Word of the month

Allelopathy - meaning the ability of a plant to alter the environment surrounding it to nurture or to poison. I'm thinking of appropriating this idea - to describe the influence of individuals and ideas - "social allelopathy".

2D Water Colour

Of all the bird paintings I have done Owls are the most popular. This is my favourite. See Bang Art for more.

Time with Ann Robinson

During term break in July 2009 I flew to Auckland NZ to work for two weeks with Ann Robinson. It was an awesome experience and I highly recommend it. Ann is world renowned for her large scale casting work. Under Ann’s tutelage I gained technical and practical experience in all aspects of the glass casting process but it was observing Ann’s approach to her work that was most groundbreaking for me. This picture is of me cold working one of Ann's vessels.

Understanding the physics -An interest in why and how things work fosters innovation

One example of this in Ann’s work is her mould making recipe. It utilizes the logic of particle physics where a combination of different sized particles will form the strongest structure and produce the densest surface. This enables the production of a mould that is both strong and accurate in replicating the surface of the wax positive.

The scientific approach - observation and recording for flexibility and continuous learning

The kiln programs for ramping up and annealing have been formulated based on research done by Corning Glass scientists, adapted for Gaffer glass, and adjusted for the style of vessel being made. In addition they have been tested many times. However observation and recording remains an integral part of the kiln use process.

The design - practicality

Repetition of shapes or the exploration and development of one idea may require the production of a number of similar shaped casts. Ann works with a selection of blank shapes that she knows she can cast effectively. Each design is made individual by addition of texture, decoration or removal of the smooth wax surface. Moreover designs can be altered to be more efficient to produce. Thinking about design in this practical way could mean the difference between a marginal and a successful practice and would certainly have an impact on environmental sustainability.

Collaboration - the give and take of seeking out expertise and influencing others

In addition to her own experimentation Ann has sought the expertise of scientists, technicians and artisans working with glass, metal and stone in order to refine her processes and improve the materials she uses. Her relationship with Gaffer glass, Corning, and other glass artists have contributed to the look, quality and economy of her output. Her sharing of her knowledge with others has contributed to the work of many glass casters. Looking for solutions in a variety of places and sharing knowledge has enriched Ann’s work and she has influenced may others.

3D - carving

Male Torso

limestone

2009

500mm height

This Australian limestone is soft and easy to hand carve. It is sumptuous - the colour and texture of powdered milk. Though it is an "inside" statue it is sealed so that it doesn't shed crumbs of stone. It depicts a languid stretching motion. The inspiration was a picture of a classical greek torso. This work reduced the massive Greek chest and stylized the musculature while retaining the sense of stretching in muscle.

Female Torso

sandstone

2007

600mm height

White Sydney sandstone was used to create this female torso. This stone's texture is consistent without any indication of the stratification process that created it. The stone is so hard that it required an angle grinder to cut away the majority of it. The remaining work was hand finished. She is stylized to emphasize the folding of one curve of flesh into another. Anonymous, she stands guard at the front entrance of my home.

Both torsos were an exploration of form particularly in creating a sense of mutability of flesh in a material that is inelastic. When carving I imagine the shape is already complete within the stone and I am releasing it ... as one would release an object from a mould.

I have purchased a small wedge of white marble that I have not yet had the vision to begin working on.

3D - construction

Driftwood Animals:

Snowflake

wood, seagrass, felt

2008

1200mm heigh x 800mm long

Beach combing provided the basic materials for a number of constructed animals. The bleached soft grey wood is smooth having been stripped of bark. What began as idle collecting turned into frenzied scouring to find suitable pieces. NOT EASY TO FIND. Many pieces were too frail and broke as they were being attached, or were half burned before I got to them. However, I got hooked and have now made 3 - a dog, a horse and a wallaby. They are following in the tradition of "Arte povera" (a style of art that began in Italy between the wars and was revived in Australia in the late 1960's).

3D - glass

Death by Water

silk screened enamels, fused plate glass

2009

450mm x 300mm x 40mm

When creating the Sistine chapel ceiling (depicting the creation of the world and the fall and punishment of man) Michelangelo made many preparatory sketches. These were often fragments of figures - an arm or a hand, which he would use several times over.1 In this work sketches of Haman (the hanged man)were appropriated and redrawn into a complete upper torso. This image has been transferred from a silk screen to 5 layers of glass. Additional layers of glass were

inserted between these to create a 3 dimensional impression whereby the figure appears suspended in

water.

