MAO Gallery Late

It’s lovely being invited to give an artist talk. I’ve spoken at several schools and colleges in Oxford, and last month I was invited to take part in Modern Art Oxford’s monthly MAO Late: an evening of performances, conversation, drinks and music.

But how can you summarise your nebulous, imprecise, exploratory creative practice into pithy 10 minute summary?

That conundrum in itself feel like a pretty good example of the kind of thing I’m interested in when making work. How do you visually contain something that looks like it wants to spill over? Where do you put the boundaries in an abstract piece of work?

These talks are also a great opportunity to get input from the creative community in this city. There were insightful observations about the photos I take of the paint as it dries (preserving a moment where there is still the potential for change, resisting the material being permanently fixed), as well as new artistic reference points: Barbara Nicholls’ large-scale watercolours, and the Cocteau Twins album cover artwork.