Where it begins

There are paintings that begin with an image, and there are paintings that begin with a question.

Love vs Matter began with a question.

What truly has value?

We measure almost everything. Time. Money. Success. Distance. Achievement. We spend our lives assigning value to the things we can count, weigh or own. Yet the things that shape us most often refuse to be measured at all.

How do you measure trust?

How do you measure forgiveness?

How do you measure the feeling of someone's hand in yours, or the silence that exists between two people who no longer need words?

This painting grew from that thought.

The title, Love vs Matter, isn't intended as a choice between two opposites. It is a reflection on the quiet tension that exists between the world we build around ourselves and the relationships that shape who we become. We often spend years chasing things, only to realise that the moments which define us cannot be bought or owned.

Throughout the painting, layers of handwritten words, fragments of imagery and expressive figures appear and disappear beneath the surface. I work this way deliberately. Life is layered. Every experience leaves something behind, even when it is hidden beneath everything that comes afterwards. The painting is not designed to be read from left to right or understood in a single glance. Like memory itself, it reveals different things depending on where you choose to look.

The figures remain anonymous. I rarely paint faces with clear identities because I don't want the painting to belong to one person. I want it to belong to whoever stands in front of it. If the figures remain open, then perhaps the viewer can find themselves somewhere within the work.

The recurring words and symbols are not there to provide answers. They are fragments of conversations, reminders of emotions, moments collected over time. Some viewers may recognise their own experiences immediately, while others may simply feel something they cannot quite explain. Both responses are equally valid.

Perhaps that is why love has always fascinated me. It asks us to believe in something we cannot prove, quantify or possess. It exists somewhere beyond logic, yet it has the power to change every decision we make.