Snakes In The Grass - Original Artwork

I learned screen printing for twenty years just to get to a moment where i could tear it up and start again.

This piece started with a clean run of those flat, heavy pop flowers that always take me back to my childhood and the bold 1970s Swedish illustrations my mum used to show me. A perfect, clean print is great, but I wanted more texture.

I chopped the bottom half of the print away and rebuilt it as a collage using off cuts from other artworks from the series, I then threw down layers of spray paint, background washes, and raw pastel marks. If you look closely at the green base, you can see the actual physical scratches from the pastels catching the light against the glossy screen-print ink. I loved the physical grind of it. I loved building layer upon layer  for weeks until they finally burst out in the studio. The stenciled text at the bottom says exactly what I was feeling at the time: I want some if it's fun. If it's fun I want.

The framing had to match that energy. It is housed in a heavy, seven-centimeter deep oak clad frame that I stained myself using an analog mixture of wire wool and vinegar. The solution reacts with the wood to pull out a beautiful, dark, weathered grain.

At roughly 900 by 600 millimeters, it is a big, solid, physical object. Find a solid wall with the right light to let those textures breathe. It is built to outlive us both.