First exhibitions for 2015...and they are all happening at once!

Yes, it is true! Over the next 2 weeks I am installing 4 different huge, exciting and fabulous exhibitions. Good thing I am a fairly organised sort of person! But it is still an immense challenge of co-ordination!

So for now, let me tell you about just one of them. And of course you are all invited to come, if you are in the geographical vicinity!

Yes, this is my solo show of my printmaking work, and there will be about 20 works on the walls!! 

This exhibition investigates and imagines the various ways that we attempt to navigate the increasing complexity of our contemporary lives. It tells stories of vulnerability and strength, of loss and celebration, and of despair and hope.

These artworks also represent a sort of  ‘return to my roots’, in which I have placed myself within each of these images, and each work in turn is located in a specific place and time, with many references to identifiable landmarks of Melbourne’s West and beyond, the places I call home.

In 2014, I was also I was also fortunate to undertake a long held ambition- to learn the art of lithography. This is another form of printmaking, using very old stones and various forms of greasy pencils and liquids. I quickly became enamoured with its alchemic contrariness and the dance around the stone that I found myself perform.

Here's just a few images of the lithographs created in 2014. These will all be in my solo exhibition from April 1-30. 

Contemplating the backdrop of city life lithograph, 20 x 28

At the time of making many of these works, the Hazelwood coal mine caught fire, and it burnt for 8 weeks, before it was finally put out. Hazelwood, located in Gippsland, Victoria is one of the dirtiest coal mines around, and at different times in the past two decades I have joined campaigns for its closure. The impact of this fire on the local township of Morwell was immense. I think this fire rather influenced the direction of some of these drawings/lithographs.

Looking of the point of balance in urban life

Swinging at the silos in Sunshine lithograph, 

Feeling for the balance in city life lithograph

Fortunately it was a windy day on 21 August 1991

 21st August 1991, was the day that Coode island (a chemical storage facility located at the Port of Melbourne) exploded, and covered the city with black smoke. Some of the residents and workers living in the neighbouring western suburbs of Footscray (where I now live) had to be evacuated. But we were lucky. The wind was blowing hard in the right direction. But after years of protests, Coode Island continues to store dangerous chemicals, in the heart of the city, and people now live only 100s of metres away.!

Imagining another way home

That's all for the moment. Of course, the artworks are always best seen in person. So if you can, come along to the exhibition in April!

It's been a long, long, long time...

OMG!

I almost cannot believe it that I have not written anything here for a year! It might look like there's not much been happening in my life, but in fact it has been the opposite. 2014 was certainly an intense year. Much art was made, there were many exhibitions, and an award was even won! 

But it was a very difficult year for my health, and since I always find such health crises challenge my identity, it may be that it was easier for me to make work than to share it online in any definitive way.

But, I have made a promise to myself, to be more trusting of the world and to share more willingly of myself. I hope that will mean a few more posts! And I do plan to share with you, at some stage, some of my artistic highlights of 2014. 

In the meantime, here's a very new linocut, so new that I am not yet sure that it is ready to be editioned. But I think it speaks to me of our common desire and commitment to move forward in life!

Traversing the city, linocut, 20.5 x 28cm