www.earstotheground.net

"James Watkins' polaroid study, Acrylic 120cm x 90cm 2013

'Fields of vision' 1.7 x 1.3m Acrylic on canvas. 2013

'Analogue Distortion' 1.2m x 90cm) Acrylic 2013

Polaroid study of James Watkins,.

Photography series.

My painting process has always been based on photography, however I generally scavenge from old books and whereever else an interesting image catches my eye.

This new series is a push towards something more personal. Im experimenting with analogue distortion using friends as the subjects for a photographic series that I am using as source material to make paintings from.

I have a fascination and obsession with the analogue realm and distortion/abstraction as a way of opening up the mind to various possible interpretations of the same thing. Leaving gaps in the information making the image/sound unclear or distorted and removing parts of the story or information allows the imagination to fill in the blanks.
My sound design and music always gravitate towards soft fuzzy distorted signals and analogue synthesis. I have often used sampling as a way of accessing this nostalgic era where things seems softer and less clear or digital. I suppose the use of grainy old black and white photography from dusty books is the visual equivalent of sampling from an old record.

After sampling lots of historic reference material and enjoying the lack of clarity it offers, I am at the point where I am hungry for my own personal stories to inform the work I'm making.
I am using a range of instruments, microphones and analogue synthesisers to create my own sounds instead of sampling musical ideas from records and then appropriating them. I am appropriating from imagery and sounds of my own truth, my own world.

The layers of glass, paint and wax etc. are a way of obscuring the information of the real, and coming up with an image that already looks like one of my paintings, it has a painterly abstract feel and is a step further towards my goal.