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Oops, I’m a day late with my throwback post this week, apologies for breaking the usual schedule! After a long day at work yesterday, I was so wiped out I ended up crashing completely and taking a much-needed nap 😴
But now we’re back, and today, I’m taking you all the way back to 2002, to share a piece titled The Sentinel. This mixed media painting is a surreal landscape created using Dada automatist techniques, with a bit of an influence from Max Ernst.
It was part of a series of landscapes where I used paint smears, frottage, and allowed accidents, randomness, and texture rubbing to guide the process. The unpredictability of it was really exciting to me. I loved the idea of surrendering control—letting the subconscious take over, letting the process unfold in a way I couldn't predict. The random layers of marks, textures, and materials became a way to draw out ideas from the subconscious, to create something new from the chaos and disorder that usually hides beneath the surface.
This was a time when I was fascinated by the idea of making art that didn’t follow any clear, rigid structure. It was about diving into the unknown and trusting that new ideas would emerge from the messiness. Sometimes, it’s through that very chaos that the most unexpected and powerful concepts surface.
I still rely on this approach today now and again, not just in visual art, but in songwriting as well using cut and paste techniques. Using Dada techniques to create something from randomness and free-form expression has been an invaluable process for me in both worlds. There’s a freedom in letting go of control, allowing your mind to wander, free from constraints, to see where it takes you. Whether it’s in a painting or a track, you never quite know what might emerge, but you trust that something new, something unexpected, will show up!
I hope you enjoy this blast from the past!