Light becomes the human element in my work, as I prefer to indirectly reference people rather than directly presenting them. It is fascinating to me to see what is hidden and what is revealed in both exterior and interior night time landscapes. Large areas will appear entirely black, except for one spot punctuated by a lit window or the light from another room.

Standing in the dark I am less aware of myself, and more conscious of my surroundings. Darkness inspires a sense of contemplation – the sort of state that one is in when not thinking of anything in particular, yet deep in thought. In my work I let the viewer get lost in the black, but bring their focus to smaller areas of detail, to the light. I try to bring the observer into the piece and have them feel the same sense of place and thought that I do.

My current work is a series of direct gravures. Gravure is an intaglio technique which allows for continuous tone and has been traditionally used to reproduce photographs. To do this, a photograph is exposed to a light sensitive gelatin which is then adhered to a copper plate and etched. Rather than photographs, I have exposed graphite drawings because believe that the meditative act of drawing and the evidence of my hand are important.