'Paya Kun' - Painted in 2018/19. The title refers to a Just So story by Rudyard Kipling. When the Elder Magician was making the animals of the Earth. He watched as they inhabited their instincts and did the things that felt right. As they did them they would turn to the Elder Magician and say "Kun?" meaning "Am I doing it right?" and the Elder Magician would say "Paya Kun" - "Yes you are doing it right"
'The Ten of Cups' - "When you've had enough and it's time to go home." Painted just before Lockdown. The title refers to a Tarot card. I was given a deck for Christmas 2018 and my experience of the cards have been like getting to know a person. Me through an ancient lens. Guided by the part that loves me more than anything else. I had this card repeatedly at the start of the year as I struggled with the loss of a number of significant relationships.
'Mary's Garden' - "Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow?" Painted during Lockdown. Informed by a photograph of Gardener Street in Brighton. The title refers to seven Marys. A friend of a friend who has spent almost every weekend this year partying in various fields under the influence of various substances. Completely unaffected by the Lockdown. The mother of Christ who was deified in the Middle Ages creating the need for the Devil. Typhoid Mary. A schizophrenic friend who died about ten years ago and a song by the Everly Brothers which I sang at her wake: "Take a Message to Mary". It's a song about being in prison.
'Attending' - Painted Jan/Feb 2020. The title refers to the act of showing up. Being present with. Serving. With specific reference to the Death of Culture.
'The Stretch' - Painted during Lockdown. The title refers to the many meanings of the word Stretch: to embellish the truth, to be short of money, to be in prison, to do something out of my comfort zone that furthers the intentions of my Higher Self.