PF: Who or what has influenced your work the most?
It’s counterintuitive, but probably those who made me feel like I couldn’t do it is what has pushed me the hardest. Beyond that, a lot of recent work has been influenced by the poetry I’ve been reading. In particular, Alice Oswald and Zaffar Kunial. Both of them hold a deep attentiveness to landscape but approach it with different sensibilities. It’s reflective and immersive and I keep finding myself returning to their writing.
PF: Walk us through your creative process?
A lot of work starts with drawing but I’ve recently found myself reflecting on spaces from memory. Compositional frameworks allow each painting to become an exercise, while reflecting on ‘weather narratives’. This has been a focal point of my work for some time now, but comes and goes. There’s only so much I try to map out with a work, I try to be as playful as possible, letting the painting dictate its own direction.
PF: What do you want people to feel or take away from your art?
I was at a Hollie Cook gig recently and she said ‘joy is the biggest act of resistance’. I haven’t stopped thinking about it. I suppose that’s what I want people to take away from my work. Even when I’ve made work during dark periods, I’ve been asked why it doesn’t necessarily come across - particularly with my colour choices. I think it’s a ‘fake it til you make it’ moment. I want the work to feel joyful and therefore, an act of resistance.
PF: How important is the viewer’s interpretation versus your intention?
It’s not something I think about when making work, to be honest. Abstract work will always be interpreted in many ways, I think there’s so much beauty in that. I try to hint towards my intention with how I title the works anyway and I suppose that could always influence a viewer’s interpretation. Sometimes it’s more subtle than other times.
PF: If you could have dinner with any artist who would it be?
Having just listened to the 'Death of the Artist' podcast, Lee Krasner.