Simulacrum is one of the rarest archival works available in my collection and belongs to a small body of foundational paintings that would eventually lead to the work I create today.

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This period, which I often think of as my "black and white era", was one of experimentation and discovery. I intentionally stripped away much of the colour from my paintings in order to focus on other elements that felt more important at the time: shape, form, texture, atmosphere, and light.

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I was trying to bring to life a vision I had experienced in 2014 of my future work. It wasn't fully formed, but I could sense its essence. I knew I wanted to create paintings that felt ethereal, surreal, beautiful, and luminous, even if I hadn't yet discovered exactly how to achieve it.

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Looking back, Simulacrum captures that period of searching. It belongs to a chapter of my practice where intuition often arrived before understanding, and where each painting felt like a step towards something I could see but not yet fully reach.