THE IMPORTANCE OF STORIES

I’m a voracious reader. This appetite for stories comes from my father, who was also an artist, a writer and a reader. He would buy us as many books as he wanted. He would be delighted when we wanted to read. And this is how my love story with stories began.

As an adult, when I worked in the business of story telling (marketing and TV), I realised truly how important stories are. They are important to us because we all have a story for everything in our lives. We have them for ourselves and our identity, we have them for each person in our lives and our relationship with them, we have one for even visuals or other people’s stories. Even our memories in fact, are not facts; they are stories that happened, seen through our eyes.

Stories are central to how we make sense of the world around us and the impact it leaves on us.

As for me, I have hundreds of stories. I think of myself as a collector of them! They live with me and I keep making more as I go. And they translate into my life as a painter too. Through my paintings, I tell a visual story, yes, but every painting also has a story behind it. It’s the thoughts that pass through me, a story from the past, or a question for the future. 

That’s why if you’ve been to the Original Paintings page on this website, you’ll find an audio story clip for almost every painting. It’s important to me that I tell you the story of what you’re seeing, because stories are such an essential part of who I am.