"It's great - and absolutely is you - absolutely a self-portrait. I would have known even if you haven't told me!!! Your world of surrealism: dangerous, threatening, funny, enhanced, vivid, "spiced-up", terror evoking. But for the person in the picture (you) it is all very easy going. This person doesn't care, he is the ruler of this really, at home there, the master of this land - almost like a wizard, he is not affected or threatened by any of the creatures that would devour anyone else, or kill (like the train) or suck up and drown - like the [swamp]. Yes, this is your landscape. enter at your own risk!"
Aleksandra Furlan - Interview 29/03/05
Using a blend of digital painting and collage this was a huge picture to make. It took several months to do and looking at it now I just wonder to myself what a psychologist would make of it! I like the result in the sense that it captures the Sence of totally off the wall incongruity and slightly glamorous grotesquery.
This picture introduces a very important character in one of his first appearances: The English Gentleman. This grand and slightly dangerous adventurer is not me - it is me playing a part like an actor - and having great fun! Artists - especially cartoon strip artists often create avatars and characters that are highlighted and phantasmagorical versions of themselves - and The English Gentleman is mine. He has cropped up in writings, art and even music so far, and I am sure there will be many more sightings of him. Indeed, watch out for a full-length novel featuring him in the not too distant future!
I have three more visual exercises in surreal egocentricity planned featuring him - 'The Great Sea Flares of the Themes Estuary, 2085', -'Miss Peacock', and one that I have yet to title. However, these are vast and complex images. Don't expect them any time soon!
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