Opening Night party Caravan studios Tasha Highton Galleries

With new friends at Caravan studios for the Fetishe show Tasha Highton Galleries 

model John and partner underneath the work starring John that caused a lot of comment

Thanks for coming Nosh Tim John Damian Michel and friends 

This work featuring model  Bruno and a layer of images from  Tarrawarrra Monastery was specially prepared for the show - I chose the limited colour range to compliement the work by other artists  in the show - it received a lot of comment ! There is an even better R rated coloured version contact me if you want to see it !

Thanks you Zoran and David for the beautiful way you framed and printed this piece -if no one buys it I'm hanging it in my home !

Fabulous night last night - Huge thank you to Zoran and his team at Tasha Highton Galleries and Sam and Nancy at Caravan studios Richmond who combined with the artists to put on a great show. The quality of the printing framing and salon style hanging was extraordinary, rich deep black ink sumptuous framing it has taken my work to another level  Thank you to Tim Damian Nosh John A, model John Michel and friends and all of you who support my art making . Open this weekend to the public and by arrangement until Christmas contact me if you want to see it. The work is also on sale on line at www.tashahightongalleries.com.au

Star of India Journey

Over the next few weeks I will be posting the story of my travels in India - it will not be  a straight narrative or travelogue but a combination of writing, sketches done on site and pictures taken. India was so much better then I had been prepared for - cleaner friendlier  greener warmer healthier .

I was traveling at the end of the Monsoon period so my first piece was written in  in Panjil the capital of Goa a former Portuguese colony

Fear the house would become like its neighbour – heavily padlocked on the outside but open to the sky, like a swollen corpse slowly disintegrating from the monsoonal rains but keeping up some remnants of body structure as it sunk into primeval slime – stalked the Brother and Sister in the House of the Forgotten Notes in the Parish of St Sebastian the Beautiful and the Street of the Left Behind ..

Each  morning the Brother would play the same note on his violin and the Sister would come out from behind the split door of the main entrance to the House and clean the candle stubs from St Sebastian’s shrine.

His cousin the Notary who looked after their affairs arranged for the Professor to come each year and tune the instrument. He had never managed to play more than the one note since Isobella had left him for the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. If his Sister died before him they would take him to the Nuns, he would never leave their care and he would never play his violin again

She used the silver key her Mother had given her to open the shrine and care for the Flowers that embraced the Saint Sebastian forever swooning under the impact of those cruel arrows, adding more water and replacing the flowers on Market day. Market day was now her sole trip away from the House and there was just enough money in the housekeeping to buy the Lilies she wanted

The rain pelted down each afternoon, the streets flooded to ankle height and when Sister went to light the Shrine’s candles the Parish cats – each generation getting smaller and skinnier and hopelessly related to each other -crept over the open half of the split door looking for a dry spot inside.. 

Exhibition finishes new adventure begins

Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate. Adventures do occur, but not punctually. (1.3.9) E M Forster "A passage to India "

Last Thursday I took the exhibition in Daylesford down

Tomorrow morning leaving early,as befits a great journey, I shall fly to Mumbai  fulfilling a dream I have  had for over 40 years- to finally meet Mother India in her own home .
Over the years I  loved her well but too briefly in  both male and female form but never at her home - this year I have attended an ashram in Melbourne to do yoga twice a week and when the opportunity came up to attend an international community development conference in Pune  knew my time had come
 I went to to the ashram to say farewell yesterday and I felt I was a part of the love India has for itself i am already connected and am now visiting the wellspring of so many waters . I am both grateful and hopeful ..

Behind the Conversion of St Paul, at the Convent next Saturday

Here is my picture, possibly my favourite, from the current exhibition of the Conversion of St Paul and after it the work by Caravaggio of the same name.
You can see my work is a homage to the original . It was hung sideways at the PicN mix exhibition and I had to get the framers to restring it
I am a huge fan of Caravaggio's chiaroscuro and am recruiting a variety of models so I can construct some large scale tableaux using several distinctive figures each showing a certain amount of flesh to give warmth to the pictures. (let me know f you would like to volunteer! )
 Caravaggio used many of the same figures in different paintings and I shall do the same..and I love the way he uses unusual perspective in his paintings a practice I began over 20 years ago with a series of still lives painted from the aerial view rather then the usual front on perspective .
The genesis of my image happened in St Paul's Cathedral Melbourne where I was taking photos of the many beautiful tiles on the floors and walls - these have been woven through a source image of Nicollo to form the picture on exhibition.

For anyone who hasn't seen the exhibition I will be at Daylesford next Saturday with my friend Sculptor Dave who is coming from Sydney to see it

Blake prize submission goes in!

Spiritual and erotic feeling merge in this image illustrating the Blakian thesis that Man has no Body distinct from his Soul. It challenges established religion to bless and celebrate lives spiritual and queer, creating a more honest informed just and caring society and capturing the full potential of the Incarnation

It was a  major challenge preparing the Blake submission this week - you can only choose two images and if you are going for the emerging artist award you have to supply a one page CV,50 words only on each image .Thank you to Professor Martin Comte, Bishop Michael Kelly and my art teacher from Footscray Community Arts Centre Robert Mangion for being my referees. 

For the record here is the other Blake submission with 50 word blurb 

Explores the subversive eroticism of compassion between men using iconography from Catholic and queer culture in the style of the sword and sandal films of my youth. Tenderness between men has persevered despite persecution. The figures in the Pieta represent the intimate interdependent and sometimes abusive relationship between both cultures

Wish me Luck ! 

