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Toy Box 2005

Acrylic on treated board 10.5 x 15 cm

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About the Picture

One of Picasso's most famous quotes was: "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain one once he grows up." When I create a painting, it is a case of being playful; a way of showing a world or way of seeing that has to be brought into being through the most convoluted games. The toy box of nostalgia calls on a way of seeing that doesn't think of life through norms, or applied categories, or morals, or thesis; my world of painting aims for melancholy in its recapturing of the newness of things we all have lost. But unlike a child it carries a reflective bent; like the adult who whilst clearing out the attic falls upon the objects of childhood and is waylaid from his or her everyday tasks in a reverie of reminiscence. There is nothing sadder than yesterday.

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