“This painting began with a simple proposition: sometimes I feel like a machine. It reflects on the physical toll of labour, the invisible work of everyday life, and the expectations we internalise until they become inseparable from who we are. My ageing, sore body becomes a site of vulnerability and persistence, where pain and joy coexist.
The image recalls people working the land, echoing my childhood in a rural town and my love of gardening, where care and physical labour are intertwined. Yet the title speaks less to machinery than to the relentless expectation to keep functioning without pause.
The painted image extends onto the frame, carrying the composition across its edges and suggesting it continues beyond the picture plane. The machine becomes a metaphor for the systems and expectations we encounter and internalise, shaping how we live, work, and understand ourselves.”
This work is not for sale.