Blind Forest

This series explores repetition and the variability that can come with it, using these as a creative tool.

The idea came from a vivid dream I had following one of the COVID vaccinations. In the dream, I created an artwork using a fountain pen, ink and paper. The experience was so ordinary, yet so convincingly real, that afterwards I couldn't tell whether it was a dream or a memory. However ordinary it had seemed, I felt compelled to try and create what I had seen.

Each artwork is constructed from millions of individual dots, made by repeatedly striking the nib of a fountain pen into the paper. The motion is rhythmic and mechanical. My hand oscillates almost robotically, punching the nib into the page like a tattoo needle puncturing skin. Removing conscious thought, my body becomes an autonomous tool, performing a simple action over and over again. There is no fixed composition, image, or pattern in mind. Only the colours of the inks are selected beforehand.

Each work develops its personality through the imperfections of this autonomous movement and the tools used: the pen runs dry, the ink pools unexpectedly, dots merge together, textures emerge, and the image slowly changes.

As the process unfolds, I become an observer. Rather than imposing an outcome, I witness the work revealing itself one dot at a time.

These drawings reward sustained looking – inviting viewers to move closer, lose themselves in the accumulation of detail, slow down, and discover their own interpretation or meaning.