My interpretation of Michael Jackson’s ‘Moonwalker’ created using my
smoke-filled silhouette style of working. My 2016 piece ‘Policemen & Pirates’ (Peter Pan) touched on the downfall of the ‘King of Pop’ and the controversy that engulfed him so for this piece I wanted to throw everything into depicting him in a way that epitomised his mastery of choreography and iconic stature.

This piece is 100% good and positive, allowing him to shine and command the canvas as he did the floor. A constant stream of his classic albums whilst creating ‘Moonwalker’ such as ‘Thriller’ and ‘Bad’ certainly brought back good memories listening to them as a kid, interestingly though listening to the tracks as an adult with a genuine love for music the mastery of Michaels’ work was so much audible.

This piece interprets the iconic stance from the film, placing him in the smoke-filled bar that threw out so much great colour and light and draws all of that together to form his body to once again light up the room, whether you choose to see it as simply a cool depiction of Michael or his ghost is up to you but I wanted to further expand on the style that I am working closely with and take details that are used to construct pieces such as ‘BALBOA’, ’Teach You I Will’ and ‘Love Will Find A Way’ and utilise them in a way that delivers a seriously cool piece of art that can simply be enjoyed and identified with.

The level of detail is pretty insane close up but comes together to work well when reduced down so as to grab your attention, I have included some zoomed in detail in this email. This piece has been created to showcase the potential and possibilities of expanding on music icons in this style that sees the detail and intensity adjust depending on the subject and their characteristics that are shown. I wanted to create a subtle sense of movement here to show that Michael has just moved into the pose you see him in, so a fluid drag of the leg or raise of the arm is portrayed in the intricate detail that radiates from the figure.

When you throw yourself into creating a piece like this and surround yourself with that persons’ work even though the piece keeps the dark out you cant help but feel sad to see how that star has fallen which I feel contributes to the power of the image. Ultimately my aspiration with this piece was to create something that was different to what exists by other artists and to avoid being ring fenced as just another icon that people would buy because of their love for that character, I wanted to do something genuine from one artist to another.

The original film plot and my concept are all about hope and freedom through courage and faith, to embrace the smallest of things to find happiness and to rebel against restriction. The underlying concept in this piece is one that embraces all of this and shines light on a person’s hope that someone that they know and love can find freedom after restriction, be it in this life or their next. The title of the piece ‘You’ll Sing Once More’ is one that is like a silent statement that you would say that that person, one that you convey to them without the need for saying anything at all.

When this sentiment is conveyed I feel that it elevates this piece to a much higher state as the character in view takes on something so special to so many. I set about with the aim that this sense of freedom could touch many and in a number of ways, it can simply evoke that great feeling you get from being completely absorbed in music and free from reality, something that I embrace and need whilst creating my artworks.  

This piece is an abstract take on the iconic Salzburg countryside with its mountainous backdrop and dandelion covered grasses, a number of textures have been created and integrated to form an engaging backdrop that has a painted quality to it that is full of movement and light. As with other pieces that I have created I have depicted the lead character as a spirit-like silhouette that is formed by sweeping lines that symbolise the staves from a line of music along with music notes and bokeh whilst subtle areas of the body have been blurred to give off the sense of movement and ultimately freedom.

In line with this sense of setting a spirit set free I wanted to portray time passing so rather than show the classic yellow dandelion flowers I have moved the season on to show them in their white seed headed state where they are taken up with the wind into the sky and interacting with the character.

This I hope strengthens this lovely sense of being free, the soul being released from the body and taken up to create something new and beautiful, maybe something that can only be seen just for that split second when the sunlight breaks through. A further reflection of this wonderful sense of freedom and flight is shown through the subtle butterflies that are attracted to the figure and to the freedom and good that radiates from it.