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From the artist:
The Damned Don’t Cry. This is a series of eclectic images, moods, metaphors, and good old scary stuff. The series was inspired partly by the Visage song, Damned Don’t Cry and a recent conversation with a close friend who asked if my illness affects my art. I struggle with chronic depression amongst other things and it is a wearying and ugly illness that often frustrates and angers me. In conversation, we also talked about art as therapy and I wondered what might happen if I were to let loose my macabre tendencies and exploit my mental darkness and convey it onto a digital canvas. The results were neither anticipated or expected as once I began I discovered I had so many visual stories I could tell that I have struggled to keep ahead of my oft raving imagination. I began this series back in January 2017 and it was finished as of September 2018. Now I had started this exorcism of the depression haunting my soul I felt a need, an insatiable need, to release the inner darkness and allow the light to finally rest on serene pastures new. The work is not autobiographical or representative of who I am or how I feel. They are works of fantasy influenced by a desire to express illness. So there is much beauty to be found here. There is also scary stuff, twisted things, macabre themes and oh so many metaphors that I have lost count of them all. Many pictures took on a life of their own and became a story in their own right. Others are just as they appeared in my head. There are memories here, feelings and emotions captured in an image that sometimes hides its true intent. Some pictures were simply just a bit of fun to make, while others are a homage to films and books. Oh, and did I mention the metaphors? Some of the titles to these works have no bearing on the contents whatsoever. Others convey exactly what the image represents. Others are hints and suggestive of something else. For me, it is all a game, a bit of fun. So have fun reading the stories contained within and if you simply don’t ‘get’ a picture then consider that perhaps that is the point, take note of how it makes you feel and you’ll probably discover that you are ‘getting’ it after all. Some times we should stop asking questions and trying to understand especially when the answer simply needs to be felt. And do also remember to not take it all so seriously. This is an artist at play and, though I haven’t yet explained the rules, I invite you to come and play too. Each doodle is on stretched canvas (12” x 18” and 1/2” deep).
