In July 2023 I participated in a two week residency in a small derelict village Agios Ioannis, nestled in the mountains on the island of Crete. Gathering inspiration from the abandoned house and surrounding hills, a new body of work was created.
When I first flew into Heraklion, I was immediately taken by the layers of graffiti, flyers and stencils that pepper the winding side streets and alleyways of the city. An unintentional process that can only be constructed through time, removal and persistent layering, these accidental collages of urban decay have greatly informed my 2D work.
“The Geographical layers of our lives rest so tightly one on top of the other
that we always come up against earlier events in later ones,
not as matter that has been fully formed and pushed aside,
but absolutely present and alive”
Taking inspiration from discarded photographs, newspapers and journals, natural pigments in the hillsides, and the flora and fauna of the area, a sketchbook of ideas and my own accidental collages was brought to life. I had the opportunity to participate in several paper-making workshops during this residency, where found organic materials were pulped down and reused to pull rustic, organic sheets of paper. Many of these sheets found their way into my sketchbook and added to the layers of collage and paint.
Sketchbook from Crete residency, summer 2023