Barrie West
"We are our History" My art explores, and attempts to understand the meaning of "being what you are". By identifying and isolating incidents in our past, we can go a long way to explain the thoughts, feelings and actions of the present. The work is a diary where the incidental and the traumatic jostle for attention in the eyes of a child or in the memory of an adult. The media and practice changes, depending upon the concept. The print/paintings often encourage some kind of interpretation from the viewer; thus the personal becomes universal. By using their own perception and interpretion of the image, the viewer owns the experience as it resonates with their past. Installations, sculptures and assemblages are often concerned with ethics and morality and are like to challange and to question. The work sits somewhere in the canon of Confessional Art depending upon the impact on the viewer.
Career path I was unaware that I was becoming an artist. It was something I just did. Making art for me was a compulsion which has been endorsed and validated by the BA and the MA courses at University. Up until recently the teaching of art was my living but it is anticipated that this will be replaced by a greater reliance on art sales and commissions.
