And in other news:

This is all art related so feel free to skip if you like.

My work is going in two directions at the moment. I've got my "Fractured People" series, which I'll be expanding the audience of so as to accommodate all those who have felt "fractured" in order to generate empathy for both sides of the mental health coin... I've also got another project going on which I've not yet got a name for... I use different parts of different Prisma filters and layer 3-5 of them to create a composite image which is then further altered in PhotoShop using their filters and by applying renders I find online which are free to use. When that is printed out onto canvas I then hand finish with paint or other bits and pieces where applicable.

Whilst I've come across some criticism in the past (oh you're just pissing about on PhotoShop, that's not art), I've received a lot of positive feedback on both these strains of work including assertions that I'm simply using the media that fits me best to create my works. I've written an affirmation statement in the back of my sketchbook, and I've kept hard copies of emails which have validated my practice. I need evidence, you see, otherwise my thoughts take over and bam, I'm in the miasma of depression and I'll just give up.

Serendipity herself has paid me a visit. I follow the gorgeous Dita von Teese on Facebook and she updated with an image, a painting she'd had done of her in her favourite dress. I thought to myself "shit, check that hyper-realism, I'll never come close to being that good". A couple of days later she posts a video of that painting being made. It's in French, so I click for Google to kindly translate. And that's when my jaw hit the floor. Turns out it's a collaborative effort that created the image, and that the image is first and foremost a photograph (!) taken by one artist, which has been painted on the top of by his partner. These two (Pierre et Gilles) have been working together for 40 years, creating elaborate stages and backdrops to photograph their models against. One takes and processes the photograph, the other hand-paints over the top of it to smooth imperfections, or embellish as befits the work. Now, these two rebel against the modern/machine and don't use PhotoShop or equivalent programmes at all, it's down to the elaborate setting and then the painting in post-production. But it is a very similar premise to what I'm doing with my second branch! A photo printed out and hand finished with paint and other embellishments. I am still ringing with excitement.

You see, I've not yet come across an artist who does things similar to me. There's Barbara Kruger, who was a heavy influence on my "Fractured People" in as much as 1) the images are completely desaturated, 2) there are words involved on the image, 3) the work is a campaign... but there's nobody out there trying to effect a change to people's perceptions about Mental Health/Illness using such imagery. But for this newer aspect, the filtration and embellishment to tell a story made of single flashes into my life and experiences, this and more importantly HOW I do it, there has been nothing. There are artists ofc who do self-portraits over and over for different reasons, but I've not seen anyone work with a pre-printed image of their self-portrait and finish it similarly to how I do. But I see similarity here. And I am ecstatic.

I guess it's because I feel like I now somehow "belong". I no longer feel like an outsider, making outsider art because I can't be trained in traditional methods. I feel like I have a community now. Like I have something to contribute. I'm so very grateful to have found it.