| The images from the Muse Series are all independent entities tied together only by the common theme of the erotic nude, and the relationship between the artist and the muse. The muse becomes the canvas from which I hang my feelings and thoughts, fears, and desires. She represents all things to one man. She is the most intimately personal, and the objectified impersonal, she is my muse. |  |
The artist known as Spiral will be exhibiting as part of a collective with the Central Illustration Agency in London in August.
Spiral Studio, Electric Wonderland, 2006. Digital photography, 20 x 30 in. Courtesy of the artist.The images from the Muse Series are all independent entities tied together only by the common theme of the erotic nude, and the relationship between the artist and the muse. The muse becomes the canvas from which I hang my feelings and thoughts, fears, and desires. She represents all things to one man. She is the most intimately personal, and the objectified impersonal, she is my muse.
The composite nature of the work fits well with the composite nature of the approach: each image is the culmination of sketches and writing in books often about quite disparate subjects. These images sometimes reflect the very root aspects of my personality—my relationship with the girl and our life together— and sometimes they just depict fleeting thoughts that would otherwise be lost. Sometimes they are about nature and our place in it, and sometimes they are about humanity. Many of these thoughts can come together in one image, often creating a dreamlike, Surreal aesthetic that is more accidental than intentional, in the same way that the subconscious mind is more likely to throw things out haphazardly in a dream state.
My muse is the only constant in a transient world. She is the thing I really need in a world of things that we think that we need.
My language is composed of these “things” I am fascinated by—the aesthetically redundant, found things with no home, things left in charity shops, things that were perhaps once desirable, or given life by a child, but now dead, and old, and forgotten. The passing of time and how the world and society changes around us fascinates me. It all moves too fast for me, I think, so we cling to each other for something solid and constant.
I hope each image tells a little story, not in a very literal sense, but in a suggestive way. The elements and characters do hold relevance to me, but I don’t like to say what they mean. By leaving them ambiguous, I find that people attach their own stories to the pictures. In that way they have a chance of becoming something more personal to each viewer.
