I was trained as a painter, extending my practice into printmaking in the early 1970s, after being exposed to the richness and unique expressive power of the intaglio surface. With my background in painting, and being largely self-taught as a printmaker, the integration of painterly methodology into the graphic process was a natural development, and it is this combination of approach which gives my work its distinctive style:- "prints about painting, and paintings about prints". My influences are many: semi-religious symbols remembered from a Catholic childhood; the exquisite, accidental, sculptural imagery of the allotment garden; graffiti and cave paintings enjoyed on travels abroad; the childhood fascination with the 'printed' images of fossils found in the shale tips near my home; early memories of coal-mining and, later, steelworks industries, where numbers, shapes, words and marks chalked on oxidising steel panels held a mystery of meaning which continues to weave its spell for me. Music has been a major influence: Irish traditional music in particular has made a deep and lasting impression, with its melodies providing a counterpoint for all kinds of musical adventures which underpin it and are held within it. I loves to explore the question, - what is important: the dominant melody, or those qualities which contain it or are contained within it? There is no such thing as "just a tune", as there is no such thing as "just a drawing". All of this is combined with a rejoicing in the qualities of materials and process and the 'joy' of making… 

The various influences co-exist as do the strings on a musical instrument; separate and silent until one is sounded, thus creating a sympathetic vibration in the other strings. From this interplay and permutation evolves melody, harmony, and structure. The notion of "touching the chord" is the very essence of what I try to do visually through printmaking and painting, by means of partial deconstruction, rehabilitation and interim decision-making. The interaction between materials and process becomes a vehicle for reflection, the image itself taking form in an instinctive or 'intuitive' manner. I have been happy with abstract imagery because of its ability to 'say without saying'; its ponderability; and I am intrigued by the notion of 'mutual resonance' as expressed in Japanese Haiku poetry, whereby an idea is indicated rather than dictated, suggesting a whole bigger 'picture' which is manifestly greater in implication than the sum of its original components. My prints and paintings exist 

 

in their own right, as the results of a discourse between myself and the work, or the activity of working, and they invite the recipient to complete the picture from the resources of his or her own funded experience. As we are all unique beings with a different set of experiences, values and prejudices, we all bring something specific and personal to bear on the work in our contemplation of it. This three-way dialogue between the artist, the work and the recipient is very important for me, and although there may be a clearly understood origin underpinning any individual image, it is not the intention of any piece of work to demand a specific position in our interpretation of it. More simply, it is an invitation to 'share' and cogitate. I do not choose to conceptualise my imagery, preferring rather to use the work, and the activity of working, as a vehicle for reflection: a means of bringing the unconscious into consciousness. I choose not to worry too much about what does or doesn't constitute 'Art', or what motivates others to create images. For me, it is a means of exploring Self, and that someday, perhaps, it may lead me, blinking, into the light. 

My images are, for me, metaphors for many things.. 

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