Graduating in fine art from the Crawford School of Art, Cork in 1981 my work instinctively reflected the art ideas of the time represented by movements such as firstly The Pictures Generation and then Neo-Geometric Conceptualism. Today I see my work grounded in concepts originating in these movements. Neo-Geo artists created artworks that were influenced by the style of earlier developments in twentieth century art –such as Minimalism, Pop Art, and Hardedge Abstraction. Grace Glueck, one of the key documenters of the movement, notes “The painters among the Neo-Geo movement consciously recycled geometric motifs of the 1960's and 70's in their canvases, but put them to new use, regarding their geometry as referential rather than abstract.”
My paintings explore formalist abstraction through a post-pop/post-modern lens. On the one hand they seek universal truths, each painting is a manifestation of what is… a specimen of existence. For when we ask the question ‘what is art/painting’? we are asking the question ‘what is the universe’? On the other hand, from a pop art sensibility the paintings explore the topographic nuances of consumer culture, the vagaries of taste in the use of found fabrics from domestic interiors and the rotations of fashion and obsolescence. Mostly done on an oval format, I often paint on pre-printed found fabrics instead of the traditional canvas ground. This juxtaposing of painted form on patterned textiles created for me, an exciting visual incongruity. The pre-printed fabrics duel with my hard-edge geometric painting style for supremacy/balance.