Splash A-Cross Limits, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 100cm x 100cm

I am greatly influenced by my time spent working as a cartographic surveyor, not only through the process of creating maps but also through the employment of cartographic tools such as ruling pens, adapting their use to suit my artistic discipline.

My practice reflects my former expertise as I explore drawing and painting through the process of cause and effect, creating order from chaos, resulting in a map of the activity displayed as an apparent organic image.

As part of the painting process, paint is initially poured and splashed by way of trying to make a mark or perform an action. Although some decisions, such as colour and consistency of paint, have been considered beforehand, this generally results in unanticipated paint effects which function as a platform on which to devise a set of rules to create the work after the initial paint effects have been analysed. Rhythms and repetitions in the splashed paint are searched for before rules and procedures are invented and complied with, intricately framing, filling and linking the related casually formed marks.

Polarity is evident between the expressive paint marks and the rigidity of the intricate drawing process but ultimately, they modify each other and combine to create one image. The result is an illustration or map of something that is non-visual: my thought process and decision making as I attempt to bring to the fore the repetitions and patterns that occur in the apparent mess of chaos.

Creating order from chaos is akin to creating a map or diagram of our jumbled world; they allow us to understand complex systems in a simplified way by leaving only the essential traces after removing surplus information. However, instead of condensing information, I build on another layer after analysing patterns and connecting similarities, aiming for the same outcome as a map: to enable the viewer to follow a route, although in the case of my work, the route is my line of thought.