As an artist I have always been interested in how we can express individuality, more specifically how the human brain functions and how we, as individuals, are different in the way we operate. I explore this by delving deeper into themes of stress and how each of our bodies have specific mechanisms and reactions to these emotions and strains. In my oil paintings, I use intense colour to represent the complexity of our minds, stresses, and emotional responses. I also use illusion in my work – a distortion of imagery, combined with processes of layering that ultimately results in ambiguous images as a means of asking questions of an audience – how emotions are represented on a two –dimensional surface, and how each person will bring their own histories and emotional experience of the world to bear upon their own reading of my work.