Emanating from the We become abstract series of paintings, the Cane cutters series explores explores Neuroqueer theory put forward by researcher Nick Walker. Neuroqueer theory draws from queer theory to focus on human behaviour that naturally goes against the grain.

I have been exploring intuitively an occurrence of the neuroqueer – the Cane Cutter paintings are a manifestation of the neuroqueer (depicting acts of behaviour that are seen as out of the ordinary) who see aspects of their culture subsumed by normative society – things done the wrong way around by polite society become adopted by the very people who ridicule them- the ‘dance’ of the cane cutters has morphed and mutated into something that is part of mainstream society. Over time these very large paintings have morphed from the obviously figurative to an abstract lean which in turn represents a conscious effort to take my painting from the neurotypical to a neurodiversity space that considers human experiences in an abstract form.