Untitled, experimenting...

Oil on canvas
1800mm x 1200mm
(on separate boards so able to take apart for transport)

Some Expressionist work

Got home from work on saturday and just decided to attack the camvas with some oil paints...

all are 1200mm X 1200mm and in oils

Sorry the photos aren't better.

Connections/ Sculptural & Photographic Project 1

This is an experimental project combining my sculptural instalation with photography.
I am creating the sculptures and LISA SHEPHERD * lisashepherd.tumblr.com * is doing the photography (check out her Tumblr, girl has mad skills with the camera.)


The aim of this project is similar to my 'lines' series: To make tangible the connections that we have to each other and our environment. In this project I am representing these connections using the sculptures and the black tape.


The heavy sculptures and black tape in an industrial setting are commenting on the way in which our relationships can be tortuous, or even torturous. We can be hindered by our connections, forced to act in unnatural ways to our own instincts.
The photos which we have taken outside, without the black tape, are a way of viewing the same themes but in a more positive light.


These photos I'm posting are only preliminary drafts, so watch out because there will be much more to come as we explore this idea.

Ps. We are hoping, (if all goes to plan) to have this exhibited at Paper String Plastic gallery on Hindley street. (probably next year sometime)

The start of next project.

The Body Through Time & Space.

Pine, Fabric, Felt Tip, Screws.

Upon meditating on journeys, the body through time and space, I can’t help but think about the metaphysical journey I have taken within my own life, how I got from A to B, from who I was, to who I am now.

Focusing on my trip, to and from my old house on Goodenough St, to the city, I bring up many memories from my past. A dark time in my development as a person, but perhaps a chaotic time I needed to go through in order to reach the path I am on now.
The places I haunted in Mile End and in the City were the focus of my map, and the self destructive and directionless attitude I had, reflect upon my memories of the places I visited.

The particular trail I focused on for my map was the walk that I took when I went through a complete mental breakdown and was part of the psychological reinvention of myself. Retracing these steps bought back a lot of old memories, and bought into question, who I was, the person I was trying to be, and the person I have now become.

I chose to present my ideas in 3 dimensions, as when we travel through time and space, we are moving in 3 dimensions. The form created represents people and the system of paths they have taken. Like the sculpture, we are all held together at a base, however as we grow and journey through our lives, our cognitive perception is internal thus separating us from one another. This separation is also representative of my own separation from society at the time, through my abuse of drugs and alcohol I forgot how to connect with people, like the sculpture, we may cross paths, but never touch.

The text covering parts of the sculpture are stories that I have kept from that time, self destructive and heinous acts which I have committed. They are a point about the directionless life that I led, and the irresponsible acts which make up the emotional baggage that is my memory.

The fabric covering the bare pine is a statement about superficial lives led by myself and those around me. I was trying to mask, alter myself, to fit into a world which ultimately I didn’t belong to, the material is representational of the superficial lives and paths governed by materiality.

The map which I have hanging behind the piece is overlayed with memories about the life I led, the places I frequented and the self-destructive path which I took. I decided to fold up the map as small as I could and keep the creases, to make a point that the ‘map’, my memories, have been carried for some time, and will always be with me, a map of my old self.

Essentially this map is a journey through my past, and a reminder of where I have come from.

Foundations- painting

So i just got some cheapy acrylics from unibooks and was doing some bored sketchy doodles...
i think they are pretty shit but i'll post them anyway.

Visual Inquiry- experimentation with text 3D

So the next half of the text project was to create a sculptural piece with some reference to the original text.
Because my original text was barring orders I decided that I wanted to create a rough sort of unintelligible symbol mimicking the way that we interact with one another whilst drunk.
I created the symbol by stripping back the word BARRED down to BRD it's most simple form and then mixed around the shapes made by the negative space around the letters to form a symbol that looks like a tacky modern neon sign used to represent a hooker.

We had to photograph the sculpture in situation, so I thought I would dress bogan and play with that idea.

'Dick Dolls'

Here are a couple of the 'Dick Doll' soft sculptures (if you will) which I am creating for an up comming group exhibition for the Adelaide Feast Festival.
My dolls are a humorous comment on the way that gay men are often portrayed as the 'girls best friend' in mainstream media, and are de-sexualized and emasculated to a degree.
Being portrayed in this way I always feel like we are made out to be 'just one of the girls'.
Thus I have created these dolls, designed to be be a girls favorite plush toy, keeping them company, sipping coffee or martinis (from their cute material cups).

However they have been created with unusually large penises as a way of saying,

'HEY I'M STILL A MAN!!'

Visual Inquiry- Experimentation with text. 2D

This is the first part of a project; taking a piece of text and creating 5 different 2 dimentional representations of the text. I chose barring orders i found in the cupboard at work.

FOUNDATIONS and stuff.

So I have began studying a bachelor of visual arts (specialization) at Uni SA City west.
So this takes up alot of the time that I have to put into my own work... so here is some of the work I have been producing in Uni.

Copper 'monster' brooch.

found object bracelet, (made from empty pill packets)

Torn lace curtain 'coocoon'. The piece was about defining space.

 Sandblasted 'dick jar'
(ha ha. i'll never be above a good dick and balls.)

Sketches from drawing class with James Dodd, im not great at still life so I sort of made up my own thing.. ha ha, it's all good though.

Claes Oldenburg influenced wineglass soft sculpture... to give an idea of scale I can stand inside the bowl part of the wineglass... The lining has been stained with cheap cab-merlot... it still smells AMAZING.