Crowded Solitude

60 X 30cm

Crowded Solitude explores the feeling of being completely surrounded by people while simultaneously feeling profoundly alone. In crowded spaces on buses, in workplaces, on city streets, or in public places we exist physically alongside hundreds of people, each carrying their own stories, emotions, struggles and dreams. Yet we often remain disconnected from one another.

The figures in the painting represent the different lives and emotions that exist within a shared space. Each person is close enough to touch, yet psychologically separated by their own thoughts and experiences.

At the centre, Pinocchio appears as a puppet, representing the way we can become puppets to the modern world controlled by routines, expectations, technology, social judgement and our fear of "what if?" We can become so focused on controlling our own lives, or worrying about how others perceive us, that we fail to recognise the humanity surrounding us.

The work is ultimately about sonder the realisation that every person we pass is living a life just as complex, emotional and meaningful as our own. The painting asks whether, despite how disconnected modern life can make us feel, we might still be able to recognise the light, stories and humanity in the people around us.

Crowded Solitude is therefore both about loneliness and connection: how we can be surrounded by people and still feel alone, but also how much potential there is for connection when we remember that everyone around us is carrying a world of their own.