The title „And All You Knew Changed Crazily“ seems so apt for the situation we all find ourselves in at the moment that I only wish I could apply this level of divination when I do my weekly lotto numbers.
There are these pipe structures that have appeared in several of my recent paintings. The longer I looked at them the more I began to see them as some sort of map of life. A chance meeting or a quick decision might be the sharp turn that changes the course of a life dramatically. For better or worse. The title captured that idea perfectly and in doing so helped me become fully conscious of it.
I don’t usually think too much about where stuff comes from but as I am writing this I realise these pipe shapes had quite a few twists and turns themselves. They started with sketches of the The Battle of San Romano some eight years ago and evolved through other drawing phases inspired by subsequent visits to Italy and my time in Berlin.
There is a beautiful line in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: “ nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change”. While I think that this is absolutely true, I also want to bring to this story my believe that whatever force may be pushing us all through the sharp twists and turns in our lives, ultimately it is a benevolent one.
Which brings me to the second theme of the work here - “Urban Flowers”. I found them in the most unlikely places all over Berlin, and they have been following me ever since. I saw them in carpets that represented a turbulent time in history, in the wallpaper of dreary buildings and mosaics of ancient cultures. It’s kind of cool that something as dainty as a flower has the power to push through concrete.
A Rustle in the Mirror of Response I oil on canvas I 120 x 180 cm
Pipe structures dominated the early stages of this piece and I felt I knew where I was going with it. The painting had other plans though and soon we both settled into a game of chess with colours and shapes. I like the fact that you can still see a bit of that pipe work sticking out in the far distance. The tall, yellowish sculptural shape in the centre was something I would have loved to have seen being made in real life. It fits perfectly. I wasn’t sure how to finish the painting for months. Then, one day, I walked past a house that had a blue gable end and I knew what to do. I went back to the studio and added the ultramarine drip in the centre left of the canvas. It felt reckless, as if I was cycling and just took my hands off the handlebars. But it worked.
Escapee I oil on canvas I 25 x 20 cm
Counterfeit Moment I oil on canvas I 25 x 20 cm
I often feel like Tom Waits in the San Diego Serenade and only truly see things when they are gone. I never noticed flowers as much as during the grey months of the urban Berlin winter. I suddenly saw flowers everywhere, mosaics in museum floors, ancient stone reliefs and retro Stasi wallpaper in my studio. We photographed those studio wallpapers and silkscreened them onto paper and canvas. “The Counterfeit Moment” and the “Escapee” are two of that series of flower print canvases. Even though most of the flower patterns are painted over they can still be sensed underneath waiting to bloom. Flowers have enough power to push through stone.
Orange Wind With Cactus Giving Chase I oil on canvas I 120 x 180 cm
This painting was influenced by a tiny drawing I had hanging on the studio wall. The spaciousness is created by the paced adding of cartoon like linear compositions over a period of weeks. Cacti on wheels fleeing the scene, no idea what it means but it had to be in there. The bird is busy being a bird. I like to think the colour of the work has the intensity of a spring flower after a long winter.
And All You Knew Changed Crazily I oil on canvas I 80 x 100 cm
This painting has had a few, quite different, incarnations. It started as an abstract structure, then, for a while it was a self portrait with brain until one night I covered it in green. I would probably not have chosen that type of green but the electricity was already off in the studio and I mixed it by the remaining light outside. I remember being surprised the next day when I saw it in daylight. I didn’t think that was the green I had made but I really liked it. Eventually I added the pipe structure in the centre. I know the structure was influenced by previous pipe drawings but it was only when I painted it on to that canvases that I began to see these pipes as the maps of a life. How a chance meeting or decision could change a life’s direction completely. I wanted to mirror that in the title.
When Night Holds Sway and the City is Free of Strangers I oil on canvas I 100 x 120 cm
One of the earliest paintings featuring the pipe structures.
Orange Cactus I oil on canvas I 30 x 25 cm
I am not sure what’s the story with all the cacti but I do remember photographing a lot of them a couple of years ago in Italy. It feels really nice to paint that shape. It’s two strokes.
Worthy Forms of Previous Foes I oil on canvas I 120 x 180 cm
The tiger in this painting symbolises fear. The character riding the tiger is some kind of pirate who has conquered his fear by jumping on the tiger’s back and by taking a stripe from its belly to use as a cutlass. He uses it to defend himself against flying snakes. The flying snakes symbolise unhelpful or cynical thoughts that try to attack our hero as he continues on his new path. All the working drawings for this story were painted on Berlin street posters. I have written about the tiger and pirate story in more detail in a previous blog post.
Combing The Hair of The Posse I oil on canvas I 120 x 100 cm
The central shape in this painting is the perfect “bridge species” explaining the evolution of the pipe structures from their origin in Renaissance battle scenes.
I have spent years studying Paulo Uccello and Pierro della Francesca’s work, drawing countless sketches, mostly focusing on the armour. I remember one of these sketches in particular. I did it on the back of a ticket in the Uffizzi Gallery Florence. It was a horse’s leg. The central dark blue form in this painting came from that drawing of a horse’s leg. A few months after completing this painting I moved to Berlin where I started drawing abstract maps (e.g. A Route to Paradise) of urban landscapes. Somehow, elements of the horse’s leg became attached to the maps and over several more months of drawing they morphed into the pipe structures that now feature in this new work.
In a Hurry Gathering Flowers I oil on canvas I 100 x 120 cm
Please contact the John Martin Gallery for any paintings in this show