CHILDREN OF THE QUARANTINE SERIES
FAUSTY AND FRIENDS
2023
Oil painting of AI generated outputs, based upon computerised text descriptions of previous three paintings in the series, with a touch of a Caravaggio Nurse Rabbit, in a hospital waiting room.
How old fashioned these cyborg, transhumanistic ideas can seem.
PARA SOCIAL MEDIA PANDEMIC, OIL ON CANVAS, 100CM BY 100 CM, 2022
2023
Portraits of three young adults dressed in costumes made from the residues of the pandemic, a Victorian powdered wig made from loo roll shells, a pill box hat made of lateral flow tests and a repurposed dunce hat, made from many of the sensationalised news clippings of the time. I wanted to create a work that documented some of the deeply entrenched issues of divisiveness, misinformation and propaganda that were accelerated by social media during the pandemic. The impact of lockdown on the education of children, the righteous indignation of the media and the initial celebration of front-line workers by the public.
COLD WAR, CRYPTO KIDS
2022
100 CM BY 100 CM, OIL ON CANVAS, 2022
Cold War, Crypto Kids captures the unsettling legacy of past and present anxieties as they converge in the lives of children, symbols of innocence trapped within humanity’s most complex struggles. Completed during the NFT boom and before the war in Ukraine, the work reflects an era marked by heightened digital speculation, fragmented social realities, and the lingering echo of Cold War-era fears. This piece explores the existential weight shouldered by new generations as they navigate a world steeped in misinformation, digital isolation, and a surreal commodification of art and identity. In Cold War, Crypto Kids, existential dread feels both inherited and immediate, questioning humanity’s capacity to evolve past its most harmful patterns. The painting challenges viewers to confront a world where innocence is cast in the shadow of cyclical crises, urging us to consider whether society can break from a history poised to repeat itself. The timing of the work underscores an ironic dissonance, a period of digital exuberance juxtaposed with ominous global tensions—highlighting the precarious balance between optimism for the future and the sobering realities we continue to face.
DRONE WAR BABIES
2020
100 CM BY 100 CM, OIL ON CANVAS, 2020
Large paintings featuring a trio of children; each child represents a current western point of crisis, the environment, the virus and mental health. The paintings depict a climate of mounting fear and misinformation, of quarantine and isolation, privacy violation and false truths normalised for the next generation.
This series, initiated in 2019, emerged from a haunting dream of 1950s children perishing in a nuclear fallout. At the time, I had just completed a diploma in child psychology and was deeply involved in supporting vulnerable, excluded children and juggling the kittens and knives or the medical crisis of my young family.
Determined that sobriety didn't end my creativity, I strived to go beyond my usual emotive chaotic style. I sought to transform the recurring nightmares that consumed me.