I’ve been thinking about these artworks for a long time. I think it’s an important story to tell. Having recently read David Marr’s biography of Patrick White, which has great sections on Australian artist Sidney Nolan who created the Fraser works, I decided that I just needed to take the first step and see what happens. So, what am I talking about? I’m talking about … Continue reading A most-difficult path.
Soon after visiting the Seattle Asian Art Museum, the world shut down as it succumbed to the novel corona virus. I found myself isolated in a strange city, needing to hunker down for an indefinite period of time. I thought a lot about the Chinese landscapes I saw in the museum and how the figures in the landscape were tiny specs, dwarfed by what was … Continue reading Danny Lacy and Ray Monde talk COVID art; National Works on Paper Prize
I’ve just left Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s ablaze with COVID-19. Home to the horn-wearing hoodlum who stormed the Capitol. Rocky desert, filled with thorns. Ringed by freeways. Now, I’ve hopped the border into California and am hunkering down in Palm Springs. The streets are empty, except for occasional middle-aged gays wearing matching tight shorts and bandanas around their necks. Nothing else. It’s warm here. A hot … Continue reading What’s going to happen to us in 2021?
With 1.6 million people dead from COVID-19, it’s hard to imagine how 2020 could be described as a year of wonders. I’ve borrowed the title from the incredible book of the same name by Geraldine Brooks. Inspired by the true story of Eyam, Year of Wonders evokes a village infected by the bubonic plague which shuts itself off from the world to reduce the spread of infection. … Continue reading Year of Wonders: 2020 in review
I’ve always liked writing letters and sending postcards. I think it is tied back to a trip my Nana and Fardy took to England when I was a child. I loved the postcards they sent home. I particularly loved the ones that were addressed just to me. Not my brothers, not my mum and dad, just to me. I’ve never forgotten how lovely it is … Continue reading Shine on! Sending handmade cards is like a hug from afar.
The Blake Prize is a religious art prize, a kind of a holy grail in art awards as it is known for really pushing the boundaries. So to be a finalist in the prize, which only comes around every two years, is just another extraordinary event in this bizarre, crazy year. Ray Monde: a finalist in the Blake Prize 2020 Here’s the official announcement from … Continue reading I’m a finalist in the Blake Prize 2020!
The exhibition After the Fires by Ray Monde opens at Purple Noon Gallery on the one-year anniversary of the devastating bushfires around Braidwood. Continue reading After the Fires opens at Purple Noon Gallery
Take a look at what kind of art that President Trump inspired and where we go next in a Biden Administration. Continue reading Is Trump the most inspiring President for artists?
Earlier in the year I created a sculptural work The Impossible Journey Home. When I found out it was a finalist in the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 2020, I thought “I’m going to make more of them!” The things about these works is they remind me of all the things I loved drawing as a kid. The funny little complex worlds where all these little … Continue reading Revisiting the small worlds in my head as kid.
When I was 12, my older brothers moved from the Burrell Creek in rural NSW to the Western Suburbs of Sydney to live and work, eventually settling in South Wentworthville. As a country kid, I thought Parramatta Westfield was the Sydney’s CBD. I thought Sydney was Parramatta. So Parramatta and Blacktown for me were glimpses into a wider world. A world that wasn’t focused on … Continue reading Ray Monde: finalist in the Blacktown Art Prize 2020
