My painting is titled ‘This Is The Day’ after the song from The The’s album ‘Soul Mining’ from 1983. I listened to this album a lot when I first went to art college in 1984 and whenever I hear it now it transports me back to that time. Synthesized
music was often then considered to be too manufactured or unreal but for me it carries so much emotion from those days of my younger self.

The young female subject in my painting can dream big while imagining the future and indulge in moodiness as the world is open to her! I want to try to remind myself and keep that youthful sense of ‘anything is possible’. The lyrics of this song capture
that mood perfectly:

‘You smile and think how much you’ve changed. All the money in the world couldn’t buy back those days’‘When you’re left alone with your memories that hold your life together like glue’. Chorus: ‘This is the day, your life will surely change, ‘This is the day, when things fall into place’.

The words of this song and others on the album were poignant to me in 1984 but resonate even more for me now after some years have passed. Music was probably most important to me in the 1980s and I always listen to it when I am painting. I am
a product of art school in the 80s and I see a correlation between the music from that era and my own works now.

‘Soul Mining’ takes me back to the excitement and sense of freedom of being an art student! Over the years I have naturally had some big losses but listening to certain music and making art bring back the magic for me.