The Refrain

Ok, this is late. Really late. OK Gallery kindly has some of my art on display and will continue to do so for another week or so, i think. It is/was a fantastic exhibition titled 'The Refrain' with two other artists whom I admire greatly. It also has a beaut press release. I think I'm a bit feverish with some kind of virus right now so I better not say much else - I've already been blasting my way through the bedrock of social nicety in my other online capacities so in the spirit of propriety I'll sit down and shut up.  I'm actually already sitting down (reclining, in fact) so I can really concentrate on the shutting up.*

These guys know where it's at. 

(Photo credit to OK Gallery)

*I was going to make a really fun joke about how I should refrain from speaking. Decided not to.

I built a wall.

Here is an update!

I don't think the term 'update' is entirely appropriate, considering that my last post was in February or some time dusty and distant. The term 'update' would maybe imply that dear readers have been avidly checking for news at regular intervals, which would be sad for them as consistency is foreign to me.


Here's something else that's foreign - I've made some art, and it's viewable as we speak. It has an internet location here, and if you want to gaze upon it you have to go here. Looks good at night. I'm satisfied.

It's strange that I decided to build a wall. Years ago I had convinced myself that I needed to know how to build a wall. The skill of wall building seemed vitally important. Perhaps one day soon there would be a plague of nasty ground-dwelling animals and I would be called on to protect my home or suburb with a solid, sturdy wall.

Well, my wall building skills are still atrocious and it took two days to contruct that fiend, even with helping hands and all the silicone Bunnings could hold.

a thing in Fremantle

This is a thing in Fremantle. Near a bridge. Go find it, it's great.

Contrast And Compare

Sketching is good. It makes ideas get more idea-y. This is something I forget until on a whim I do some sketching and then I realise it again. "Oh yeah, well..duh." Logic frequently slips away from me.


I am so used to doing white things that I am pretty intrigued by the idea of not doing white things.

Also...I changed fonts. Keeping it real.

clean slate

When I went to Melbourne a couple of years back, I picked up this surface from the PanelPop shop. It's beautiful stuff, and notebook-sized. This year I'm going to use it instead of a visual diary, and take photos between sketches. It's good to have a solid, reusable object to project thoughts onto, and the surface is a little like dry clay. Plus it saves paper and is made from reclaimed materials. I think when you use clay and kilns it's pretty important to try to save resources wherever you can...ceramics is not exactly a green artform, sadly.

I will post my preliminary sketches up here from time to time.

I Had Heart Surgery And All They Gave Me Was This Orange Lustre Stump.

Recently I've found it difficult to read about art.
It'd be nice to call it a hangover from the dizzying art-party of '10, and the competetively theoretical nature of BArts(Art)(Hons). It might be. But general mental fatigue results from a bunch of things, including endless late nights and computer-screen staring, oppressive weather, and getting too easily sidetracked by the obligations and anxiety of general life.

The thing is, whenever I open a book or magazine or catalogue and begin to read some person's thoughts about contemporary art, I become physically tense. Frustrated, my eyes flit distractedly over the columns of text, and I realise that I'm simply overwhelmed by total disinterest. I can't help but assume that it's going to be five pages of jargon that will either be a convoluted statement of the obvious, or that the writer's speck of insight will be disproportionate to the length of the article, such that the time required to read it would be better spent, say, enjoying a macchiato from the gallery cafe, or a quick nap in the car.

A lot of artwork has this effect on me too. If it looks like it's going to be too much work, I dismiss it almost immediately. I don't think this is shameful. I won't necessarily always think this way. Maybe that art is just not appropriate for my particular situation right now. I need something that has the power to make my vague, elsewhere mind think that it is in my best interest to return to the present, and exert a bit of energy in actually thinking about the thing in front of me. It's an annoying cliche to say that ceramics has this right-here-right-now capacity, but I guess that actually is why I like it. It suits my frame of mind.

It's probably fair to say that I'm more comfortable making art than looking at it. For me the actions involved in doing art stuff are more valuable than observing the finished product. Maybe that's because the objects I make are mostly acts of research, or ways of thinking about things I've seen. I prefer studios to exhibition spaces. Though ideally the two are the same.

Clearly I'm feeling a bit pent-up from a lack of activity, and rather than make art I've been reduced to blogging. I have also been riding my bike to interesting coastal locations and taking crummy photos of things that I like, but until I get sorted with a studio space and a kiln they are going to remain as crummy photos of things that i like. Such as this.

I Had Heart Surgery And All They Gave Me Was This Orange Lustre Stump