Divine Drawing Series
1.6180339887......... Phi, the Golden Section, the Golden Ratio or the Divine Proportion.
The Divine Drawings are site specific, they react and develop from their environment, the Golden Section that surrounds them. Each element, line and form is born from another, each line and edge corresponds and reflects the golden ratio parameters, it plays with magic.
The work explores imaginary synthetic digital environments which draws its inspiration from the machine, landscape, celestial skies and the microscopic world. This combination fuses to create a new spiritual mix reflecting our time. The alchemy of the works are non religious.
There is no running away from history; the ghosts of modernism are present within the evolution of abstraction. We take fragments from the past and build new horizons for tomorrow. The layers of graphite dust are equal to the layers of time, which has travelled before us. More than ever painting and drawing is relevant today within our high speed society, we crave a need for stillness, to wonder, to dream and drift in our universe of imagination.
The medium is broken down to the most basic and accessible of artist materials, graphite on paper. The drawings take months to execute, progress is slow and time is a crucial ingredient as in stark contrast to digital processes, they mimic the computer but have as much in common with an ancient time.
Monument to the International Coffee Growers
Monument to the International Coffee Growers. No! longer can we stand the self glorification of dodgy portraits made in stone and marble, steel or concrete! Committees of patrons paying sunday painters handsome money to immortalize their idols or heroes. Karaoke art in our faces, playing the same dreadful tune every day on our streets. Art devised by committee, art by numbers, art on its knees! The art of the lowest common factor, safe art, froth. Fans and followers of pop stars or captains of industry share their passion with the populous by raising funds then running to the least passionate of sculptures who can formalize a recognizable likeness. It pays the mortgage! The streets are awash with this X factor trite, the balance has tipped, we no longer think or contemplate art, we just recognize the celebrity and move on. The tourist industry needs, the business community needs, the appreciation society needs, the B list artist delivers for a decent wage and the public live to love the result. Better still find a B lister from abroad, recruit an army of volunteers and call him international and glory in his genius. Nice furnishing for the city which steers away from upsetting anyones sensibility, formula for the masses. Honour our favorite son, build a likeness, commission a sculpture! Corporate patrons fuel the art of bad sculpture in partnership with local authorities canvassing the popular vote. See those sponsors and benefactors becoming judges, hear their arrogance of ignorance who then in turn fertilize the landscape with the average. Give the prize to the cohorts of the business men, let them hold the trophy and parade it in a thousand workshops. The balance and focus has switched to community art, nice art, that being art by consensus, art that pleases the sponsor, the local authority, the development company and the arts council. Monument to the International Coffee Growers Yes! The struggle must swing towards real achievement, glory in the true human spirit, celebrate the reaching, the searching the finding! Demonstrate that the individual workers make the wealth and establish systems and structures which enhance not exploit. Make these monuments stand proud to clearly illuminate our debt. Praise the pioneers, the campaigns and the makers. Take inspiration from the unfathomable fabric of nature, colour and light, the music of the universe, the structures of life itself. Challenge convention, stand proud and fight for a new language which penetrates deeper into our minds and souls. Lets learn from the past and construct a better fairer future. Make the art confident and allow it to fail spectacular, see the accidents and glory in its unique achievements. Worship the heroics of the workers, the makers the doers, praise the invention and salute the visionaries. Abandon the tired effigies of heartless leadership and petty politics and project the big ideas that mankind can and will strive for. Turn our backs on the drab, protest at the conventional and refuse the mundane! From the waste and found make the art, symbolic coffee sticks can build the monuments to the growers. Monuments constructed throughout the world that reach to the clouds and scream for justice and equality! Lets fill our hearts with the poetry and music which unites, find and export our common threads, lets rise as one. From inner cities to remote mountain ranges build the temples of progress, inspire the future generations and lay the foundations to build a dynamic fair functioning world. Invest in the workers, make health and education our world priority, exchange and understand, share the wealth and promote equality.
Art
Selected Group exhibitions:
Chapel Gallery Ormskirk - Line & Form, 6th March - 17th April 2010
Cornerstone Gallery - 'Pre-Paid', drawing, 2008
Chapel Gallery - West Lancashire Open 2008 - drawing, comended.
Independents Biennial Liverpool 08 - 'In An Ideal World', St Brides Church, 2008
Liverpool / Austrialia - Liverpool Culture Company, River Mersey, 2007 / 08
Cornerstone Gallery - 'Terry Sullivan A Retrospective', curated, 2007
Cornerstone Gallery - 'loop OVERVIEW 07', curated & exhibited, survey of abstract art on Merseyside 2007
Loop Gallery, 'RAW' - curator, multi-discipline exhibition, 2005
Loop Gallery 'Untitled' - curator, project manager, painting exhibition, 2005
Loop Gallery, 'TEN' - curator & exhibited, 10 leading abstract painters, Liverpool Biennial, 2004
5athegallery, St Helens, - group exhibition, 2002
Manchester City Art Gallery, - Manchester Academy Open, 1996
Foster Goldstrom, - New York City, group exhibition, 1995
Fresh Art, London, - group show representing Liverpool, 1990
Tate Gallery, Liverpool, - assistant to Sol LeWitt, 1990
Solo Exhibitions /Projects:
Independents Biennial Liverpool 08, board member / project manager, 2007 / 8
Cornerstone Gallery, 'Space and Time' - recent paintings, 2005 / 06
Loop Gallery, 'Retro' - retrospective of ten years paintings, 2005
Hunts Cross Primary School Liverpool, - every child makes an abstract painting, 2003
Ashfield Special Needs School, - abstract sculpture installed in school grounds, 2003
Merseyside Maritime Museum, - 'Wave' installation, Liverpool Biennial, 2002
DfES, Artist in residence, CH4 Learning - 'Grid Club' 2002
Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, - one person show, 1993
Hanover Galleries, Liverpool, - one person show, 1993