I have a collection of my paintings, along with some photographs which were the basis for their development, on show at this lovely venue in Fife.

I recently had a body of work on show at this excellent venue in Fife.

The paintings of this collection are developed around the key concept of the ˜eye of the storm’; openings at the core of unseen chaos and forces beyond control. They are an exploration of liminal space, or dissociation, rupture, but also of comfort, presence, even exquisite pleasure. I am interested in works of art with Duende, the awareness of death, corruption and absence even while enjoying sensual pleasures of the senses and deep feeling. it is a philosophy of ‘be here right now’ and of abundance.

The openings I have created are sometimes available and sometimes forbidden. I am thinking about how we might deal with traumatising knowledge and experiences, such as lived realities created and controlled by far away people in power; politics, economics, resources, climate breakdown and species extinction. The eye of the storm is not the same as burying your head in the sand, or being ignorant of the facts, its more akin to dissociation, a place which is vital for the survival of the most essential parts of what it is to be a human. Its a place where a lot of work is being done.

I’m taking part in a local open studios event over the next couple of weekends, Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th and Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th. The venue is a small workshop space and gallery which I currently co-run in Inverkeithing in Fife. I’ll be sharing the space with my co-director of the space, Mary Farrell, who is a jeweller and printmaker. We’ll have open doors from 10.30am-6pm on all four days. Open studios gives me the opportunity to talk to interested visitors about what I’ve been up to over the past year, and talk a bit about inspirations, processes and what I’ve been developing. I really like how unexpected connections and developments can be revealed when you put together in a space work from different sources. I’ll mostly be showing work I’ve done at two courses which took place over several days each, one by Fraser Taylor in Fife, and one with Andrew Paterson in Edinburgh, both tutors with whom i’ve done classes before.

You can pick up brochures at Maker, which gives details about all thirty artists and makers taking part across central Fife.

Maker, 2a High Street, Inverkeithing, Fife KY11 1NN

www.centralfifeopenstudios.org

I don’t know where else I’ll find a rustling wind 

Moving and reminding me of life.

Everywhere seems so still

But here the earth still shakes 

Shimmies and dances,

So of course soon it will be killed. 

Like everywhere else of natural value

Humans are like death machines

Sucking away the rustling wind.

My own despair on seeing behind the veil of reality

Of how we are here, but arbitrarily

And the universe traverses on

Its timelines untroubled by our small concerns

And by this I mean the birth and the death of humans

So with our brief and imperfect senses

How I feel we should live here but lightly

Is not shared. So they continue to seal the tomb 

Of the earth.

The small and temporary bliss I feel when I stand here on this hill

Is like the small and temporary bliss of living at all