BILLY
BAGILHOLE
My making process seems to change a lot. I go through phases, it’s like shedding skin. I often think of it as the same process as a method actor would go through. You fully immerse and bury yourself into a body of work and as soon as it’s over it's time to digest and move on.
“Throughout my life I’ve collected small objects that hold some sort of special place for me. It can be a matchbox, a small badge or, in the most recent case, a small pack of French dynamite sticks that my father had left behind after he passed away.
These objects hold their own individual stories and they feel like they serve some sort of purpose in my storytelling and in my life - this is how I like to think of the paintings for the viewer: something you can grasp and hold onto and it stays with you.”
In the latest body of work I tried to not use any preconceived ideas or imagery. I’d usually try and make some marks upon the canvas and then follow the paint from there on. It feels more like an honest approach to painting. For example at any minute I could spot a dog or a face or some form of imagery popping out of the paint, then it makes itself clear after some more painting, and then I spot a few new faces or a tree or a moon, etc. Then, before you know it, a story of its own makes its way onto the canvas. There’s something about working directly from the gut and the subconscious that allows more openness and a mystique to flow through the narrative. At the moment that’s what I love exploring.
I often create with the pure intention of telling some form of story so each painting becomes its own individual story. I often encourage viewers to form their own stories from my work. I hope the elements that I put into the paintings are relatable to a large variety of people, whether it be elements of trauma, boredom, humour or moments of joy. In that sense I’d like to see my paintings as objects the owner can find a sense of belonging in.
For the last series of work I created I tried to completely work from the subconscious, it resulted in the work feeling dreamy and lethargic. In the past I’ve often worked from my own archive of saved imagery from online forums and taken from old photography books. Something I’ve recently been doing is using cutouts from a book of photographs taken of the talkies era of cinema gifted to me by my flatmates. I collage small cutouts from the book of these actors in various poses onto the subconsciously created paintings to create some form of contrasting narrative or to sometimes compliment the image in some way. I think it adds an extra element to the story of each piece.