Artist, illustrator and storyteller
Based in Edinburgh, UK
Paintings
Painting is by its very nature an entirely impossible task. The artist, the colours and materials and the moment agree to come together and when they do, each one changes its mind, thinks the whole gambit a marvellous arrogance, an ineffable miracle and altogether something that should be left to others.
Illustration
Illustration hangs its hat on narrative and narrative adds illustration to its information. Without each other they wonder idly at their purpose. Having done an MA in illustration I am a bit more savvy about its role in art and my life as an artist. I could say, hand on heart, that illustration brings an extant story to my ‘otherwise paintings’ and joins them together. This is a selection of my illustrations doing just that.
Books
A wise woman once said “Information not passed through the heart is dangerous”. These books are examples of that. At once they are illustrated and then they have text added. Text that children can understand and that makes adults think. Illustrated books that are the domain of children that become the read aloud voices of responsive adults and grown up reads that become the province of children.
Testimonial on Alexanders Storytelling;
“Your text is a carefully crafted piece of writing which is clear, has pace and direction and is intellectually ambitious…your live storytelling brings in a fascinating dynamic to thinking on surfaces and draws out some very original ways of thinking about lived experience and storytelling…there is such a wonderful confidence and sense of substance to the writing and ideas…your work here opens-up avenues of thinking concerning surfaces/screens which I had not considered.”