Original artwork description:

One day I was colouring in my colouring in book and felt an ant crawling on my hand, I then looked again and it was gone. You could say it jumped off or something, but I went down a thought trail and wondered if the ant was ever there in the first place? I had just read a book, ‘Genius, The Natural History of Creativity’ by H. J. Eysenck which explains that studies show more creative people tend to sit closer on the scale to psychosis. So wondering whether I’m immune to this trend was on my mind, if I am, am I not even that creative? Is the creativity a hallucination too?

I continued the thought alongside this fresh new insight on psychology, it’s possible I imagined the ant… It’s possible I’m imagining everything around me. You could be insane and never know it. I shared the thought with a friend, she added we might not even be friends and either of us could be sitting there alone talking to ourselves. Then you add the reality that reality is just warped to your perspective and what you engage with. So if nothing’s real, then everything’s real and there’s no such thing as anything.

From there I decided to paint the ants. I painted my hand but they’ve opened up a rabbit hole for me so I painted holes in the hands where birds fly in and out, like the birds in my artworks. I decided nothing’s real so the table turns into an ocean and some boats seem to be on struggle street knocked over. Then you’ll see that turns into a wave of water and travels into the distance. I tried making the room warp at the edges and the clouds sit as a pendant inside. The birds on the window are a reference to my digital artwork ‘Cockatoo’s at My Window’

This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Materials used:

Water soluble oils

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