A hillside with dry grass, rocks, and green bushes, with a stone wall running diagonally across the slope.
Abstract painting with yellow swirling shapes on a dark background.
A colorful painting of yellow flowers in a blue vase against a red-orange background.
Abstract painting of geometric shapes in red, brown, black, and white, with a yellow background.
Painted symmetrical abstract design featuring two pumpkin faces with eyes and curly patterns, framed with a wooden border.

Dod i Weld

2025

Dod i Weld (Coming to See) is the opening chapter of my conscious exploration into Welsh identity and heritage. This body of work emerges from a personal journey of learning Cymraeg and the questions that arose along the way. Questions about why certain cultural elements felt unfamiliar and how seeing identity, both nationally and individually, as fixed can limit our perceptions.

Each piece in this series serves as a tool for examining these thoughts. Rather than simply accepting such concepts as unchanging, Dod i Weld is about re-examining and reflecting on how the symbols and narratives we inherit continue to shape our understanding of who we are.

A framed artwork of a pumpkin with a face, featuring two large eyes and curly lines for the mouth, designed in a whimsical style.

Janus

Representing the Greek god of transitions and duality as a butterfly, one wing reflects the past, the other looks to the future, while the body remains anchored in the present. Through this form we perceive, shaping our understanding of who we are.

Abstract painting of a stylized figure with a rounded top and curved limbs, in shades of red, brown, and black, with a white elongated element and a white flower-like shape against an orange background.

Strings in Flight

Exploring the idea of creativity as a journey toward self-discovery, Strings in Flight depicts a figure in song. The white strings merge into a butterfly at guitar’s end echoing the themes of Janus. Here it is stated that through the act of making, we gain access to ourselves and our influences.

A colorful painting of a vase with yellow flowers and green stems, set against a red-orange background.

Shape of a Nation

Shape of a Nation presents a vase of daffodils, with each flower pulled toward abstraction. As their familiar shapes blur and transform, the painting asks where the essence of a symbol truly lies. At what point does a daffodil, iconic in Welsh culture, cease to be recognisable as Welsh and at what point does it remain inherently connected to that identity?

This piece explores identity not as a fixed binary system but as a spectrum. It suggests that cultural symbols, like the daffodil, can be stretched and reimagined while still inviting us to reflect on what Welshness means. By moving away from literal representation, the painting encourages the consideration of identity as something that can be both familiar and open to reinterpretation.

A landscape with grassy hills, scattered rocks, and a dry stone wall running across the terrain.

On Both Sides

A stone wall slicing through a coastal cliff landscape, it’s location deliberately withheld. Built from the very stones that have fallen from the cliff itself, the wall stands as a symbol of a boundary that is, in essence, arbitrary. This division is an idea, one that doesn’t reflect any inherent difference in the land or in people. It’s a gentle reminder that ‘othering’ is often a figment of our imagination, a line drawn where none truly exists.

Abstract painting of intertwining yellow shapes with dark background, reflecting on a surface.

Untitled

Untitled began as an intentional attempt to create a form that couldn’t be understood. After failing in a way, the undefined shape came to be seen as a container, reflecting on the unknown and the consistency of change. Rather than offering answers, the work sits in a space of uncertainty. It asks what it means to exist without definition and whether identity, like form, can remain fluid.

Feel free to pause and reflect on your own evolving perceptions and context, to consider that meaning isn’t fixed and perhaps that the act of not knowing is in part where the truth quietly resides.