togetherness.
I love that this cell-like shape can be representative of a 'close up' or microscopic view, but at the same time could be depicting an aerial view. Such as the aerial view of a field of flowers, or forrest of trees, or crowd of people. From high above we would simply get and inference of these clumps and groupings of roundish circular shapes. Kind of a transcendental view. A view that is far away and high above, yet at the same time so intimate it could be microscopic.
I believe pattern and repetition have the potential to make an artwork relevant because there is a cadence we can all relate to. Hopefully it resonates- somewhere, subconsciously- with the core of who we are because we all live in rhythm (or long to live in rhythm) with some kind of pattern...maybe a divine pattern?
