Showing posts with label illustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label illustration. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Ö,Erdöben, The Wild Within

I have an exhibition coming up! This one has been many months in the making and many, many more in the mind!

Join me for a drink on Saturday November 29 at Manyung Gallery, Mount Eliza.



“We are all filled with a longing for the wild. There are few culturally sanctioned antidotes for this yearning. We were taught to feel shame for such a desire. We grew our hair long and used it to hide our feelings. But the shadow of Wild Woman still lurks behind us during our days and in our nights. No matter where we are, the shadow that trots behind us is definitely four-footed.”

Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph. D
Women Who Run With the Wolves

This body of work is the amalgamation of inspiration drawn from the written work of Clarissa Pinkola Estes, personal experience and the resilience of many female creatures of the animal kingdom.

Pinkola Estes in her book Women Who Run with the Wolves talks about the female psyche by way of folk tales and draws on the inner animal we all possess. This inner animal - the wild within – enables the heroines in these traditional folk tales to emerge victorious on the other side of disaster, danger or despair.

The creative process of this work involves the meticulous and repetitious action of dotting the paper with tiny ink dots, a process which serves as a meditation of sorts, a time to harness the wild within. My technique echoes the patience and persistence required by the female creatures my subjects represent. I use these methods to convey a sense of gentle strength in my subjects who subtly hint at a deeper truth.












Sunday, October 27, 2013

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.
















Friday, May 17, 2013

Thursday, January 17, 2013

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...  







Friday, August 24, 2012

The Hunter

My latest piece. Hard to know when to stop when there is so much detail, I could have kept going and going...










Monday, July 30, 2012

Queen of Brontosaurus

Playing card for Dino Wars & Jurassic Lounge. 

Cards will be featured in Sydney on the Australian Museum, two stories tall as projections for ten weeks and used to play 21 (Million years BCE) at DINO WARS and from the end of August.