We’d love to hear about the inspiration, process and your emotions you felt during the process of working upon the featured artwork. Fill us in on how the piece came into fruition and if there were any worries that crept into mind when you were in on completion

“Seven Spanish Angels” is a large-scale painting that was created upon my arrival in Spain to take up an art residency in La Casa Amarilla Galerie in Malaga. The painting represents a show of respect that I as an Irish artist am giving to seven of the great Spanish artists when I land on their home soil to begin creating my own artworks. Central in the painting and an indication of hierarchy is ‘The Man P.P.’, that, of course, being Pablo Picasso while the central figure, the “New Man”, alludes to myself PIGSY. The other artists and filmmakers referenced within the painting (left to right) are Antoni Tapies, JoanMiró, Miguel Barceló, Luis Buñel, Jorge Rando, and Salvador Dalí.

Pablo Picasso is placed beside the main portraiture of PIGSY as an acknowledgement of the best, to my mind, with the figure of ‘Pablo Picasso’s‘Susana y Los Ancianos, Niza, Verano 1955’ piercing through the mind of the centre figure which is a reminder to myself as an artist too. always respect and learn from those who went before and look to them for guidance when needed. All the other artists are reflected in this artwork by representations and interpretations of their works through the central character’s (PIGSY) mind. In one of the details of Seven Spanish Angels, an angel shows the equation 7+1= 8 which represents PIGSY being the + 1 as while I am not a Spanish artist but that now given my proximity to these artists I can’t help but be influenced by them.”

What are you working on? 

I’m currently working on two elements of my upcoming solo show “Lost in thought” which is opens on Friday 21st of April in Ranelagh Arts. I’m working on the actual hang and curation which is interesting to say the least as I am showing large-scale works in what is quite a small space. However, it has extremely high ceilings so it can take quite a lot of art and I am working on an exhibition layout that is contrary to most conventional art gallery layouts. My intent for this show is to prove to myself that the creation of the work is the most important thing and in making the art comes peace, with how the work is shown becoming secondary and it is for this reason that the art in this show is displayed in an unstructured and space encompassing layout.

The second part of the show that I am working on is a digital aspect where I am adding layers of augmented reality to each of the artworks on show. Through the app, I invite all visitors to the exhibition to interact with, and fully investigate my energetic, spontaneous, and fast-paced creative process through augmented reality. Embedded within each artwork are subliminal messages and extracted 3D layers of art that viewers can access through the use of an app on their phone or a mobile device called “Artivive”. It’s my first time using this exciting new technology and it has facilitated me in creating new layered dimensions of art by linking my studio-painted artworks with additional 3Daugmentations. The additional digital dimensions add to the viewer experience and give new creative possibilities to expand my artistic storytelling that can be unlocked by any smartphone or tablet.

How do you describe your style? 

I describe my works as being playful multi-layered, deep thinking artistic storytelling expressionist paintings and unapologetically through my art I aim to blur the lines between outsider, street art, punk poetry and expressionist art.