I started this series almost on a whim. Experiences as children sharply determine who we will be as adults. As we mature, we become better at masking those childhood emotions, we build a stronger exterior to smooth the bumpy ride, but underneath, within us all, is still the little boy or girl, never quite believing where we are and what we’re doing. Continue reading Dry your tears: the child within us #art #collage
I have been having crazy catfish dreams. Literally, I dreamed giant man-sized catfish were swimming the river near our house. The night after, weird pie-faced shape-shifting clowns were chasing me down. And last night, even stranger things too unsettling to speak of. All these dreams have coincided with a burst of creativity and a completely new direction for my art that I hadn’t anticipated at … Continue reading Out of nowhere, something new in #art
There’s effectively just three works in Cai Guo-Qiang’s exhibition at Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). If you know that, you’ll be enthralled, amazed, overwhelmed. I was left with the feeling of “Is that it?”. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love this gallery, I love their focus on works from the giant neighbours to Australia’s north. And I was thrilled by Cai Guo-Qiang‘s thoughtful … Continue reading Steep price for monumental works: Cai Guo-Qiang, Falling Back to Earth
Art for art’s sake is a beautiful idea – but artists have to eat. Few of us have generous benefactors to lavish funds upon us, so a sale means we can keep going. Selling work means we can buy new art supplies, sales mean we can secure a space in a studio or artist-run-initiative (ARI) and sales mean we can keep doing what we love. … Continue reading SOLD, SOLD. Why sales validate artists.
This is a new beginning. Sometimes the best thing to do is just start. Put marks on paper, scratch around and create something. My next series is a series of mixed media portraits created in association with Vine videos, little six second snippets of video. I love the brevity of it and turning that brevity into a work on canvas. Tragically, I lost my earlier … Continue reading Six seconds of fame, post pop portraits
Discovering Alex Katz collages was a real revelation for me. I thought all his works were these unique portraits where he captured this strong disembodiment, like animated mannequins, so strange and other worldly. Then there’s these amazing collages, where he uses a wash to create backgrounds and colours and creates the most evocative images from the simplest shapes. I love the simplicity of it all … Continue reading Alex Katz cuts it
Sometimes something happens that afterwards you can’t believe was real. Once I saw a man running naked down George Street in Sydney in morning rush hour before disappearing into trees in Hyde Park. Afterwards, I wasn’t sure whether I’d actually seen him as no-one reacted. Last weekend a similar thing happened to me in Castlemaine, a little town of about 8000 people north of Melbourne, … Continue reading Sleepwalking into art at Castlemaine Gallery
Saatchi Online is an enormous gallery that anyone in the world can step into and wander among hundreds of thousands of artworks by artists all around the world. I love the idea but it can be overwhelming, knowing where to start and how to find good artwork. That’s why it’s great when pieces are curated it’s a great way to see solid works in a … Continue reading Inspired by Picasso, an online exhibition curated by Rebecca Wilson
The Blake Prize is kooky. It’s essentially an art prize for works with a religious bent but its parameters are very, very broad. This year’s shortlist includes two men masturbating framed by poo and a convoy of military vehicles with Jesus as the driver/cargo. I love how the judges have the balls to show some gruesome imagery and there’s a glorious mix of emerging … Continue reading Pictures framed with poo and other spiritual experiences: Blake Prize
Part of the reason I create collage is because it’s cheap. I tear up old magazines to create images and use boxboard as my canvas. It’s rudimentary, but effective. I’m lucky that paper is in love with glue and glue is head-over-heels about paper. As I move more towards assemblage and mixed media, I need to pick up a brush and paint, so of course, … Continue reading When scrimping and penny-pinching are the artist’s enemies
Ray Monde 