So where to now for your career?
I still have a lot of the professional work that I do and that takes up a lot of time. As for my own work I would like to create a series of paintings based on the Lagan Valley where I run. I feel that needs to be part of my work because I spend a fair bit of time in that environment.
I don’t always feel I need to comment on what has gone on here, given the historic events and the cultural density of the experiences. I suppose I am much more orientated on capturing what is going on now.
Would you see yourself as part of a Northern Irish or Irish or even Belfast artists?
I think there is quite a confused cultural identity here and there is no linear path to follow to create a unique or specific identity, even just in this city.
I think it is also the case that we live in a very disparate world where you experience information from so many sources. No-one eats off the same plate, so to speak, and everyone is surrounded by information from all over the world. You can access artists from all over the world, with different starting points from your own, and that permeates your work, without you really thinking about it.
There is one thing I think that is worth pointing out is that there is a group of painters who have stayed here to work, artists like Yasmine Robinson, Karl Hagen, Daniel Coleman, all of whom have made really great paintings. They might all paint differently but they form a group of artists from here, producing work here.
What about Artificial Intelligence. Is that a worry?
Not really. It may have a place for some people but for me the beauty of art is the decisions you make within the canvas, the harnessing of your own ideas, your own themes and even your own mistakes.
Artificial Intelligence simply recreates what has gone before and to me that isn’t really what art should be about, so I am happy to keep on working the way I do, creating the work that I do, both the professional work and my own paintings.
