You Shouldn’t Have. But you did.
Let’s play a game.
Look closely. Don’t rush.
Every object in every painting of this series means something it shouldn’t say aloud.
Knife Skills was the first clue: civility with a blade tucked underneath. Then comes Holy Sugar: Barbie and absinthe in pastel tones. If that combination doesn’t intrigue you, stop reading. You don’t belong here.
From there, the story keeps talking. Six paintings (perhaps seven) stitched together like evidence. Each one an act of control that eventually gives way to warmth, danger. Sometimes both.
The palette changes, the temperature rises, and the politeness starts to fracture.
Nothing here is accidental. The more you look, the more it confesses.
“Buy the ticket, take the ride.” — Hunter S. Thompson
Crop of
the final painting
in progress
Examine the Evidence:
Knife Skills (2025)
60 × 89 cm
oil on plexiglass
in private collection
Artist Note:
Politeness can be a form of control.
At first glance, it’s all civility. A well-behaved cup, a perfect pastel, the illusion of calm. But that stillness carries tension. The yoga pose on the china, the knife showing a shadow too sharp for the task, the cupcake dissected rather than eaten, they all speak the same language of restraint.
It’s what happens when beauty is used to keep people quiet.
Holy Sugar (2025), crop of in progress painting
60 × 89 cm
oil on plexiglass
Artist notes:
Pretty has a way of thinking it’s safe.
Here she floats, all sugar, smile, charm, and certainty. Not realising what the absinthe is for.
What looks like sweetness is really preservation: the moment before the dissolve.
Working title: Best Behaviour, painting nb 3
60 × 89 cm
oil on plexiglass
Artist notes:
It all had to break somewhere.
Here, restraint finally gives way. Whipped cream, plastic, chaos carefully staged.
What reads as excess is really precision: every spill deliberate, every laugh rehearsed.
It’s the moment the mask cracks, and somehow it’s beautiful.
No working title yet, painting number 4
60 × 89 cm
oil on plexiglass
Artist notes:
For the first time, the human shows up.
Until now, their presence was implied. In fingerprints, gestures, aftermaths.
Here, a hand appears, almost politely, holding something that refuses to explain itself.
It looks simple. It isn’t.
Painting nb 5: No working title yet
60 × 89 cm
oil on plexiglass
Artist notes:
After the chaos, what’s left behind?
The scene is clean again. Almost too clean. The warmth has returned, but it’s carrying a secret.
Everything’s been tidied, yet something still hums beneath the surface.
The party’s over. Is the performance?
Painting nb 6: No working title yet
60 × 89 cm
oil on plexiglass
Artist notes:
The lens pulls back.
The fragments fall into place, or so it seems.
What once felt intimate now reads as evidence. A room, a scene, a pattern revealed.
Whether it’s resolution or exposure depends on how long you can stand to look.