Art was my first love.

As a kid, cartoons were my world.

I’d draw whenever I could, free and unrestrained.

After studying art for many years in school and college, life pushed me into the kitchen, where creativity was confined by orders and timing.

When I started this collection, I was chasing that lost freedom.

I picked up the brush again after 20 years away and just started, no direction and no clear out come.

Eventually I managed to find my style again, bold solid colours and clean lines.

A nod to graffiti, street art and the cartoonists who inspired me when I was younger.

The paintings focus on cartoon characters’ hands, familiar yet different.

They have tattoos, gold watches, grown-up touches on childhood icons.

It’s a reminder that even those who grew up can hold onto their youth inside.

Finishing the largest piece, I felt it, a moment of pride.

“Wow. I did that.”

It wasn’t just painting.

It was a reclaiming of myself and the artist within me.

If there’s one thing I hope people take away, it’s this it’s,

Never grow up.

Keep your inner youth alive.

Because that child inside is where true freedom lives.