Thursday 18th June 2009

My artistic practice might be termed non-professional, amateur, or hobbyist. I think this is a reflection of my choice to focus only on production. I don't attend seminars or workshops, and have never exhibitted in a gallery or elsewhere. From the professional viewpoint it seems I don't want to make a career out of it.

In 2009 the focus of my creativity has been almost entirely on digital mediums. Painting and drawing seem to no longer interest me, I have lost the desire to work in these traditional mediums. Those things which I explored within painting and drawing are metamorphosing to suite the digital mediums in which I now work: computer programming, digital audio and computer based music, and plain text.

Throughout the past fifteen years there has been a tension within me between art and computer programming. Sometimes I have wanted to be an artist, other times I want to be a computer programmer. Now fast approaching my mid-thirties, I feel time is running out. My ambitions have not made it into reality. I can make art and I can program, but lack ability to gain financial reward for either of these tasks.

I support myself financially by gaining work through local recruitment agencies. The work is typically low paid manual labour in factories, wharehouses, and hospitals. Often the experiences from these type of jobs become translated in some way into my creative work. The contrast between the lack of skills required in the jobs I perform for financial reward, and the technical skills required for my digital creativity is often laid out within my works. I want to highlight the inadequacies of our society to make the best of people and to make us as human beings feel valued. It is a fuzzy grey area full of ambiguities, contradictions and ambivalence.