March and April are a bit of a frenzied time, lots of arts grants have their deadlines this time of year. That takes a lot of preparation. Plus, the big hitting art prizes in Australia; the Sulman, Archibald and Wynne prizes all close this week. The Archibald alone awards $75,000. I’ve sweated out an entry for the Wynne Landscape Prize, you can check it out … Continue reading Ugly Beauty
I enterted the Saatchi Online collage showdown last month. It’s a great opportunity to showcase your work and even get a chance to show in Saatchi Gallery in London. Great stuff. The old voting system was a ‘hot or not’ style voting where you were paired with another piece of work and the viewer voted on the one they liked the most. Thankfully, they’ve changed … Continue reading They’ve changed the rules: Saatchi Showdown
I woke up this morning and pulled the sheet over my head. The dog had been barking all night at wombats. My first solo exhibition space had fallen through yesterday. And I was wondering if I should suck it up go back to my ‘day job’ and forget this art goose-chase. A very good friend and my partner said it’s not too late to find … Continue reading Sometimes, when you need it most, something magical happens
I’m really happy that Kelly Susan won the Saatchi Online Collage Showdown. I was concerned when I was looking at the entries that there seemed to be many entries that bore little resemblance to collage. I think her works are striking and deserve a win. It’s hard though to judge someone’s work from a single piece and I think many artists would have suffered from … Continue reading Congratulations to Kelly Susan; Collage Showdown winner
As you know, I’ve been working on this series of collages about the death of Azaria Chamberlain at Uluru in 1980. This car collage is the last in the series. It’s a 1977 Torana Hatchback, but interestingly, the eldest son Aidan (who I depicted earlier eating a can of baked beans) was married in this car in 2008. I guess it was a way of … Continue reading Married in the car my sister was murdered in
I’ve been working on this collage series for months now. I have a firm deadline as there’s about to be a Fourth and final inquest, on February 24, into the death of the baby girl, Azaria; a case that has lingered on for over 30 years. I thought this piece was going to be the best yet, but something went awry in the creative process. … Continue reading Picasso vomit on a bad day
Like many artists, I need to do other things to support myself. Before committing myself to collage, I used to work in advertising, most recently at Belgiovane Williams and Mackay. Now I have a little outfit where I run The Wood Agency; where I create campaigns, write and bake baked goods. My commute is normally about 10 paces but, today, a meeting in Sydney means … Continue reading The sacrifices artists need to make
Today, the latest edition of GQ Australia arrived in the post. That’s not the strange thing. I don’t remember subscribing but that’s not the strange thing either. The weird thing is that as I was flipping through the pages I realised that I wasn’t looking at the articles or the ads. I was looking at the colours and textures of the pages. I was thinking; … Continue reading A strange thing happened to me today
This collage is very different in style to my other collages so far, I’m trying to use the way I tear and cut the paper to create texture. In this way, this baby’s jacket is reminiscent of the knitted original. The keys and the angel wings are all about freedom, as ultimately the discovery of Azaria Chamberlain’s matinee jacket in a dingo lair was all … Continue reading Collage: Matinee release
After Azaria Chamberlain was taken by a dingo, Aboriginal trackers traced dingo footprints in the sand that was carrying a large bundle. There were clear imprints of knitted clothing where a dingo had rested a large bundle. This testimony was inadmissible as the man giving evidence spoke on behalf of his wife, but in first person, which was the local way. This collage is of … Continue reading Back tracked, collage of Aboriginal tracker
Ray Monde 