6 foot by 4 foot – paint, coloured pencil, charcoal, wood and collage on wooden board.

These Thoughts Aren’t Real, They’re Just Secretions In The Skull.

This self portrait is the culmination of all the ideas developed as part of the studio work in 2011 and 2012. Layering multiple imagery, text and perspectives, both within a manipulation of the 2D and 3D planes, over a stylized self-portrait explores how the external influences and stimuli effect the internal representation and understanding of self.

Repetition of key signifiers which have become apparent in my work over the previous two years, eg. The Hammerhead Shark, 3D text, Bacronyms –  play against surreal poems which anchour the shifting ideas to the variable elements, like thought bubbles in a comic book. Symbolic references which are not within the audiences common knowledge make up the background of the portrait, hinting at the unknown past of a person which in essence becomes the foundation on which all their perceptions are built. Through reversing these symbolic representations and playing with morphemes in Burroughs-like fashion there is an attempt to rid the symbolism of it’s meaning, allowing space to imagine an unfettered future.