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About This Work
When I think about large, difficult situations (the climate crisis for example), I find it pretty overwhelming. The problem is so large that it can seem impossible to know where to begin, or whether anything one person does could ever make a difference.
This painting came from trying to not look at the problem as one enormous thing, and instead break it down into smaller, more manageable parts. Looking more closely doesn't change the problem itself, but it can change how we process it. What at first feels overwhelming can resolve into something with more structure. Small decisions become building blocks, and those building blocks can begin to form cohesive solutions.
I deliberately limited this painting to two very similar colours. At first they clash slightly and can feel a little uncomfortable to look at, but if you stay with it, the structure becomes apparent. So if we zoom in on difficult situations, complexity can become more manageable, and what at first felt impossible begins to feel like something we can navigate.
The repeating geometric forms loosely reference the staircases of a fire escape, a visual link to the idea that there is often a way out of a bad situation, even when it isn't immediately obvious. So this painting isn't about escaping the problem itself, it's about escaping the feeling that the problem is too big to face.