Adam – Before We Die. Oil on canvas. 46x60cm

Our good friend, Adam O Donovan, approached me early in 2025 to paint a cover for his upcoming album release under his musical project "M'Adam". This was such an enjoyable collaborative process, learning about Adam's intentions behind the music and putting a visual structure on that. These are process shots over 2 weeks of frenetic painting to paint @madammusiccork's album cover.

Adam told me the album concept is that we are all ghosts, we are all passing through life and we will be gone for so much longer than we have been here. A thought that I find oddly comforting. We had the idea of doing a sort of death mask for the cover. As I mostly paint faces and foliage, Adam did a photo shoot with @corkerycaptures It was a huge help to work from such a gorgeous, high quality photo. It normally takes me months and sometimes years to finish a painting, I really enjoyed the time pressure for this and the hyper-focus that came with that.

From Adam - "The following album started as an EP and in the end formed into a feeling about the people we have lost, the grief that comes from loss, the connection we have with people when they are no longer with us, and the struggle and existential existence we seem to have in the face of the greatest challenges of our time. The hope is that love will endure and people will appreciate what they have in front of them and remember that those that we have lost are still there entangled with us where time is non-linear, where we experience a life of birth and death simultaneously."