Matthew Dolan Still life? Portraits of something I will never really see

My work challenges the conventions of self-portraiture and still life by drawing myself with my eyes closed and using the anatomy of the heart as a metaphor for the human soul. In traditional portraiture, the eyes are ‘windows to the soul’, as well as outward expressions of one’s individuality. I have drawn something that is essentially impossible to see, producing a work evoking a quiet and meditative quality from ‘silent’ white space and abstract designs echoed in the organic forms of the ceramic vessels, all influenced by the art of Miranda and Cézanne and the photorealistic portraits of Chuck Close.