There is conflict within all of us between the part striving for rational order and the other which is drawn to chaos and passion. In Ancient Greek culture there were two gods who personified this tension. Symbolic of reason and logical thinking was the sun god Apollo, while Dionysus, the god of wine, represented chaos and irrational emotion. Rigid logic can dampen emotion and self expression, while frenzied passion without any inhibitions can become dangerous. It is somewhere in between these contrasting tendencies where our greatest potential can be actualised.
In my work, the Apollonian becomes manifest through methodical etchings of representational figure drawing and geometric patterns. In contrast, the Dionysian is embodied through expressionistic dry point mark making and random improvisational motifs. My ambition is to produce visual harmony by synthesising the abstract with the representational.
