Pep Talk With A Young Self

Oil, Canvas, Ready to hang

91.5cm (W) x 91.5cm (H) x 3.5cm (D)

Certificate of Authenticity Included
A$1,650

Artwork Description

If you could go back and speak to your younger self what would you say? Would it be words of advice? of anger? of caution? or perhaps of encouragement?

This work is intensely personal so I'll be honest I don't give a damn if people don't like it, its for me and me alone...maybe it will ring true with someone else but this work is by me as a message for young me.
For the majority of my young life I was not encouraged to do art, at least not in the capacity I wanted to. For some they discouraged because they didn't understand, for others they were purely selfish and just wanted me to remain under their thumb, and some they feared risk and seeing me fail. So I turned that in on myself, I believed i wasn't of value, that my talent was too risky to be of use or of worth to remain a part of my life...that was a mistake and I wish i'd listened more to people who encouraged me than those who sought to hold me back or redirect me. It was torture for the longest time and very nearly sent me down a dark road...it took me a long time to figure out that the only person who was going to provide the encouragement I needed to become who I wanted to be was in fact going to be me. I think a lot of young people feel that way nowadays.

This artwork is me showing the messages I needed to hear as a child, the lessons that I would've benefited from early on, and the encouragement to take a risk rather than shy away from my abilities.

A pep from the man I am now to the weird little scared kid I was back then. The message on the outer edge of the canvas is to me...or perhaps to others like me.

Its the risk takers that make this world beautiful, never discourage that.

Artist Bio

I find that my art enables me to express elements of my world that can't necessarily be seen by the naked eye, its an attempt at conveying something a bit intangible. Abstraction is the primary way I communicate my ideas and experiences in art.
The naive and somewhat primitive lines, shapes, colours and textures I use are my attempt at capturing the atmosphere, personality or feeling of a place or person I have encountered in my life, realism or a photograph in my opinion doesn't always capture these elements of the world.
I feel that my art brings these to the surface...it shows the soul of something, somewhere, or someone. Perhaps you will see someone you know within my strange works, maybe even yourself.