Planned chance

Rules of the game (80cm x 100cm)

Doing a Masters in Fine Art (MFA) refines the focus on the theory behind your art. Previously I would have a sense of where a painting came from, but the MFA leads you to comprehensively examine the decisions you're making and reflect on where they come from.

One of the recurring themes has been the meeting point between careful planning and serendipitous chance - the balance between precisely placed marks and those that emerge unexpectedly through the paint. I can't help thinking it's good metaphor for the tools we use to navigate our lives. Rules and frameworks can be helpful, but all too frequently there is a mismatch between stark theory and the ambiguous messiness of reality.