Original artwork description:

All my work is of course a personal expression, however it's not often I get to paint something deeply meaningful for me, so here's the story of 'Starman'...


The idea came to me on David Bowie's birthday 2 years ago. I had such a clear vision for a new 'Wilderness of Kitsch' piece, my last being 'Lana Americana' from 2013 which featured the singer Lana Del Rey. I just had to find all the elements and recreate what I had in my mind within my photography studio. I staged a tableau using a combination of cardboard cut-outs and objects referencing Bowie's life and music. Many of them are obvious, from his lyrics etc, such as the dolphin from ‘Heroes’, although he did apparently have a tattoo that featured a dolphin on his leg. Some references are a bit more obscure; I’ll leave it to the viewer to figure them all out!


So why is it so meaningful to me? Well, it stems from my psychosis during the bipolar mania I experienced in 2017. My love for Bowie came late, aside from Labyrinth being one of my favourite films as a kid, it wasn't really until 'The Next Day' album that I fell in love with his music. Since then, he's been a staple of my iTunes. During my mania, I believed listening to Bowie created a protective shield around me, vital given all the people I believed were after me, some trying to kill me. My mania took me on all sorts of escapades, but most exciting of all was that I believed I flew on an asteroid with Bowie through hyperspace...I genuinely felt we met, something that stayed with me, which is one nice thing to come from such a difficult time in my life. Of course that episode resulted in me being sectioned, and while in hospital I listened to Bowie endlessly, especially while doing my 10,000 steps everyday around the garden in a bid to get sane.


So the 6 weeks spent painting this has been a labour of love, especially as it also references work from my early career, including the 'laughing' gnome and Major Tom and his 'tin can' which I previously painted in 'Moon Landing' from 2003. And of course, the shooting star represents the asteroid where we hung out together, which was pretty far out, man!!

Materials used:

Oil paint

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