A Sale and a Great day at The Convent Daylesford

Thank you to my friend Desely for buying this image- the Word was Made Flesh - at the Convent last Sunday

The Convent staff were kind enough to put on bubbles and a great plate of food for us. My friends Sue and Gavin supportive as always had Desley and I for dinner and sleepover the night before at Scotch Pie House Maldon -we were all  a bit hungover so the bubbles was the solution !

It was fantastic to see my old school friends from primary school days - Deb Adrian ( with his wife Sharon) and my mate from those restless teenage years Patrick.
I have spent a busy week this week preparing my submission for the Blake prize an arduous process -  more details to follow
Thanks everyone for your support - makes the life of an artist possible !

Inspiration of the Convent

I am at Maldon tonight looking forward to meeting Deb, Patrick Adrian and  Graham together with my hosts here Sue and Gavin and our mutual friend Desley for drinks at the Convent tomorrow.
Attached are some pics of last weekend's visit with my friend John, my brother Richard his wife Melanie and my gorgeous niece Monika pictured with their favourite images.

Major shoot and late night processing images yesterday of new model Robin agianst images i took last weekend at the Convent - I have to decide this weekend which images will go into my submission for the Blake Prize - here are some images from the new shoot- feedback welcome.

John and I went for a walk in the Daylesford botanical gardens -a little chilly but beautiful. The final image is of the Convent in the rain -my exhibition is in the corner room closest to the viewer

On the poet and artist William Blake-my homage

 The Blake Prize is named after the legendary British artist and poet William Blake (1757-1827) whose broad range of artistic and poetic innovations, visionary imagination and radical politics made him an outsider in his day.

The Prize was instigated by Jesuit priest, Michael Scott and a Jewish businessman, Richard Morley. They hoped that the establishment of a prize would encourage artists of disparate styles and religious allegiances to create significant works of art with religious content. It has been operating since 1951.

Blake has directly inspired one of the works in my current exhibition

Attached are images of the frontispiece to his collection of poems Europe and my homage a photo-manipulation of Nicollo's image in both images the main protagonists are naked and stretching forward towards the viewer and the picture has a circular rhythm
 My image of the three ignudos gives me the chance to explore the cycle of contemplation, awareness and engagement with the viewer that I wish to engender with my art

I have been looking further into Blake's beliefs as part of preparing my submission to the emerging artists section of the Blake prize


in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell concerning religion he writes
All Bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following Errors.
1. That Man has two real existing principles Viz: a Body & a Soul.
2. That Energy, calld Evil, is alone from the Body, & that Reason, calld Good, is alone from the Soul.
3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies.
But the following Contraries to these are True
1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for that calld Body is a portion of Soul discernd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.
2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.
3. Energy is Eternal Delight. (Plate 4, E34)


So both images acknowledge the integrity of the sacred and the body

I want to acknowledge the help today of my friend  writer and monk Will Day who has been helping me choose the final works to be submitted based on their spiritual and emotional impact.


I will be at the Convent this Saturday afternoon if anyone is thinking of visiting and then Sunday week

Its official exhibition until 15th August / Blake preparation

here is a link to the Convent's publicity about my  show
http://www.conventgallery.com.au/artists/current

 -they have been very generous and are running my show till the 15th August - more time for you to visit !
I'm spending my spare time at the moment preparing to enter the Blake prize for religious art - there will be one from this show and another Pieta from a shoot I did Monday night  - here is a backstage view of the shoot and some prototypes of the work- feedback welcome ! please contact me if you want a guided tour of the exhibition

My muse and subject of these works

All hail to Nicollo my muse and the fine subject of these fine works !
Nicollo as well as being incredibly handsome is also smart being a published poet and performer  - there is some poetry on his blog

http://idigwords.blogspot.com.au/

and  some stills from  a video my son Conor and I did of Nicollo performing his poetry.


He is great to work with because he tolerates me asking him to do awkward and challenging poses for example on my studio deck naked in cold weather - and collaborates on ideas and concepts -most of these works were done over 2 shoots several months apart -one at his place and one at my studio. 

Judging by the response on the first day I am sure he will be a favourite with the most of the women of Daylesford and many of the men !

The Great Install

Despite the epic journey through rain and fog to Daylesford I made it to the Convent today to work with Tina the Director and Linda the assistant to install my exhibition . here are some shots - it will be on for 6 weeks and is in the most beautful room in a most beautiful building - the tower of the old mansion that forms the core of the building . 


Thank you Tina for risking the controversy that showing the male nude - complete with spirtual references - may cause!

 Please come and visit - there are always several artists at once being shown in the 8 galleries and the gardens-even in winter -are stunning 

I am taking the works to the convent at Daylesford tomorrow, when I looked in my "Year with Hafiz" book by Daniel Ladinksy (Penguin Books ) I found the following poem listed under today's date




The Greatest and most lasting art, the impetus of it, I feel, always comes from a wanting to help.
A wanting to free,and an enthusiasm to express discovery.


Each soul at some point will begin to feel all is 
within it and then attends ,a s it were, to its own inner world .That attendance may not result in anything considered tangible reaching the masses


But the artist also becomes aware of inner spheres and mingles with them, and then puts these experiences into what they most care about for the world to see and touch if the world wants 


I know all my poems come from a wanting to give something useful .




I am attaching the images from the exhibition . I hope they will inspire by their beauty and that their subject matter may also stimulate some useful discussion 

All works are framed limited edition of 20 original studio photography photo-manipulation printed on metallic paper numbered and signed 
 Printing by CPL digital South Melbourne