It’s hard to know where to start with explaining that. One of my favorite ways of envisioning things is through dreaming. I often try to stay in the state of mind that I find myself in just before falling asleep. It’s something I’ve been doing for a long time and it’s a state of mind that feels very separate from the waking imagination. I wouldn’t have a hope of inventing any of these ideas while awake. In fact, I don’t think my ideas are invented, but rather observed.
When I enter this waking dream-state, I first see geometric forms that eventually grow more complex and more colorful. Then objects, faces and entire beings start to appear. After that, the scenes develop and become much more involved. The further I allow myself to drift into that world, the more real it becomes, but the more I start to disappear myself. It's about treading a fine line and keeping a balance where my conscious and unconscious are at a meeting point. With practice it becomes easier to dip into that place while fully awake too, to some extent.
Although that process is integral to my practice, only a small part of it comes across in my work. My sculptures offer a little window into that world, but that’s a wonderful thing in itself. For me, there’s something particularly magical about wearing these costumes and seeing them move about when they’re worn by others. For a while they are real living breathing beings in this world too, and that feels so special and unlike anything else. There are a lot more characters I’m looking forward to making costumes of too, but it can be a slow process and it’s pretty labour intensive.