This was a series of 25-30 paintings where the subject was myself, and my body. Colour and light abstracted the figures, making them dynamic, colourful works.

I began this series in 2020, after feeling quite lost in my creative practice, working full time during the pandemic, and receiving a diagnosis of scoliosis. I was navigating pain, social withdrawal, and all the highlights of full time retail during covid. I had a trying relationship with my body at the time, dealing with lots of extreme pain from bulging discs in my thoracic and lumbar spine. I would often work with what felt like a hot iron in my back.

I didn’t have the energy or time to paint the larger more elaborate paintings I had done in the past. I needed to be able to paint with an hour window on work nights, so I could still stretch and have dinner. I wanted painting to be fun, and explorative again, I wanted to paint dancing with a beer in my hand like I did when I was much younger.

This body of work was made using a projector, I would project “pour paintings” I had done myself, onto my body and face, and then paint these images. I would paint them in about three layers, starting with a coat of black gesso, a messy block in of colour, and then a refined and detailed phase at the end.

I really liked this series of work, and creating this work I was able to be incredible productive and expressive in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time.