MARSH of SLEEP Listening to an interview by some scientist on the National radio one day, it was inspiring to hear that matter can never be completely destroyed. That if blown apart it will be rearranged in some form or another. It doesn't bear thinking where all these particles originally came from. No beginning, no end. That doesn't really matter. Too hard to contemplate. So I set out to explore some of these thoughts. A pretty silly idea to try and capture the impermanence of everything. So what we have here is a series of landscapes; snapshots of our past world and universe. Also a look at our future. Back to molten rock again. Extreme global warming. I have always liked Jean Dubuffet's ‘Texturology’ series of paintings. Why not paint the very soil you stand on instead of the whole landscape? A close up look at teeming matter itself. I have incorporated many elements in these images. Peeling paint patterns, graffiti, rusty scratches on steel containers. Cracks on rocks, moss; pitted dents on various objects close to my environment. Mostly scars. Just like the scars and pock marks on the surface of our moon. Then I have drawn more scratches and lines of my own indicating possible rivers of lava or left over trails of swirling worlds. On another level these are marks and patterns we make through our travels in life. Everything matters and everything is everything. These prints show a continual dance of creation and annihilation, of mass changing into energy and energy changing to mass.

The following work starting with "Setting Sail" I have titled "Fish Lungs". Fish do not have lungs, they have gills, however this is a feature in all my current work. Full of contradictions, a mixture of Greek mythology and pop culture, these images represent a life less ordinary at the waters edge and just below the surface.

I have always lived by the sea and it is a constant source of inspiration. Breaker Bay in Wellington is very rugged, exposed and quirky which has helped create the enviroment for these narratives to take place. Rust, driftwood, rock, Cook Strait and the general flotsam and jetsam provide the colour palette.

The viewer of this work needs to already know half the story. The titles are a useful compass for the journey through these waters. This primordial soup of ideas make good wholesome food for thought.

All prints measure 600 800mm and are printed with long life inks in archival rag concorde water colour paper.