ALL THAT GLITTERS…AND A TOUCH OF MADNESS

Artist Statement on the new collection:

My father knew I was an artist before I did. Thanks to him I spent years being taught by a professional artist, absorbing more than any art school could teach me. He urged me to attend shoe design school in England while I stoically pursued a career in Criminology. Our father-daughter trips ranged from simple half hour drives into the next town for the latest imported Vogue, to being fashionably lost in the graffiti-stricken alleyways of Paris. He was gracious and generous and did everything in his power to protect us from the slings and arrows of apartheid South Africa. Once dragged away in the mid-night by the ‘secret police’ for his role in anti-apartheid protests, he was determined to expose us to a life of rising above ignorance and oppression.

Dementia has stolen my father from me now, and our caregiver roles are irrevocably reversed. As his memory fails, I cling to my own memories of being a cherished and carefree child. In creating these paintings, I revisit my experience as a daughter. I find now that everything matters, and nothing matters. One learns that all that glitters is inexorably fleeting. Honest reflections of the utility and futility of things is articulated in the work. Decay and age are effortlessly juxtaposed with gilded perfection in this striking new collection. From stark black and white to limited palettes to positively colourific, it’s all here.

I invite you to enjoy the work. Thank you.