40 x 1.7cm
x 50cm
I read a book shortly before painting this painting, ‘Genius, The Natural History of creativity by Hans Eysenck’ and on page 127 I read this line; “Genius is only found in males (for whatever reason!). Illustrations abound. In the list of geniuses studied by Cox, (1926) there are no women.” Let’s take note of the somewhat surprise from Eysenck as if he alludes to the reason actually being gender. So I’ll take a moment to elaborate the times. Women only won women’s rights in the 60’s and I doubt it was an easy road after that, sexism is still evident deep within culture so I don’t see women in the 60’s suddenly being accepted into jobs automatically without prejudice. The book itself points out that the definition of genius requires eminence in the field of your career. Women weren’t allowed careers so there you go, mystery solved. Even though another 60 years has passed we need to take into account that’s just your grandmother, or mothers generation who fought for equal rights and I bet there were some too busy raising young children to take it seriously. So you have your generation to be the first without prejudice in obtaining a job and on your way to the definition of genius. I personally argue it’s not a fresh start as in male dominated careers women report others having the opinion they won the job just please the stats and don’t receive the same respect amongst colleagues. As I read on it seemed as if the women who were eminent such as Marie Curie or Emily Dickinson must have just been considered very good. So the prejudice doesn’t just lie in not being able to find avenues to become eminent, but then being recognised as eminent. Following that thought I decided to whip out a female Einstein. She wears his jacket and the buttons lie the way a woman’s jacket does. That subtitle on page 127 named “Gender”, seems to have a misprint as I read “Prejudice in gender”. This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.
40 x 1.7cm
x 30cm
One day I was colouring in my colouring in book and felt an ant crawling on my hand, I then looked again and it was gone. You could say it jumped off or something, but I went down a thought trail and wondered if the ant was ever there in the first place? I had just read a book, ‘Genius, The Natural History of Creativity’ by H. J. Eysenck which explains that studies show more creative people tend to sit closer on the scale to psychosis. So wondering whether I’m immune to this trend was on my mind, if I am, am I not even that creative? Is the creativity a hallucination too? I continued the thought alongside this fresh new insight on psychology, it’s possible I imagined the ant… It’s possible I’m imagining everything around me. You could be insane and never know it. I shared the thought with a friend, she added we might not even be friends and either of us could be sitting there alone talking to ourselves. Then you add the reality that reality is just warped to your perspective and what you engage with. So if nothing’s real, then everything’s real and there’s no such thing as anything. From there I decided to paint the ants. I painted my hand but they’ve opened up a rabbit hole for me so I painted holes in the hands where birds fly in and out, like the birds in my artworks. I decided nothing’s real so the table turns into an ocean and some boats seem to be on struggle street knocked over. Then you’ll see that turns into a wave of water and travels into the distance. I tried making the room warp at the edges and the clouds sit as a pendant inside. The birds on the window are a reference to my digital artwork ‘Cockatoo’s at My Window’ This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.
40 x 1.7cm
x 30cm
Sometimes I find myself hanging around people who are very preoccupied with whatever event they’re planning or mediocre activities like who they’re dating and it’s hard to maintain an actual conversation that would still be relevant in years time, like how video games improve hand eye coordination, or the pyramids. I remember talking to someone and when I brought up something less surface level she’d say “mhmm” and not add to the thought. It’s hard to find like-minded people so I painted a thinking statue, between two surfaces, I like to see it that one is filled with the faces of people who do the 9-5 and their conversations don’t extend much further than their work dramas, very important to them, but still surface level. Then on the roof it’s another perspective where there’s people who think they’re entirely different to the ones following life’s expectations but still aren’t digging deep, the topics of conversation still revolve around why this isn’t happening or that doesn’t work. In the middle the statues thoughts are clouds locked in bubbles, floating away. This artwork isn't one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.
60 x 3cm
x 60cm
I began this painting with an entirely different idea in mind, originally having the cow-pear in a therapy chair facing a picture that resembles a window with a tree branching in and the walls divided into indoors and outdoors. Instead I didn't vibe with the painting and decided to get creative with it. In the mornings I have breakfast on my balcony surrounded by trees and look up into the blue sky. So I decided to paint that. The fruit stuck on the wall is my breakfast, as if the cow-pear keeps it there, pulling one down to snack on it and it looks out into the blue where there are imaginary animals. I decided to paint the coloured elephants and giraffes from my digital artworks. At first I wanted to paint the elephant with the same long curly legs as the giraffe although I face an obstacle where people liken my artworks to Dali's so I needed to avoid elephants with long legs. Instead I stretched it's ears into and behind the water. I hid the giraffes face and originally intended to hide the elephants face (although it began to look creepy) with the idea that they share a head. The tape is different on each fruit because I wanted to reference the real life issue where tape always seems to be running out! I also decided it was important to brand the items in the paintings with barcode stickers of my own. Oil based, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity!
