In my art practice that I explore and research is the uneasy feeling of images that are half-remembered that presents a familiar object and scene into an unfamiliar setting. In my art the world is made up of a vast array of hallways, sections of buildings, open fields and thin or long gradients of colours, endless loops to fractured objects. The feeling of existing in a surreal world, like a single frame from a stop motion film where everything has not yet properly settled into place or formed as we know it. A sense of wonder and curiosity travels through us, connecting to a memory of something that lies deep within and which only emerges half-formed as if its in a dreamscape.

My artwork is directly influenced by works of some early Surrealist painters such as de Chirico and Surrealist film directors.
I am also influenced by artists such as Edward Hopper and Jeffery Smart who are not regarded as Surrealists. The description of Jeffery Smart’s work approach as the confluence of the mundane and the metaphysical, is close to the core of my artistic approach. Artworks by Edward Hopper displays separation and remoteness that i want viewers to identify in my art while works from Jeffery Smart promotes the use to familiar scenes containing out of place objects and people without providing and particular narritave.

My idea of referencing ‘dreamscape’ includes using our experience of the real world as a body of information and then creating a doppelganger-like appearance in an alternate universe. I refer to the doppelganger effect as pertaining to scenes or objects recalled by a person rather than the double of the actual person.My artwork also draws from well-known psychological movies like What Lies Beneath (2000, Dir Robert Zemeckis) and The Shining (1980, Dir Stanley Kubrick). From The Shining there is a recurrent theme of characters being lost in an endless loop of hallways and rooms where they experience either Deja vu or memories resurfacing from an earlier era.

My artwork also draws from well-known psychological movies like What Lies Beneath (2000, Dir Robert Zemeckis) and The Shining (1980, Dir Stanley Kubrick). From The Shining there is a recurrent theme of characters being lost in an endless loop of hallways and rooms where they experience either Deja vu or memories resurfacing from an earlier era. From What Lies Beneath there are strong references to the idea of the self-reflected image. This creates a state of mind in which the world around you feels like a never ending loop. In his review of the film, journalist Elvis Mitchel writes that the director uses different techniques to make the viewer feel unsettled like they may be in a nightmare.

“Painting is a form of incarnation. It is spirit made manifest in the world.”

Jeffery Smart