After the Event

By now many people will be aware that my wife was hit by a lorry in January of this year and lost her leg as a result. There is a lot to work through and a lot to say, and so far things for us have been very much about recovery and consolidation.

I want to tell you that one part of my response to all this is artistic, and that i’m making a whole series of paintings about what has happened.

Honestly when it comes to art which is explicitly about ‘stuff’, i’m not a big fan - largely the subject of the artwork can dominate and ruin the form of the work. But when something this big happens in life it permeates everything and making work about it is unavoidable. Also we can have some steer around events out of our control when we interpret and retell them.

So, next year there will be a show, about what happened to her and to us. I’m slowly making the work. It looks at transformation, being seen and not seen (particularly in the context of disability) and the tangible presence of love in difficult times.