Artist’s Manifesto.

The "Inferno" series of paintings was the suggestion of the art critic Edward Lucie-Smith who I have worked closely with for many years. Edward suggested a visual version of Dante Alighieri's Inferno with featuring himself as the shade of Virgil leading Dante through the circles of Hell. I read and studied Inferno as a teenager and have always been drawn to the rich metaphorical aspect of struggle and personal journey depicted in the epic poem. The idea for the series presented me with an opportunity to recast the violent men of my childhood in the form of medieval demons from the tapestries and stained glass windows of the churches I attended as a child. The drunks and sailors became literal representations of violent energy and grotesque zoomorphic forms trapped in a cycle of torture and punishment. The inspiration for the environments and buildings in hell are exaggerated versions of people, situations and institutional buildings drawn from my life.