Open Studio!

This coming Friday we are opening our studios to the public. Come along for that perfect Christmas present, or maybe just a snag and a drink!

Innocence of the Apocalypse

A couple of years ago I saw the movie "The Road", a post a apocalyptic story about a boy and his father and their search for a better place in a world of poverty, depression, cannibalism and perpetual danger.

I felt moved by the child's character and the responsibility he was forced to take on in such a world - the only world he had ever known. Despite his maturity and his responsibilities he couldn't help but still be a child from time to time. This struck a cord with me and I was moved by his innocence.

My exploration of the theme of children in a post apocalyptic world began with a large hand drawn paste up, pasted in Collingwood in in 2012.

I then followed this with another large scale, hand drawn paste up in Brunswick - this time with more of an installation element.

After the large paste ups, I decided to focus on a smaller illustration so I could add more detail, this became the first illustration of the series as well as a very large paste up (photocopied this time and not hand drawn, in Toronto, Canada as part of Art de la Roo ).

After Art de la Roo, I began thinking more about this theme in relation to a space as opposed to being on the street. I was discussing this with projection artist Yandell Walton when we decided it would be a great theme to collaborate on. As artists our work is completely different, but we both have a strong interest in space as part of our work and this was the binding element for our collaboration.

I began working on 4 illustrations on paper which then became the 'static' children of our post apocalyptic world. 

Innocence of the Apocalypse went from illustrative paste ups to a completely immersive installation based collaboration. Projection, sound, installation, performance and illustration all came together in an empty building in Collingwood in September 2013.

Supported by the City of Yarra, Curvy and Kennards Hire and part of Melbourne Fringe the event was experience by approximately 350 people over 3 nights. Below is a beautifully shot video by Jim Arneman and detailed photographic documentation by Lauren Dunn
 
More at www.innocenceoftheapocalypse.com


Innocence Of The Apocalypse by Yandell Walton and I & The Others from Yandell Walton on Vimeo.

 

Kate

Fan art is not usually my thing but when I saw the callout for Artboy Gallery's Ladies Night show, celebrating the women of pop culture I thought it would be a good excuse to see if I could get the likeness of someone spot on. Kate Moss was a fresh faced up and coming model when I was in my teens and I wanted to reference the perceived innocence of her youth at the start of her career.

It was not as much difficult as it was time consuming, most of the illustration is created with tiny ink dots. The hair was a new challenge, but the hardest part was getting the shading of the body covered with a .03 nib!

Ladies Night opens at Artboy on Friday the 23rd of May at 6pm, 99 Greville St Prahran.

Paper Crown

I've been enjoying playing with this illustration to create varied paste ups, might be time for a new one soon...

The girl in the shorts

This piece has been in the making for a while and I'm so glad to finally finish her. With this much detail, mostly created by small dots, it's really hard to know when to stop...