Thank You

Photo - Greg Lippiatt

Just a little note to say thank you to everyone who came (and who may still go) to my show. I tried my hardest to say hello to everyone, but was disappointed to still miss so many of you. I have been overwhelmed by the attention of the press and the steady stream of commissions coming my way. Who would have thought? Looks like I will be working hard over Christmas, but I do love a challenge...
I also hope to be doing a bit of what this little Crested tern is doing, only less on the rocks and more in the water.

nearly here...

Photography - Greg Lippiatt

I'm chewing my nails down to the quick. Who would have thought that an exhibition could bring about such an array of emotions? Here's the invitation for anyone who would like to squeeze in on opening night. Otherwise, make a meal of it and go to the restaurant as well.
Nervous, very nervous.

yay! a bower!

Went for an overnighter in Kangaroo Valley and very happily came across this. What a sexy pad. Offered him a couple of blue lids, a bit off a pen and a rubbery bracelet thing all of which he took happily and placed decoratively around his bower.
Spotted a number of birds including golden whistlers, lyrebirds, yellow robins, yellow-faced honeyeaters, olive backed orioles, noisy friarbirds (building nests), and millions of other little thornbills, scrubwrens and blue wrens, oh, and a whipbird. The lyrebirds that darted across the road on approach to the cabin didn't say much, but the one along the bush track that I couldn't see, chattered for ages, doing a very good job at pretending to be a kookaburra, golden whistler, whipbird, wattlebird and something that sounded a little like an air rifle.
Oh so happy to see a bower.

I stopped off at NG gallery this afternoon having had a mediocre surf at Maroubra. It was the last day of the "Sordid Tales of Chippendale" exhibition. I bought this gruesome piece. It's called Screaming Rat by Stephen Hall. It's actually four rats on top of each other. He just cried out to me. Arrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

scissor callous

As evidence for my working very hard on my exhibition (18th November 2008 NG Gallery Chippendale) I am posting here a photo of the little callous that has developed on my thumb as a result of cutting much plastic with scissors.

That was the man in the mission brown suit

For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to men in suits. Often, when I put pen to paper, little caricatures would emerge, always dressed in a suit and tie. It seems to be happening with my sculpture too. I begin with a vague idea of who I might construct, and if it's a guy, he always ends up suited, (this one was supposed to be naked.)
I read somewhere recently that people with red hair would eventually disappear. It turned out to be a furphy, but when I found the orange haystack that became his hair, I began to piece together who he was and what he represented.
He's a bit of a 70's guy. Sideburns, Dennis Lillee moustache and he's wearing the mission brown suit. He's fallen over (or was he pushed for being so outdated?) and is struggling to get back up. He looks scared, humiliated, alone. I feel a bit sorry for him, but he really is redundant.
Like the plastic he is constructed from, he is no longer necessary and has been cast aside, like his suit, his hair.
I am led to believe, and I could be the gullible recipient of a great story, that the colour "Mission Brown" so popular in the 1970's, but abhorred today, came about by the mixing of a number of tins of coloured paints that had been donated to a Christian mission looking to paint their mission buildings. I like the idea that his suit is the colour derived from this use of leftover, or waste resources. He's my kind of guy.

flowers for Pauline

Michael's mother Pauline is very ill in hospital and I wanted to send her some flowers...but It was a public holiday weekend, so I thought I'd pick her some from my garden and give them to Michael to give to her. Then I thought that, if I gave them to him, they might wilt in the car before he delivered them to her. Then, I realised, I could make her some flowers that would never wilt. He delivered them and I think she liked them. I hope she gets better soon.

The Naughty Violinist

Inspired by Fiona's goggle-eyed Santa tree-ornament (see 'Strange Fruit' blog) I present here for your Christmas joy, my Naughty Violinist, who, every year hangs in pride of place on our tree. Heh heh...he makes me smile. Cheeky thing...

plastic planet

If we chuck enough of this stuff away, I figure our world might end up looking a bit like this. When it does, it will be a mighty heavy weight on all our shoulders.
This piece (sans model) and many others, will be exhibited in "Fragile Planet" which opens on the 4th of December at NG art Gallery, Little Queen St, Chippendale.

"The exhibition 'Fragile Planet' explores the dichotomy between our human desire to save the planet and our addiction to consumption that threatens the very existence of earth."

A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the artwork will be donated to the Australian Conservation Foundation.

SXS

Photo: Greg Lippiatt

There is really not that much more satisfying for an artist than to see reactions to their creation. After all, we create works to stimulate a reaction. Sometimes the interpretation is something we didn't even consider or intend. Sometimes criticisms are made that offer valuable feedback for the next work. Sometimes people will dislike a work or it will speak to them in volumes. Sometimes they will walk right past it and not even notice it.
I am happy to say, that many of the people who saw my wreath liked it. It made them smile, and hopefully for some, made them think about the underlying message of waste and loss of precious resources. On the whole though, my aim is primarily to create something of beauty. For me, art is as much about beauty as it is about creating meaning without words.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to it by way of materials and encouragement.Without an audience, I would probably not perform.


Photo: Greg Lippiatt