With my work I try and say something. I try and put some kind of message across to the viewer. I think this is the fundamental reason why I choose to work with images. I can manipulate and change images into whatever I want. There are no rules to stop me twisting and altering my work into how I want it to be. Where as in sculpture or photography most things are real, you have to work with natural forces like gravity.
Within images I like to use simple drawing and text to create my work. Artists like Jean Michel Basquiat, Paul Davis and David Spiller have all been a large influence on the way I work. Basquiat has taught me that drawing doesn't have to be perfect. As long as it gets the message across that is the important thing. I have also developed my own way of working from studying his paintings; I have learnt to treat the canvas like a brainstorm, an explosion of my opinions and my ideas.
Then to balance this work out I have looked at Paul Davis' work. He shows me how to tone down my work. Pick out simple lines; remove the unnecessary images and text to leave the main substance of the work, the core elements. This style of working is something I have moved onto more recently. Minimal drawing, capturing the essence of the subject and putting words to it. This type of work is very raw, fresh; it sustains a feeling of just being completed whenever you look at it. David Spiller is another artist whose work is very much involved with images. He paints on large canvas; using bold imagery he creates a background. He then scribbles, writes and draws all over his work. Random comments often picked intuitively from his head. Spiller has influenced my work just like the other two artists i have mentioned; I believe they are all great artists who rely on strong images for their work to be successful. .
One artist who I feel is great when it comes to imagery is Robert Rauschenburg. His silk-screens to me sum up the word.