Me and My Art
Here I present pictures of my art together with short descriptions of the pieces. Also included are pieces of writing that relate to my art or art in general. Health Warning: For me artistic expression is how I directly represent my experience of life as it rushes by. However I also enjoy using the arts indirectly; as a way of trying to clarify or better understand persistently difficult problems in the world. Because of this I will often refer to a wide range of subjects including a great deal of philosophy or quasi-philosophy – you have been warned!
I am a totally blind person. I had sight as a child and young man. I am unashamedly a “blind artist” rather than an “artist who is blind”. So in my artwork I draw heavily on concepts, associative memory and the mysterious world of synaesthesia. However visual memory and visualisation remain a central and growing part of my work.
I work using a wide range of materials including ready-made objects and I often combine these elements in the one piece to produce installations and sculptures. My work ranges from very small table top pieces to very large installations including outdoor pieces.
What motivates me to do art is what motivates anyone to do art namely a desire to make something and with it to convey an idea or a feeling. As a blind person I am motivated by a desire to make real or ‘bring to the surface’ certain of my inner visual experiences. Secondary motivations and recurring themes include an exploration of presence and absence, an interest in collaboration and the ‘meeting of minds’ in the creative process. Also a lot of what I do is driven by a concern for what blind people have in common with everyone else not what divides them, I am also concerned to examine the well documented idea that sighted peoples visual perception can be altered and improved by their encounters with the blind. So my work seeks to speak as much and sometimes more to the visually aware as it does to the visually impaired.
Art 'n' stuff 