'Lost Voices' panel 14. oil and Indian ink on gesso on canvas.

Panels created by using gesso as a base for a sgraffito (or scratching) technique to scrape through layers of paint etc . This method is a kind of excavation, a search for imagery that emerges by digging into the subconscious to discover representations of the faces of who I imagine to be ‘the disappeared’. This process could be described as ‘archaeological’ and it in some way mirrors the action of relatives digging for the remains of loved ones who have been taken with no explanation. The fact that people can ‘disappear’, if they have expressed criticism towards brutal regimes, is the extreme end of a spectrum of indifference that allows the rich and powerful to consider those without power and wealth as ‘worthless’. Recently, in the UK, we seem to have collectively agreed we can no longer ‘afford’ to support the vulnerable, to help the handicapped, to pay adequate wages for menial jobs. As I scape away searching for justice, I wonder - at what point did we all decide to settle for a world that has so much senseless greed and so little moral compassion in it?