Floral splendour and aesthetic beauty abound on this exotic island city known as Victoria. To understand the influence this has on my artwork, one could also visit an island nation such as Tahiti, or Hawaii.
Paradise societies are often inhabited by people who enjoy lives of indolence and leisure. They are surrounded by an abundance of food. They thrive in a climate that is hospitable and welcoming. These people don't approach Nature as though it were a resource to be extracted, or something to struggle against. The theory of the Garrison Mentality, developed by Northrop Frye, stops at Vancouver Island. The distinct ecology of this bio region is so paramount to the meaning of my work, that I make sure to include accurate illustrations of native plants and birds. Sometimes an allusion to foreign plant life creeps into the picture, but this is only symptomatic of the North American colonial eye, which usually tends to see paradise in terms of tropical species.
The people who appear in my art occupy this space of Edenic beauty. Be it a nocturnal garden or a painterly colour scheme, these people are immersed in the sensuality of song birds and plant foliage, yet they fail to look up. Plants and birds are sometimes rendered by the hard line of illustration, or the scaffolding of form, juxtaposed with a strong, figurative chiaroscuro.
I insist on reducing my images, even my oil paintings, to basic line work, because I have such a strong reverence for hard illustration.
