Mirror to my thoughts

Mirror to My Thoughts evolved from three dialogues. It was a sunny Wednesday afternoon
and, as I sat meditating my attack on my beloved Apple Crumble, Pete Cobb leaned to my
left and asked if I had considered a Doctorate. Naturally I was mildly perplexed at the
distraction, but in the same breath intrigued. Could it be simply the right place, the right
time? Some weeks earlier, Stanford University were in negotiations with me regarding a
visiting professorship for the fall which incorporated a retrospective exhibition curated by
Professor Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz. I did the calculations – dates, times, what was
required, but, more importantly, whether I was able to intellectually abridge 20 years of
practice into a single document that would come to fruition in the same season.
It seemed appropriate.
Some time after Pete Cobb's proposition, I sat in my studio and listed my entire life's work,
arranging it into major themes. It was at this point I began to see reflecting back at me
a concentrated, complex, thought-provoking resource that was honest and true. Works on
identity, perception and degrees of separation were just a few themes that were
referenced in a number of key works.
In 2009-10, I was blighted by graduate students sending email requests for images and
essays and the fact became clear that a lifetime of work flying solo had not been
misspent. Unearthing, compiling, cutting and soul-searching has enabled me to pen this
moment in my practice entitled Mirror to My Thoughts.

Documents/publications associated with this thesis are available for reference use in Docklands Library.