The Boy In The Bubbles (2019)
A recent commission which encapsulated a lot of the techniques I have been developing and through collaboration, pushed them in a new direction.
The whole project was beautifully serendipitous, having seen an image that the commissioner had posted, and immediately thought that would make a great subject and starting point for a painting.
I hadn’t commented on it, and then a few days later I was asked by this person if I was available to do a commission as a surprise gift for their wife.
Through multiple discussions, and space to digest the thoughts expressed (quite an important bit), plus getting the patron to create mood boards of aspects they potentially sought, and the inclusion of songs as if creating a mix tape for the piece, it all led smoothly to this work.
Utilising many processes that have been used separately previously, it was a delight to bring them together for this work. It wasn’t without difficulties though, which is actually an essential part of the process. If what is in front of you (colour, texture, treatment, essence) isn’t what was in your mind, and isn’t creating the haptic/emotive response you effectively dreamt about, you continue the battle to get to that point. That inherent battle often leads to a place beyond what you had initially aimed for, as was the case with The Boy In The Bubbles.
There’s a process that I had developed in college, which was later fined tuned whilst working in a supremely excellent design studio in Dublin (Design Factory) whereby the workings, testings, notes and now the tracklisting of songs/albums I’ve listened to while creating the work are all captured and presented in a hand made book that goes with the piece.
It in itself gives a relatively abstract timeline of the process, which in itself is an abstract.
Artwork 77cm x 77cm, black floating (Universe) oak frame 80cm x 80cm, plywood, acrylic, wax.
