This painting shows a man presenting his possessions. To us, they are meaningless shapes; two sticks and five blobs, but the patterns inside indicate the detail that he sees. To him, these objects have meaning; they are important. The figure is depicted in the same way; he contains much detail that links him to his possessions. The detail in his case reflects his internal structure.

I think I wanted to suggest the idea that things only have meaning in their relationships to other things, including people.

Also, I wanted to give another view to the 'things you own end up owning you' perspective that anti-establishment types such as myself often advocate. Certainly people tend to attach too much importance to the acquisition of wealth and property, but in many cases, the material things a person owns and values indicates a lot about the person. There is an important link there; in attaching meaning to objects, a person is expressing something about themselves.

This painting won the Pinder Prize at the 2006 Great Sheffield Art Show.