Empty Arch

Empty Arch

Available for sale.

Charcoal and chalk.

$400.00

85×65cm

I used architecture a great deal in the earlier parts of my career (not actually very long ago now). I invented this piece – I was trying to get across some of the desolation I felt. I have since largely abandoned using structures in my works as central features, I find that nothing in my experience works as effectively as the human figure itself we say so much, so very much with the slightest curve of a pale finger. Still. Ruins are cool. You should see my lungs :-)

The moth and the flame

The idea of the moth and the flame is slightly misunderstood in its popular context.
It was I believe first cited in the original Faust, by Goethe.
He describes it thus:

Those who are closer to the flame live brilliantly lit lives. They are warm, and there is vibrant colour in everything that they see. But… but of course… the flame itself – the very fire that PROVIDES the light – it burns them. For some of us; for you perhaps, for those of us with a soft, soft heart –you pay for the glow that you share with others.
You are hurt by life. The flame burns you.
You are hurt simply by living in such proximity to the light; the true heat that makes your mind and soul so beautiful.
It also makes you MORE ALIVE.

The house walks in you as much in you as you walk in it.