Mark Sheeky Artworks

About this painting

A Cheshire East Council commission as part of the Ly2 project for the Lyceum Square, Crewe. The brief demanded a specific colour palette and offered a choice of themes related to Crewe, including that it should complement the existing square artwork which was/is broadly geometric in design; involving circles, crosses, squares and other shapes.

The artwork on the square reminded me of noughts and crosses, and I come up with a series of noughts and crosses game-boards which increased in complexity. The process could continue for ever, growing and expanding, so the work is, on some level, about evolution, how one idea leads to another, then another, then another. The bee at the end is present because the hexagon shape emulates a honeycomb, but the bee is also a symbol of industry and energy; and nature, a link to biological evolution.

There is also a theme of logic vs. emotions, the geometric vs. the organic, the mechanical vs. nature. This is a common theme in my work. I don't tend to (and didn't here) think of the idea first. The images appear spontaneously, so my interpretations of what it's 'about' are not definitive. Like any artwork, the mural is about an overall feeling that can't exactly be put into words.