What you can do to help artists during COVID-19. Everyone is meeting their friends for drinks online. From our dining chairs in Seattle we look across the table through our laptop to our friends at the other side of the table in Summer Hill. We’re all drinking white negronis and it’s beautiful. Two hours in a heartbeat. People are working online, making startling discoveries about … Continue reading The show must go on. Online.
Art in a time of coronavirus. For me, the strangest thing about living the COVID-19 pandemic is how normal things take on a strange tilt. Thinking about heading to the supermarket, I say “Let’s wait and see how many deaths there are today before we go.” Everything normal is slightly askew, awry. Last week, the supermarket wouldn’t touch the bags we brought. No surprises there. … Continue reading Let’s wait and see how many deaths there are today before we go to the supermarket.
What the Australian bushfires taught me about making decisions in a time of coronavirus (COVID-19). I’m one of those people that likes to be prepared. I check the exits on a airplane. I feel under my seat to make sure there’s a life jacket there. So when the mountains burst into flames behind my house in November 2019, I planned to leave. I love my … Continue reading Too late to leave. Stay in place.
Sometimes art goes bad. Look at her face. The horror. This is not intentional. I wasn’t trying to create an image of a women who had been burnt in an accident. Or a woman trapped in a disfiguring face mask. I was trying to create a woman with attitude, cigarette in hand, giving the viewer a withering glance. I didn’t have the right colour papers … Continue reading What to do when things go horribly wrong (in art)
Studio space in Seattle is really hard to come by. I was fortunate that Clare Johnson had landed a residency and would be out of the state for three months. She was looking for someone to look after her space in 57 Biscayne and I was keen to look after it. We hit it off and is kindly letting me work in this beautiful space. … Continue reading Found a studio at 57 Biscayne – a room of one’s own
Taking risks sometimes pays dividends. The risk is worth the reward. Other times, they fail terribly. Like at my high school dance. Important lessons from risk-taking The school dance is beach themed. I thought it would be a good idea to make breasts out of coconuts and pink socks, wrap myself in a hibiscus tablecloth and apply red lipstick. I remember looking at myself in … Continue reading Suburban LA life for The Other Art Fair
It’s early January and I am standing in the gentle rain outside Blick’s. There’s a man in a glitter top hat reeling off tunes to passing cars. This is new to me. The whole city is new to me and the rain is a joy on my head. I haven’t seen or felt it for over three months. Australia is on fire. It’s burnt an … Continue reading Looking for a studio in Seattle
Last Friday night, I picked mum and dad up at the Goulburn South Caravan Park and drove them to the Goulburn Workers Club for a quick drink. We settled into a fancy booth that looked out across Auburn Street, where locals were doing mainies. As I came back from the bar with a tray of drinks, my partner’s wildly gesticulating arms collected with the tray, I overcorrected and the drinks flooded … Continue reading What does it mean for an artist to show in a public art gallery?
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?
Ray Monde 