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Visionary Heads:Shell-like

This image plays with the creative mind's tendency to anthropomorphise. The psyche is conditioned in such a way that it will recognise the pattern of the human face in seemingly random marks and objects. It also refers to ancient beliefs in animism, which held that all forms in nature were inhabited by living spirits with whom interaction was possible in an alternate reality. In mediaeval Europe this manifested in imagery such as the Green Man.

The photo litho element derives from a digital collage, using a surrealist technique, “inversage”, so stimulating “pareidolia” – finding faces and figures not only in random marks, but particularly in symmetry. Some of the things I am influenced by are Surrealism, Symbolism, Romanticism and Baroque Mannerism. This image in particular pays homage to such artists as Jan Svankmajer and Arcimboldo. Seashells in my work often refer to music and sound, as in the experience of hearing the sound of the sea when holding a seashell to your ear – perhaps also evoking a mystical experience of hearing the music of the spheres or communing with the ocean.