Curry is a self-taught artist who uses industrial tools to create whimsical, imaginative works of art. His independence from any training or obvious art influence resulted in an original approach to completing a canvas. A visit to his Ottawa studio reveals a surprising display of tools more suited to house construction than art making. Among them are plaster scrapers, electric sanders, scrub brushes, sandpaper, plastic webbing and raw burlap. Using these tools he applies pigments of muted blues, greens and grey in thick overlapping waves and then scrapes away or sands through the layers of paint, sometimes scrubbing canvases in the shower.

Throughout all this activity Curry keeps an eye out for the emergence of a small patch of something recognizable. Usually it’s a small portion of a human figure or creature. Once identified, Curry controls the painting by revealing more and more of the figure. The finished image is human or animal, or an otherworldly combination of both. Curry’s human and anthropomorphic creations emerge as if from the mists of time, ancient, wondrous and mystical, speaking to us the way children’s fairy tales and nursery rhymes have over the centuries.