A SUSTAINABLE ART PRACTICE

Reflections on a contemporary art practice

Good morning, I’m sitting in a place that is not my studio. It is a high rise on a certain beach stretch, without the view of the beach. I love Surfing, even at an age where most of my peers are offered hip replacements, for the pain they feel every time the beer can empty and remedied by physical displacement to the fridge. I cannot see the beach, it is obscured by other high rise glass and concrete buildings, for we picked a cheaper form of accommodation two blocks back from the sand to save for coffee money.

That is ok, I can still surf and afford this stay, due to the gracious nature of compound interest and a part time “job in the Arts”. We are here to visit family for a funeral and we have managed to squeeze five of us in this two bedroom hotel and let’s not forget the surfboard sleeping on the balcony, also waiting patiently to be useful.

A “Sustainable Art practice” demands this form of tolerance. My brother is also lodged in my studio back in Sydney with his wife from Canada on an IKEA bed, replacing the easel and the work table for his four months holiday. Yes I do make art, and I do have an exhibiting practice.

Some people often make enquiries on my ability to survive making “Dark Sad Art”, no one wants to fork out Bitcoins or any currency for their wall. I answer that I have worked for thirty years cartooning for a major newspaper, which explains first of all the Random thought manifestations of my oeuvre, and somewhat legitimises the conjured up images of wads of untapped cash lying in jars or old paint tins to pay for my frugal lifestyle. I should say our lifestyle, being married to another artist makes it even less tangible.

The reality is that it is tough to make a living creating thoughtful and meaningful art, in a time when serious pursuits require research time and contemplation without remuneration. The privilege of years previously paid, with a salary was a luxury. Don’t get me wrong, T & C’s applied! It had its restrictions on flexibility and the content of the scribble was restricted to the a specific topic and constrained by a fierce deadline fit for purpose. This allowed for a very productive output, realising at the very least one scribble a day. It garnered kudos, relevance to contemporary political, social commentary and most importantly reliable income.

My intention is to be able to talk through my more obscure “Random Thought”musings with this electronic realestate, allowing for some reflection on the current oeuvre, and future ideas. For example THE SOUTHERLY BUSTER, my latest scribbles based on Henry Lawson’s poem. It provides me with a metaphor for the economic divide, still prevailing in our contemporary time and ever present in his era. This is allowing you my reader to tap into my iterative multimedia practice, in other words it means I can reflect on the imagery and constantly evolving thinking process which manifests as artwork in its many different stages. It also becomes a narrative (not linear necessarily, which you’ll be able to follow through my process and hopefully you may feel compelled to give me feedback or even tell me how it touched you.

The iterations of this ever expanding artwork become entry points to conversations, such previously developed thorough (WIP) Work in Progress, a Masters Of Fine Art at UNSW art and Design of 75 drawings made for the Australian Newspaper between 2018 to 2021.

So this an invitation for you to follow this new faze of my art making and if you feel my work has resonance with your sensibilities and an anecdote or story comes to mind I would love to hear from you. I will be sharing my understanding of the Sydney centric artworld I participate within enthusiastically, some would say naively after 40 years, and stay tuned and let us see where this journey moulds us into the serendipitous shape of my oeuvre to grow in depth with truth and meaning.