At the start of last year, I was in Palm Springs for an exhibition opening with a few of the other Lethbridge Gallery artists. Shortly thereafter, in February, I found myself in Sydney to create a portrait to enter into the Archibald Prize. It all seems so far away now, as by March we were in the depths of the pandemic (I’m certain I won’t be the only artist this year referring to 2020 in their artist statement).

My 2020, from California to Sydney and back home to Brisbane, from limitless landscapes to lockdown, bustling cities to isolation, made me reflect on life. I decided I wanted the works for this exhibition to be a celebration of life. The journey of life, with all its highs and lows, and its great mysteries.

I started by delving into the core of my artistic process. From my earliest memories I have been obsessed with blueprints and diagrams. As a child I would draw plans for various non-existent projects. I’ve come to realise that my artworks, in all their various themes, are an extension of this obsession.

And so, I approached each work for this exhibition as a diagrammatic representation celebrating life. A documentation of existence, encapsulated in landscapes that observe the vastness of space and time, figures lost within sublime moments, and geometric arrangements that serve as silent mantras. These are all attempts at creating maps of the intangible.  Charting the soul with diagrams of the human condition.