About Me
My current art practise endeavours to investigate a personal response to the realization that as I matured; I was seemingly different to the other boys I knew. As I started to develop as a gay man these feelings of same sex attraction were accompanied by an emotional turmoil that was saturated with overwhelming confusion, guilt, shame, and alienation. I incorporate the use of collage to portray a form of excavation which constructs autobiographical imagery conveying stories of how I tried to hide my sexual orientation and wear stereotypical heterosexual male emblems and disguises to pretend to be what I could laughingly call ‘normal’. However, eventually embracing my ‘gay shame’ has led to the eventual acceptance of an identity with substance. This art work is a celebration of the rite of passage that I experienced, and in some ways experience still, acknowledging the search for confidence to process and understand my emotions and desires. These current pieces do not simply attempt to cover personal gay issues but are also concerned with declaring the insecurities, fears and excitement of being gay.