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 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?
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
In a strange way, Michael Chamberlain is responsible for starting my life as an artist. It’s even stranger since we never met, I never sat in his classes or heard his voice fill a room. By chance, I saw Azaria’s baby bracelet in a display cabinet at the National Library of Australia and that simple object brought home the obscene tragedy of parents being charged … Continue reading Rest well Michael Chamberlain, you fought hard for justice
Sometimes I create an artwork that’s a little unloved. It gets turned around to face the studio wall and is kind of forgotten about. I recently came across this work ‘Who pushed Annette?’. When I was about 8 years old, my cousins visited our house from Sydney. My mum and dad were renovating our house. Six cousins were standing in the doorway looking into this … Continue reading Taking another look at forgotten works
There’s something truly audacious about creating a movie about Vincent Van Gogh that is animated in a painting style mimicking his own. It’s an endeavour that’s setting an incredibly high bar, it’s something that’s almost impossible to pull off, yet in my head I want nothing more than for it to succeed. The whole idea of seeing a world as imagined through the lens of … Continue reading Bringing Vincent Van Gogh back to life
In just an hour I set up my works for my new show, It’s for your own good. These works explore experiences from my childhood that inform who I am now. It’s extraordinarily handy having all the works the same size and so expertly framed, because it was a simple case of banging in a nail in the wall and hanging the works. You can … Continue reading Bumping in to M16 Artspace
In an new art exhibition, artist Monde Monde questions whether our childhood memories are real or concocted in the tangled-web of our consciousness. Continue reading Can you trust your childhood memories?
Ray Monde 