(Detail from The Big Fish – a printed ceramic mosaic sculpture by John Kindness – 1999 Donegall Quay Belfast)

I find it endlessly fascinating to contemplate how we, as individuals, interpret the world. As a very small child I drew mermaids sitting on rocks, pointed out dolphins, turreted castles and tall ships in cloud formations and worried my mystified parents even further by finding witches and goblins in the abstract patterns of my bedroom curtains. Why do certain objects, scenes, themes, colours, shapes, textures and patterns, capture our imaginations and recur time and again (and sometimes years later) in our artistic output?