Correspondence no.1

This painting most particularly addresses our engagement with the virtual world of the net. Therefore it's content acknowledges recognition and exploration of the idea of sensory overload (and therefore margins between imagination and reality) becoming intensified via new media. In this image motifs derived from flower -shaped 'emoticons' commonly used in email exchanges hover over the surface of the background image. This is of a ship that was lost following the recent Japanese tsunami, which was found drifting after a year, as was reported in the news media. The flower motifs (here based on gmail emoticons) are filled with sampled images (reinterpreted hand painted by eye, not printed or transferred) from Ukiyo-E prints by various artists, representing cultural and traditional life and landscape in Japan in earlier centuries. This topic had formed part of a significant personal email correspondence. These are currently being used as 'vessels' for the containment of themes related to, or in contrast with the background image. The paintings within a painting are being arranged in formats which are derived from computer screen window layout. Many of the scenes envisioned in these are based upon those received via the web in various contexts, and such ideas are being realised by means of both traditional painting and film/animation.