''Painting is an expressive outlet for my emotions and has helped me not only understand myself, but help family members and friends understand me. By painting pictorial responses to my feelings through self-portraiture, the results are deeply personal and almost invasive (from the viewer's perspective), encouraging the viewer to look behind the facial facade and into my mind. With surrealist influences like that of Magritte and Bacon, the settings and elements of my paintings disturb and confront the viewer with potential reflections of their own mental wellbeing. My work attempts to be relatable and bring you along a journey (though tough) towards stability and to find strength in myself. Inspired by Leon Spilliaert in his changing perceptions of the self through portraiture, my paintings each capture a snapshot of an emotion at a certain point in my life marking my progression and elements of mental health that are not represented in the media, or are often too ‘taboo’ to discuss. Whilst most of my paintings depict myself, the different stages of mental illness manifest in my physical appearance and how I consequently portrayed myself, thus though I remain the subject in most pieces, it is sometimes difficult to ascertain who has been illustrated and whether it is the same character throughout.''
