I find references from all over popular culture and it has shifted into British popular culture over the last few years, there is a familiarity to the references I come across, especially with what is presented through the tabloid press and online. I’m constantly saving images on my camera or taking screenshots from videos.
I get influences from all over, an accumulation of the content I consume day-to-day, and from this chaos of content, I can then be selective with the route I want to take with my paintings. The beauty of being an artist is having this freedom to draw inspiration from all over the globe, from the past and the present, and to be able to create new perspectives of the world.
Being in the UK right now it’s a real-time of upheaval, from Brexit to Covid, it is so chaotic. The Leave campaign slogan was 'Take Back Control,' but right now we are out of control. But on the opposite side, there is also this sense that the nation is fixated on nationalism and a return to the myth of what people perceive that this country once was. There’s this weird 'Keep calm and carry on’ kind of mentality, and an indifference to the real suffering that’s happening. I think that these events like horse racing are microcosms that mirror Britain as a whole, on the surface, it’s all finery and pageantry, by the end of the day it’s broke punters, broken glasses and passed out spectators, the unpleasant truth.