In this way the (crucified) hanged man in classical art becomes the drowned merchant in the T.S. Eliot Modernist poem "Waste Lands - Death by Water". There are a surprising number of parallels between the poem and the story of Haman including astrology, genocide, greed, the fate of man and outcomes of choices. T.S Eliot’s poem is described as the quintessential modernist poem expressing the moral horror at the massacre which was WW1. The artwork refers more specifically to section four of the poem "Death by Water". These few stanzas discuss the death of a merchant, in order to raise existentialist questions about his life choices and death. The work seeks to raise awareness in the contemporary viewer of both the general human responsibility for choices and their personal responsibility. Like Haman, who rejected God, and Phlebas, there is no afterlife alternative for Eliot or us.

This piece is a test for a larger work that is currently under construction. Watch this spot for the finished version which is a kinetic sculpture that simulates the action of the sea and literally floats the image of Phlebas before us.

1. Pierluigi De Vecchi, Michelangelo (London:Barrie & Jenkins 1992) 88,89.

Below is an extension of Death by Water. For this version I have not fused the images together. Rather I have left them to hang separately to give an impression of three dimensionality. In addition I have included a motor that creates a "swell" in the cloth hung in front of it. This in combination with a covering glass with a water pattern is designed to produce an impression of the sea. This visceral movement encourages the viewer to access physical memory in their experience of the work.

3D - glass

Jug heads - Kookaburra

ceramic, cast glass

2009

I am collecting old ceramic electric jugs as an on-going installation project. The jugs were popular appliances in the 1950s and 1960s and are as Australian and kitsch as figurines of native Australian birds or tea towels with boomerangs on them. While many are in working order because their elements were designed to be replaceable they are heavy, cumbersome and do not have the electricity saving, and convenience of modern kettles. In addition I have found that their plastic or Bakelite lids are vulnerable to breakage. As a comment on sustainability I decided to re-birth them with glass lids in the shape of Australian birds heads. The idea is to recycle these jugs and keep them working in some capacity - either aesthetic or as lamps, as a critique of our throw away consumer culture and our lack of care for the fragile birds whose profiles will replace the fragile lids they once had.

All donations of jugs will be gladly accepted (broken lid or intact). I am hoping to collect a room full to represent the variety of indigenous birds.

3D - glass

Composition 15

blown gaffa & fused Bulleye glass

2009

500mm x 500mm

Concept

This work teeters between the symbolic and the abstract with its use of binary opposites (black and white, single and multiples) and geometry - sphere and square. The spheres are a metonym for all eggs/seeds, the potential of life. To that end they are arranged in binary growth relationships

as per the Mandelbrot set. The translucent spheres are relatively similar but as with all life they have individuality and are not purely geometric. The obverse to th

e spheres - death, is symbolised by a more purely geometric form, the black square. Unrelenting in its shape (despite ripples and depressions), stark and opaque. The surface undulates to swallow the spheres.

This artwork appears before the viewer in stark black and white using simple binary opposites to evoke the finality of death. It is pared back to be clinical with none of the viscera of life signaling that it re

fers to the psychological transition rather than the physical.

This work also references traditions in art practices that wrestle with transcendence and psychological liminal spaces. The use of white spheres and black square are informed by Piet Mondrian’s use of abstracti

on and Kasimir Malevich’s black square which seek to reach toward a spiritual transcendence. Thus this work is concerned with the fundamental, the essential. It sits between Mondrian’s early abstract work that contained references to nature such as Composition 10 in Black and White: Pier and Ocean and his Composition with Grid (Lozenge).

Physiological in representation and psychological in subject, Louise Bourgeois work explores her feelings about her past, particularly her childhood. She often employs a black and white pallet perhaps to indicate memory not reality or perhaps to disengage her sculptures from the abstracted body parts they reference. Her abstraction is achieved via the use of multiples and simplification of disembodied appendages 1. This work utilises references to body parts - eggs. As with Bourgeois work the deformation in this work is a signal for psychological disturbance and are indicative of issues o

f identity - but identity with a difference. Eggs have a sense of independence, complete in themselves. In this way instead of being focussed on the forming of identity this work is about the loss of identity. Death being the ultimate threat to identity.

1. Louise Bourgeois "Memory and Architecture" (Madrid: Museo Nacional Ceno de Arte Reina Sofia, 2000).

2D - Drawing

I started drawing Nudes in with a life drawing group.

To keep my hand in I practice using nude photography from magazines such as "Black and White" and life drawing guide "Anatomy for the Artist" by Sarah Simblet.

See Bang Art under 'digitally printed drawings' for male and female nudes in pencil. I was commissioned to produce a series of nudes and water colours for a home wares shop "The Twig" in the Hunter Valley Gardens in late 2008 and two portraits for a private buyer in 2009.