MICHAEL
MICHAEL FORREST
INFORMATION

What happens when a trained graphic designer, who’s main influences range from T-shirt and skateboard graphics to cartoons and pop art/culture, finds that one direction isn’t enough? I feel that life has shaped the progression of my creativity, through never really fitting in to a graphic design world, I enjoy the playfulness of illustration and am overwhelmed by the effect of powerful paintings and sculpture. Despite this, my work displays the influences of my graphic design background but also encompasses all experiences and interests to create work that is bold and commanding with the intent to excite and intrigue.

It is in the natural world that I draw my greatest inspiration intending with every creation to explore the shape, pattern and colour in a contemporary graphic nature.

By focusing on the effect that an image can have, I often produce large scale work. Vinyl and oil based paints allow me to achieve large flat areas of colour and explore surface texture with matt and gloss finishes to illustrate the desired form in a subtle fashion. This adds an imposing quality to create feelings of unease, a sense of the unusual in the usual. At times dark, at times fun, I always intend my work to be beautiful and striking.

This desire for surface perfection has led on to vitreous enamel. Innately industrial and factory based in production, the medium exudes surface quality and has opened up a whole new dimension to my work. The processes are wonderfully controllable yet at the same time equally uncontrollable. Enamel as with paint can be built up with layers, but also allows you to search beneath, to draw into the unfired canvas and expose the materials illustrative quality. The process is not complete without fire, a raw power that fuses the creation in a balance of industry and art.

It is this capture that encompasses my work. As a photograph can capture an image, my aim is to enhance the beauty and power of the subject, to expose and champion the character through a direction rooted with design and alive with illustration.

ARTIST STATEMENT
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