Painter and installation-maker

Why fish babies? Starting as a project on animal bodies I quickly found fish (dead fish) to be the most accessible to find and photograph as first-hand source material. Go to any supermarket, and if not at the fish counter, then at least a beady eyed head can be found vacuum sealed in the fridge section.

Five years into painting dead fish my friend’s toddler asked me to paint her as a mermaid. After a successful commision for chocolate coins, the same friend suggested I paint the same in reverse: dead fish head, with “chubby baby legs”. It’s a natural progression. Since 2018, this idea has taken hold of my imagination. Fish babies are not only the opposite of a mermaid, but a stabalised symbol in my life to create around, from and for.

I never found myself wanting to practice the craft of painting without knowing what to paint. For me, there was and always is: fish baby. Through time and consistency, my friend’s joke has come to represent a lot in my life. Partly: access to creative exploration in the conceptual safety of routine, akin to what the Dutch masters found in painting their religious and mythical scenes. And, lately: the chance to make and develop something, someone, in a world where, as a young lesbian, the prospect of home ownership, a stable career or children are out of reach.