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descript

A body of work created over five years.

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Displayed with accessibility in mind.

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Artworks combining 

vintage texts, oil paintings and community stories

told in oil paint, ink, and braille.

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Oil paintings completed within a window of 3.5 hours, 

a celebration of the art technique 'alla prima'.

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The dèscript project sets out to recognise

the value of vintage publications.

Their textures, their workmanship, their message, their journey.

 

Through dèscript the oil medium is explored.

A journey of challenges and discovery

in paint application and interaction, tone and colour

and the ever-present constraint of time.

 

Each randomly chosen vintage cover

is partnered with a live subject

and written experiences of a living person.

 

The book is transformed from an object of the past

into a participant in a current social dialogue.

 

Being a visual representation of the subject,

the painting cements the book into a place in time.

 

A record of a person’s clothing

or the laughter lines on a person’s face,

the book becomes a witness to, and testimony of, an event.

 

dèscript aims to elicit an emotional response from the viewer

through sensitive and painterly technique.

 

By engaging with the painting,

and engaging with the biographical text,

the viewer may place a current value

on the book and its journey.

 

The viewer may then also become part of the book’s story.

 

These stray books, incidental subjects and diverse biographies

are disconnected, somewhat random at first glance.

 

On closer reflection, the art works lay bare

their thread-like, tenuous links between past and present.

 

Reflecting perhaps, our own personal pursuit

of connectedness and meaning.

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Complimented by the installation

'Ex Libris' - a visual history of book making.

Comprising a river of papyrus 'reeds' constructed from a variety of materials such as

gold leaf, bamboo, stone, parchment and cuttlefish.

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