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.
There’s no greater compliment for an artist to have someone recommend your work. It says they like your work. It says they like your work enough to share your work with other people. Is an art recommendation really that important? Yes. It’s not like recommending a sofa or a brand of milk. They like your work enough to stake their own integrity on your art. … Continue reading How do you do an art commission for a client 18,000 miles away?
I’ve just gone through the most excruciating gestation for an artwork that I’ve ever gone through. And I’m still not sure the experience is over yet. It started fairly straight-forward enough. The place I live now is in the Australian countryside, on a river surrounded by vast paddocks grazed by black cattle. Ever since I moved here ten years ago, every now and then I … Continue reading Art is dead. Long live art.
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?
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
There’s some things we keep going back to again and again as an artist. For me, it’s memories of my childhood. I can’t quite pin my finger on why, other than it’s formed who I am as an adult. I truly believe we carry our childhood all our lives and when we meet people as adults we still greet them as a child looking out from within our … Continue reading Letting the inner child loose
Often when I’m creating work it’s in an absolute frenzy. I’m slapping on glue and paper, getting bits stuck to my face, the hairs on my hands become stuck together like childish dreadlocks. Then, once I’m done, I’m done. I don’t touch the thing again. Last weekend though, I went back inside the studio after not being in there a couple of weeks – and … Continue reading Reworking old work is a great lesson in self-destruction #nohomo #art #collage
Ray Monde 