I was born in London and grew up in Italy before moving to Johannesburg where I spent my teenage years. I did an MA in History of Art at Edinburgh University after which I studied further in Italy, London and New York. I returned to South Africa in 1990 and now live and work in Cape Town.
I draw inspiration form the wild places I visit, mostly near where I live in sub-Saharan Africa. I travel with a tent and a truck to remote places from Cape Town to Lake Tanganyika. These places are where I find peace and silence, they strike awe in my being. In my experience there is nothing closer to God than wilderness. It is the essence of these places and my experience of awe that I try to convey through my work. A feeling that can perhaps attempt in some way to unify humanity.
My visual language which at first glance comes across as abstract and accidental mark making is supported on a scaffold of fractal forms that I am fine tuned into and which I see everywhere around me. Think of the patters lichen forms on rocks or the patterns of foam on water, or on the bark of a tree, or the aerial view of the delta of a great river. Once one starts becoming aware of them, they are everywhere. In a similar way to mathematics and measurement underlying the way one starts to make sense of the natural world, I use fractal patterns as a language to tie my work together. To have insight into my imaginary world, fractal patterns provide the key.
