In this surreal landscape, Department of Defence (DOD) Dragonfly robots both record and control Julian Assange, our 19th century marionette-Crusader, holding his shield of digital secrets as the world redefines war in response to a man who uses celebrity brand-building in an unprecedentedly desperate way.
If the battle today is ...Read more>
I have art in the LGBT Literature Issue of Phati'tude Magazine in New York City. You can preview the issue via the link below but my image only appears in the hard copy, available from their website or Amazon.
http://phatitude.org/online/phatitude-magazine/plm-lgbt-summer-2010-preview/
...Read more>
Are poets the front-line soldiers of our collective consciousness? If so, then where are the medics when they are wounded by the ugliness of today's 24/7 news cycle? Why are they any less the protectors of our world than guns and drones and eavesdropping dragonflies hunting for dirty bombs? ...Read more>
I am the featured artist in The French Literary Review this October, an elegant little journal in the south of France focusing its passion for poetry and prose around France or themes in connection with its history and culture. It is now published and available online or ...Read more>
This painting is now in week 8 of not getting past this point. It's ok, in the meantime I did a small one, Kandahar Kandy , and started some notes on a possible illustration project for a book on chanson des geste. But any ...Read more>
It is the intimate, personal, penetratingly perceptive touch,
indeed, that is equipped to furnish a chapter
that would have been missing were the camera exclusively relied upon.
--New York Times review of combat art show, 1943 One link between artists and soldiers is the promise of appreciation (immortality?) after ...Read more>
[image: Juan Antonio de Frías y Escalante. Inmaculada Concepción] I had to share this because it is so fascinating and strange and I'm using the ideas in my paintings.
I discovered the concept of the digital offspring of researchers at Michigan State University who "live" in a computer and ...Read more>
5 Years after completing the painting Viva Las Shiva and 9 years after the attacks on the World Trade Centre, I feel these images still resonate with me. This isn't a political painting. For me, it's about listening to hear the Universe when it ...Read more>
Fair as the 3 independents' intentions are, their decision to return an incompetent and deeply unethical Government is proof that process isn't a measure of quality by any means. It helps, but reason without wisdom, always falls flat. Why waste the words? Anyway, Théodore Géricault did ...Read more>
Well, the short version.
After doing the maths, I decided against booking for a new show in 2011 until I get a better sense of where I am heading. Like many mid-career artists, I have decided to join the trend of waiting out the GFC and sit on ...Read more>
I've been finishing off the cake quartet. Where this strange analogy of the wedding cake comes into it, I have to admit to some inspired, but ultimately mysterious, source. I like that I don't always know what's happening on my canvases. I mean sure, I follow a ...Read more>
An Aussie Götterdämmerung. Bear with us, this is an odd time for all and we're figuring it out. It’s odd. This hung parliament has done very little to inspire me to represent Australia at its worst in an image. You'd think I'd want to ...Read more>
Now Available Lady Jane's Miscellany magazine features the work of critically acclaimed poets, dramatists, essayists, short story writers, artists and more! I'm really pleased to be the featured artist for their second issue with a 7 page interview and several ...Read more>
When I'm completing a series of work, I celebrate in an odd way. This is the t-shirt that I've worn for about 18 months (or this whole series of paintings) in my studio. I believe there is a splat of dry paint from every single painting on this. Eventually ...Read more>
This inspired me. I am always inspired when I come home from driving behind a row of trucks in a resource state like WA, where mining is King and the arts are a spare wheel, and look at the pics I printed from last year of Philadelphia's Mural Arts ...Read more>
After an historic coup which removed a sitting first-term prime minister, I would be remiss to not add my thoughts. Since the over reaction to Bill Henson's photos, I and many artists have hardly been in love with Kevin Rudd. We found a creeping censorship across Australian arts ...Read more>
Publishing July/August 2010
Busy month.
In July I'm helping out to promote the value of diverse communities. LGBT writers in NYC and grassroots political art and poetry in Regina, SK, Canada. In this sense, it's a part of my social activism and belief that art can help to move thinking ...Read more>
New Work. May 2010, Acrylic on canvas and screen print.
This painting started off as an exploration of some stencils of Predator drones I used in a previous painting. I was also following up some readings on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from Revelation while ...Read more>
The trees beside the river where I live are imbued with memory, wisdom and silent stories that deserve to be listened to ... like memorials, trapped in stone, bronze and iron, wishing for release into the morning air...
On this day each year, I re-read the poems of ...Read more>
3CR Melbourne's In Ya Face presenter James McKenzie interviewed me a few weeks ago on his live radio program. I just want to thank them again (belated post) for a frank, informed and lively discussion. I came away from that grateful for being able to explore different ...Read more>
I'm cleaning out the many boxes and packages that I shove under the bed, behind closets etc since I had to move studios recently. Always messy trying to sort out what to keep. In the process I found heaps of sketches and studies for paintings completed from the mid ...Read more>
Quick Note: Some very disturbing new Australian legislation has passed in the state of New South Wales (NSW) that targets and holds artists responsible for the terrible crime of child pornography. This legislation doesn't regulate the ...Read more>
My painting And Starring Benyamin Netanyahu as Norman Maine uses the main characters from the 1950s musical A Star is Born as metaphor for the current relationship between America (Esther) and Israel (Norman). It was very much a personal ...Read more>
Purchase a copy of Issue 9 online or at the following bookshops:
In Paris (@Librairie Les Mots la Bouche) In London (@Gay's the Word) In San Francisco (@City Lights Bookshop) I have a painting in the current issue of Chroma Journal ...Read more>
My second cover art for US poetry magazine Breadcrumb Scabs is out for February 2010. View the full cover in the 'Media' section (click left).
Lena's poets always dive off the edge and this issue is no different. A great supporter of diverse cultures and bad-tempered poets. ...Read more>
It's a privilege to be able to support the work of Same Sex Domestic Abuse Group (SSDAG) in Western Australia through their use of my art for the cover of their new resource booklet Towards Freedom (SSDAG, 2009).
The story behind the whole 2001 "Untitled" exhibition ...Read more>
The last 2 months I had a very interesting experience working with a politician in Western Australia, MLA John Hyde, the opposition minister for Arts and Heritage and Multiculturalism in Western Australia. In a series of meetings, I asked him questions about his past life before politics (he used ...Read more>
(I wrote this to relieve some bad karma from some truly truly horrendous 9-5 work experiences, and it made me laugh....that's why its in 'shash'...
The 10 Laws of Peripatetic Existence (Ode to Ari, Aristotle or Gold?)
1. Stealing bath towels from training sessions ...Read more>
I posted a comment on CultureFuture - A blog about the future of art, the future of politics, and the conversation that makes up our culture. On Thursday, January 7, 2010 CultureFuture wrote in Grassroots + Power VI: Separation Between Arts and State?:
"A ...Read more>
