What makes a great work of art? How do you separate the best from the base? What makes an artwork worth $110.5 million such as a recent piece sold by the artist Basquiat? And what work is worthless? This question was brought into sharp focus at this year’s Archibald Prize when Mitch Cairns portrait of his wife took out the $100,000 prize. Other well-known artists … Continue reading What makes a great work of art?
It’s rare to get up in the face of artists. See their work. Hear first hand what their work is all about. When you’re at exhibition openings in galleries, it’s sometimes hard to know who the artist is, let alone get a chance to speak with them and dive into their mind. Yet this is exactly what happen at The Other Art Fair (TOAF). When it was … Continue reading This is what happens when artists collide at The Other Art Fair Melbourne
I play silly mind games with myself. I always have since I was a kid. Last year, before The Other Art Fair Sydney, as I undressed to get into bed, I threw my clothes towards the dirty clothes basket and thought “If I get them in, I’ll sell one of my pieces”. My clothes didn’t make it into the basket. Not a sock. You can … Continue reading Gearing up for The Other Art Fair Melbourne
I’m going to say it right now, I love Dan Kyle. He’s a young guy, living in the mountains taking an obsessive look at the Australian bush around him. To be honest, it’s not the man I love, it’s the artist. He paints trees again and again and again. The pale trunks of eucalyptus trees like ghosts stalking the landscape. They’re silent witness to what’s … Continue reading Is Dan Kyle the next Arthur Boyd?
I love now. I love this moment. I love the start of something new. This week I started a new series. A series exploring childhood experiences – one more time – but this time it’s going to be better. It’s going to be better because the more I think about my childhood, the more my memories become clearer and the more I uncover long forgotten … Continue reading What happens next?
Getting a commission is an exciting prospect, being asked to create a bespoke artwork for a benefactor is exhilarating. But it’s also a strange burden. Normally, when I create artworks, it flows, it’s a representation of what in my mind, a story I’m trying to tell, a feeling I’m trying to conjure up. With a commission, it’s not so straight forward. There’s a bit of … Continue reading Walking the tight-rope of an art commission
The phrase ‘It’s a small world’ is being given a whole new meaning with Donald Trump in the White House. Instead of standing as a beacon on the hill, Trump is taking us down into a winding valley, where we can’t see too far ahead. Where we don’t know what’s around the corner. And he’s walling off the valley, so it’s hard to reach out … Continue reading Is Trump the greatest president of all time?
I’ve often spoken of the serendipity of creativity – how our heads suck in every thing we experience – sights, sounds, tastes, colours, moments and jumbles them up to create something new. Last year, I stopped over in Japan on the way back to Australia for a couple of days to break up the 26 hour flight and it was there I saw wood block … Continue reading What happens when you cross Japan with Australia?
Here’s the thing – getting a commission from someone is always a little bit tricksy. You go from doing whatever you like, whatever is in your head, to creating something for a specific person with specific tastes for a specific environment. Even though many benefactors will say ‘Do whatever you like!”, you can’t not be influenced by them. You want them to like what you … Continue reading Finding your twin is not easy
Having worked as a creative in the advertising industry for 20 years, it was always a bit of a mystery where the creative idea came from. I remember my 16 year old nephew doing work experience with me and he went home after a week to tell his father that for a job I drank coffee, went for walks, sat around and talked and read … Continue reading The serendipitious nature of art inspiration
Ray Monde 