Kathleen Cleaver, 2007 & Marsha Hunt 2007

My practice as a painter involves taking a wry look at the romance of popular culture. My underlying concerns being escapism, wish fulfilment and the mythology of fame. Embedded beneath these are questions about differences between the public and private self, which are manifested in a dark depiction of everyday life, and a wistful longing for an impossibly romantic reality. This is all presented from my own personal perspective, drawing on both real and imagined memories of childhood and Englishness.

The Birds, 2006, oil on canvas board

Recent projects include a series of paintings of 50s and 60s seaside beauty queens for the show O Dreamland and the Afro series (see at the top of the page) which were made for the show Blanc Noir at Transition.

My paintings usually form bodies of work or “stories” which may be combined with other elements such as installation and film to create a kind of narrative, ‘scatter’ aesthetic. Events from popular culture often become shared fictions, which become easier to relate to than real life. In my work these fictions collide with everyday realities to form these “stories”. The source material for my paintings is photographic - both my own and found. This photographic source remains apparent in the final work conveying either the snapshot moment of awkwardness, or the carefully composed tension of the publicity image.

The Smiths, 2006, oil on board