As an immigrant in New York, my art practice began as a way to acknowledge the memories and experiences of my childhood and young adulthood in Wales. My work became a form of catharsis, a method of working through the emotions I have always had about leaving home.
I paint the people and places that were a part of my formative years, it’s my way of honouring them and capturing a time and place that is now lost. The passage and transience of time is a theme which runs through my work, highlighting people, places and relationships that no longer exist.
I am inspired by the past: old family photos, antiques, historical buildings or settings, vintage ephemera and anything that evokes a sense of nostalgia.
I work with oil and water based media and often paint over older work. I enjoy the atmospheric effects that can be achieved and how traces of previous layers can still be seen, alluding to the mistiness of memories. I also work digitally, a method that allows me to transform physical paintings and explore the idea of memory in multi layered form.
