My collection of self-made A4 albums of drawing, writing, photographs and various personal paraphernalia accumulated over the years, naturally develops into a record of life events. This ‘diary’, together with what I see and feel, represents the start of the thing I call ‘art’. Through a process of imaginative reconstruction I can attempt to make sense of some of the stuff that’s happening around me.

So what is all this activity about? The quick and easy answer is that I don’t know, but it certainly reminds me that I’m alive and well. I can’t stop myself from doing it and the other option strikes me as a bleak and barren place and a rather frustrating end to the life I’ve always known.

The relationship between me and my wife is a recurring and unavoidable theme, albeit only implied on occasions. Much of my work is a creation of some sort of paradise or at least a place where two people are happy with each other. This ‘paradise’ can be based on my immediate surroundings or on places visited.

Although I have a background in sculpture, it is a sheet of paper that more often than not provides me with the freedom and space I need. Disparate sources can be collaged together, perspectives altered and any scale suggested without too much of a problem on a paper support. My world of anxieties and pleasures, for what it’s worth, can be hung out to dry on scraps of paper.

See my work on Instagram at garrod52