Shelf paintings combine found natural or manufactured objects with paintings and or drawings resting together on shelves. The space between the 3D object and the 2D surface becomes activated through discrepancies of size, contrasts or affinities of mood, and through the nature of the object in relation to the style of painting or drawing. The interactions set up might be of longing, clash, humour, whimsy or... These works are open ended, not yet formed as a finite group.
Micky Allan, 2008
Mickey and Goose, Penguin, Family, Space Koala, Owl, Bell, Conference of the Fish, Quan Yin, Bird at Night, Lightning, Wombat, Five Miniatures, Piano
The infinite (expressed through colour, nuance, symbol, dissolving boundaries, a sense of experiential boundlessness) and the everyday (expressed through natural or made objects, real or represented - of toys, animals, birds, fish, space and science objects, devotional and other figures from various cross-cultural contexts) interact with longing, shock, pleasure, tension, humour and pain. Or in unexpected synthesis, establishing equivalences and paradox, and a reflective space that feels physical. In it there can be a sense that eternity is palpable but not fixed and that peace can be strangely full of vitality. In some ways my work could be seen as beyond image, beyond surface, and beyond the material, yet manifesting all of these.
Micky Allan, 2003