Are you mad because you are an artist or an artist because you are mad? Of his friends, Lord Byron once said, ‘We of the craft are all crazy. Some are affected by gaiety, others by melancholy, but all are more or less touched’.

Does personal torture and tragedy produce great art? The questions surrounding the subject of madness and creativity are extensive and the research inconclusive, however the vast number of tortured artists, raises the possibility of a dark creativity; for many the outcome was an early death. This series of work, The Tortured Soul Creates Art, considers the complexities of the creative mind, pays homage to its genius, ponders its fragility and laments its loss.

Further Reading
Release The Muse Within

The Crack Up, Jane E Porter
The Tortured Soul Creates Art, Jane E Porter
The Mad Artist's Brain: The Connection between Creativity and Mental Illness

Mental Illness and Creativity: A Neurological View of The Tortured Artist

The Obsession series is a body of work about modern culture. It is an observation of our times, from political deception to the religiously righteous, over indulgence to starvation, the coveted success of the elite and the demise of the self obsessed.

Some Influencing Headlines in 2008-09
13 year-old suicide bomber kills Sunni guards
The Taliban is using child soldiers as young as 3 years old
12 year-old Afghan suicide bomber kills three marines 
British politician attacks Kate Moss for encouraging anorexia 
Photos retouched to make models look fatter'
Amy Winehouse arrives in court for assault trial
Michael Jackson was an addict
Drugs, celebrities and ruined lives
SNP: Time for a major rethink on Afghanistan
SNP Trident toll plan a 'gimmick'

Untitled is a visual depiction of neglect, abandonment, deterioration and the ephemeral nature of our society. Over consumption and excessive production of short-term and disposable items is rife and the pace that we live at is fast and furious.  The shelf life of everything from consumables to relationships is rapidly decreasing to meet our ever-demanding desire for the new.  Are we becoming a race of consumer junkies or is this a western, capitalist inevitability?

Art and the appreciation of it belong to those who can ignore, even temporarily, the quick-fix conditioning of our society.  Planning and research, unequivocal skill and craftsmanship go into creating a work of art, none of which are instant in production or consumption.  The work in this series explores our evolving nature, our desire for instant gratification and how we, so often, abandon what we once perceived as beautiful.

Birth, ageing and death have provided philosophers and academics with an endless source of enquiry in relation to a number of subjects such as religion, the arts and the body’s social and ethical position within society. 

Culturally, we identify ourselves through our experiences and conditioning and attach the labels defined by the ruling class, such as the medical profession and the church.  Although we believe we are free in our choices, we hand ourselves over to the medical profession whose technological advances show that the body is increasingly becoming more plastic. Examples of this phenomena range from the cardiac pacemaker to cosmetic surgery to the impending unborn children who may be the result of genetic engineering. Our trust in doctors and surgeons who, by such methods describe the body as being machine-like, revert us to the early Cartesian theory of the body being merely a vehicle or machine, in which the self resides.  However our body is our primary environment, our true house over which we can have rulership.

Conversely however, we are reminded of its fragility and our disempowerment in the knowledge that our corporeal existence has a time limit.  Regardless of anything we have learned and absorbed, we are powerless over our fate.  We will die.  As we have no absolute insight into the time and circumstances surrounding our death, we file away the haunting thoughts of our expiration at the bottom of the closet, buried under the garments and clutter of our lives. 

If your predicted death was imminent, would you, upon reflection, feel content knowing that you had achieved your aspirations?  Would you have worn the crop-top, supposedly too young for you, slept with the neighbour, most probably too old for you?  Did you take enough risks or would you have regrets?

Digital Design and Illustration Projects

vintage	portraits	figures	other

An Artist's Life 2012

I am, without doubt, a secretive person. One wet Sunday afternoon in Paris, whilst sipping coffee and reflecting over our recent visit to Le Musée D’Orsay, my companion, a connoisseur of art, one might say, asserted, ‘Lovers of art are voyeurs, obsessive observers who wish to fathom the complexities of the artist’s mind. Your audience desire to know the pattern of your practice, understand your incitement and share the experience.’

Artists are usually shy when disclosing elements of their inner world and I am no exception. However a puzzle had been posed, fear and reticence had to step aside. In response to the suggested voyeur’s compulsion, I have created An Artist’s Life and with humility, I invite you in. Click on the image to enter.