The genesis of every idea I’ve ever had neither springs from thin air nor emerges fully formed. Instead, I believe ideas fragment in the depths of the subconscious and are then amplified, aggregated, and appended; often during mind‑numbing activities like cycling or running. It is there, as the echoes of memories, experiences, and journeys travelled accumulate, that the source of today’s work takes shape.

This pixelated portrait of an Indian woman began life as a photograph I took in Gandevi, a small rural community a few hours train ride north of Mumbai in India

In 2016, I journeyed across Pakistan, crossed the Wagah border, and traveled south to the sun‑drenched Kerala coast before returning north for a university friend’s wedding in Gandevi. Far from familiar Christmas traditions, I found myself wandering through bustling markets on December 25th, surrounded not by snow or Santa but by vibrant bolts of hand‑woven fabric. Among the traders was the woman whose shawl billowed in every hue imaginable—an image that stayed with me long after I left.

Back home, I translated that photograph into code in a project we called PIXEL FACES, breaking it into thousands of tiny squares to echo the pixel’s language. By deconstructing the face into discrete blocks of colour, the work mirrors memories themselves: partial, fragmented, yet unmistakably whole. This piece invites viewers to connect those fragments, tracing the hidden threads of inspiration that link a moment in an Indian market to the abstract geometry of the digital canvas.