WIRES

Yesterday, I was confronted by a pungent odour on entering my studio. I knew within the roof housed possums from time to time, but the smell was more than that of droppings or urine. Behind my reading chair is a hole in the wall where I had placed some masonite when I first moved in. Faint scratching sounds could be heard from behind the board, and once removed, a baby possum clung to a dead mother beginning to decay. How this baby survived for days without its mother is beyond me. Charles, from WIRES came with cages and placed the baby into a sack and disposed of the mother, not before checking its pouch for further babies. 

I hope baby survives & thrives.

Wilososophy

Podcasts have become a staple of my daily ritual, either while working in the studio or nodding off shedding zeds in slumberland. I've grown increasingly intolerant of mainstream media and especially ads which I find abrasive, disruptive and just plain annoying. Listening to a Podcast is the equivalent of listening to your most enjoyed radio show, without the ads, when and where you want (put 'em on your phone, Mp3 player or stream them at home), and with content that is not restricted necessarily by mainstream media filters. Anyone can put out a podcast, on any subject, in any format on any subject. Bliss.

This morning I woke before sunrise and downloaded 'Wilosophy', a Podcast produced by Will Anderson. His conversation with Ben Lee; Singer, songwriter, artist, philosopher, father, husband and death mid-wife, was one of the best conversations I've listened in on for quite some time. His thoughts on creativity really resonated with me. Ben Lee is an artist I've known about but never been on my radar. This discussion left me wanting to know more. 10/10 Will Anderson! Great show. Totally worth a listen. 

Asia 2014 (Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam)

On the 4th of January, I jetted off to Malaysia, Cambodia & Vietnam. Trigger happy with a camera as always, something strange seems to happen when abroad. My confidence and audacity increases tenfold. I seek out opportunities for a picture that I just would not consider back home. Perhaps its the anonymity, perhaps the extra boost of adrenalin being in a foreign place with countless new sights, sounds and smells. The joy in capturing moments when every day is an adventure fills me with a peculiar kind of thrill. Maybe, I'm just worried that I will lose  the moment to memory and never able to recall it; or maybe it's my way of becoming 'focussed' (pardon the pun), and a way of becoming selective amongst the plethora of information going on about me. At some level, it is an addictive activity, acquiring stolen moments from people, places and experiences which contribute to the fabric of being.

Child swings in a hammock outside Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh

The children of these countries always bring something extra to the moment. Their candid playfulness and curiosity mirrors my own when wandering around a foreign place, eager to see what adventure lays around the next corner; fearless like an old explorer.

People caught up in their usual daily activities, like fishing on the banks of Ton Le Sap in Phnom Penh (see below), or sculpting in class provides another way 'in' to the moment, as long as you can hide behind a camera and be an obvious as a traveller gathering information as if you'd only just arrived on planet earth and never seen such a thing!

Locals by Ton Le Sap, Phnom Penh

SLOW magazine

Children's author and illustrator Tobhy Riddle & photographer Camille Walsh  have put together an article for the summer 2014 edition of  'Slow magazine' which includes a piece on my artwork and practice. The title of the mag is apt, not for any reference to my intelligence (ha ha), but for what I hope to achieve in my work and, the obvious time it takes to meticulously put together these assemblages. Its well understood how fast life seems to have become with our click-culture, rapid-fire, info-overload, brain-exploding pace. My antidote to skimming life on the surface is to 'slow down' which incorporates a meditation practice before beginning work, giving time also to reflect on the thoughts that occupy my headspace. Without this hiatus of 'no-mind', I'd probably be throwing tubs of paint at canvas in a frenzied attack of frustration! Splatter paintings have their place, but not in my studio!

'James Blackwell's meticulous works are literally a product of the Blue Mountains. "My anchor is the landscape in which I live", he says. And over his back fence are hundreds of thousands of hectares of National Park. For James, it must be like the largest art supplies store in the world. 
Seeking materials for his work he sets off on bush walks not knowing what he will discover. He calls these walks "Meditative endeavours". They are about mindfully looking at the detail and minutiae of the bush until he sees them in knew ways. "Art school taught me to see", he says. So seeds, nuts, flowers, leaves, soils, - maybe even cicada wings can all become media in his work. 
A work might take a week, it might take a month. They are painstakingly constructed out of hundreds of tiny elements. "I'm not actually that patient. Its the process of making the art which slows me down and calms me". Its art making as antidote to the anxiety-producing chaos and speed of present-day life.
The artworks might evoke a planned, even architectural quality, but there are no plans. The composition process is actually an organic one where James plays with the materials until they "suggest" an arrangement. "A process", to quote architecture theorist Christopher Alexander, "which builds order out of nothing". 
In addition to a naturally narrow palette, a consistent feature of these artworks is repetition through subtly unique replications. The resulting patterns attain a peaceful rhythm that touches on the sublime. And there's the beauty. These works silently echo the replicating natural world. Fittingly, James describes his work as "a salute to nature".

- Tobhy Riddle