My work consists of paintings, drawings and prints. The subject matter ranges from suburban and rural landscapes to somewhat absurd genre pictures with religious, political, historical and popular culture references.
I had wanted to be an artist from an early age, doing art at high school and then going to the National Art School in Sydney. The creative process is addictive, but there is always the desire to come up with something newer and better. The pressure of earning a living is also a driving force, to some extent.
My earliest influences were comics, book illustrations and advertisements. Some of the artists I have been inspired or influenced by are Bosch, Bruegel, El Greco, Goya, John Constable, Van Gogh, Otto Dix, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, Luciaen Freud, William Kentridge and Robert Crumb. I was also inspired and influenced by fellow students and teachers with artistic talent at high school and art school.
Copyright is important to me. While I don’t mind people being influenced by my work or appropriating it with permission, blatant unauthorised commercial rip-offs can be irritating and insulting.