ABOUT
I love to source the precise combination of images, colours and textures to create a new, fresh and otherworldly scene. I find making these visual conundrums delightful, comical and bedazzling to create. I enjoy altering, juxtaposing, playing with scale and context in these hand-cut collages and illustration works.
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I have always had a fascination for the abandoned, neglected, forgotten ephemera. Often wandering through the flee markets, charity shops and car boot sales in search of long lost treasures. In the last few years I began to focus vintage fashion magazines and any sixties books with large photographic images. As a visual artist the next logical step was to utilise these gorgeous images. Thus my collage romance was born.
Mixed media and collage art is my specialism, upcycling and bringing new life to often drab illustrations of the 60’s and 70’s.
Having an interest in the social psychology of advertising but having no wish to become an Ad-man, the closest I could get was to borrow the techniques and imagery directly from the Ad industry and re-present them in my own unique, sometimes dark, often humorous way, (a form of 'sub-vertising').Now it would appear that work has evolved into a celebration of the beautiful and bizarre nature of advertising and consumerism around the mid-20th century.
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I received a Bachelor of Arts, Honours degree in Environmental Art at Glasgow School of Art in 2000, It was there that I began to research and deconstruct the imagery of our consumerist society. After art school I worked in several social projects around Europe, including Belfast and Croatia, and continued to practice my love of community and the fine arts.​
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I don't always make art you know, Mallorca is the perfect island for jumping on your road bike and zooming along the fantastic, scenic routes to find a gorgeous beach to rejuvenate. I practice Shamanism and Shamanic Healing. I am a qualified carpenter and have a university diploma in Person Centred Therapy. I have recently revisited my old love of Yoga. There are rumours abound that I may be off to Ecuador for a yoga/shamanism teachers training course soon.
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Originally from Scotland, I now live in Mallorca, Spain with my Spanish wife, Inalu. She is a yogini, nutritionist, Butoh dancer and bodyworker. (www.inalu.eu)
Printmaking
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Having a background in printmaking I always find a way of printing with whatever medium I choose.
The ink on vintage magazines is older, this makes it easier to transfer using special gel transfer technique. These images appear like double exposures or the transition between scenes in an old movie. They are mostly quite flawed which can, if done well, add to the mystique of these ephemeral images.
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Techniques
Hand cut paper Collage
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At the heart of the work is my hand crafted paper collages ( or 'photomontage'), mostly acquired from large photo illustration landscape and educational books and fashion magazines from the sixties and seventies.
I have an ever expanding treasury of books and magazines from the late fifties to the early eighties. As I become more familiar with my collection I can often keep a store of images in my head and when a new background appears I may be flipping through some pages rapidly to expose the complementary image.
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Mixed Media
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Taking collage a step or three further, I may paint, carve and digitally manipulate an artwork. This can give greater depth and texture to a piece . There are no examples of this style of work on this website.
In the past I have worked in ceramics, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, video and photography.
I love to experiment and combine these mediums.