Soy Story

Hey, big thanks to everyone who attended by the Drop-by Drawing I hosted last weekend at the National Gallery of Victoria, thanks for dropping by! 

In other exciting news my ceramic piece Soy Sauce for Dimmies has been selected as a finalist in the 2019 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, opening this Friday night. I'm coming up to Sydney for the opening so hopefully see you there!

For more info on the prize please click here.

My first job was at a Fish’n’Chip shop, where after school, from ages 14 to 16, I worked part-time taking phone orders, folding boxes, giving out bonus potato cakes and putting soy sauce on dimmies. 



Most dim sim eaters were happy to just say “yes please” or “no thanks” when asked if they’d like soy sauce, others however were much more specific. “Just a drop”. “Just a drizzle”. “Yeah drown them in it, mate”. “Can I get my soy sauce in a separate ziplock bag?” The more specific the order the more joy I took in getting it right.
 

15 years later and I’m still making dim sims, only now I’m making them out of clay. Rather than steaming or frying the dimmies I’m now kiln firing them, and instead of coating them in soy sauce I’m painting them in glaze.

Soy Sauce for Dimmies uses humour and sentimentality to playfully encourage us to celebrate the simple things. Or perhaps I should say, the dim-simple things.

In other exciting news I have a new ceramic sculpture of a melted Bubble'O Bill available at Cement Fondu Gallery alongside their exhibition Flat Earth Society, also opening this weekend in Sydney.

Fun fact, a lot of people think Bubble'O Bill has a sad face, but that's actually his moustache!

Thanks for reading, you're dim simply the best and hopefully soy you soon! 

You Readings me like an open book

Hi, if you’re around Lygon Street today have a look in the Carlton Readings bookstore front window! To help celebrate Readings 50th birthday I’m thrilled and honoured to be displaying 50 of my ceramic book sculptures.

Hope you get a chance to see it, and just this once, please feel free to judge these books by their covers!

As well as the book sculptures, also included in the display are ceramic tributes to the neighbouring community of shops- a pizza box from Tiamo's, a one scoop cup of choc-chip coconut ice-cream with Nutella from Pidapipos, a flat white from Brunetti's and a movie schedule from Nova cinema.

And also this ceramic sculpture of a Readings paper bag, featuring an illustration by Oslo Davis. 


Thanks so much for all the kind messages from everyone who's seen it so far, it's been a bit overwhelming and I'm feeling very beside my shelf!

It's up until 11pm today so still plenty of time to catch it up if your weekend isn't too booked up!

In other exciting news, from 2-4pm today I'm hosting Drop-By Drawing at the National Gallery of Victoria. So please drop by if you feel like drawing! 

All ages and skill levels are welcome, all materials provided, and it's free! For more info please click here!

Hopefully see you soon! In the meantime thanks so much for reading, and thanks so much for Readings!

Smurf's up!

Hi, here's a ceramic sculpture I made of a toothbrush called 'Old Mate'.

You can brush up alongside this piece and nine other works of mine at this weekends Fairfield Primary School 'Art For All' fundraiser exhibition.

Fairfield Primary School is located at 5 Langridge Street in Fairfield. The event begins 6pm tomorrow (Friday) night and runs until 3pm Sunday.  I'm thrilled to have been invited to exhibit as a feature artist at this event, and here's your invitation to come along! This invite features some wonderful drawings by the great artist Mirka Mora who originally opened this annual event back in 2005.
In other news, just wanted to say that I loved being a part of Open House Melbourne a few weekends ago, it was so much fun reuniting with my drawings and sculptures in the Town Hall collection and sharing them with so many awesome people.
Over the weekend I gave an artist talk to a total of 517 people which is pretty amazing, thanks so much if you were able to come!

And in more exciting news, pencil a visit to the National Gallery of Victoria into your diary for Sunday September 29 as I'm very excited to be hosting a Drop-By Drawing workshop there from 2-4pm. It's free and fun for all ages and skill levels, come along!

Here's a photo from the last time I made a drawing at the NGV.

And lastly I just wanted to finish up by saying Happy Fathers Day for last Sunday to all the Dad identifying people out there! 

Speaking of Papa's, here's a new ceramic sculpture I made of a Papa Smurf Pez Dadspensor. 

Book who's talking

Hi, happy Book Week!

In 2015 I started making kiln fired, hand painted, ceramic sculptures of books I really like and then taking them along to book events to share with the authors. 

To celebrate Book Week I thought I'd share five of these sculptures from my collection.

First up, here’s a sculpture I made last year of a book by the inspirational Australian writer Helen Garner!

I feel so lucky to have been able to meet Helen last November and show her this sculpture, and she was kind enough to sign it.

I love this book, if you haven't read it yet then you're really Garner love it too :)

The second book sculpture for today is one of my favourite books from 2017, Chloe Hooper’s The Arsonist. 

When I borrowed this book from the library I found a note left inside it. I loved the note so much I made a ceramic sculpture of it as well.

The third ceramic book sculpture I wanted to share for Book Week is the memoir How To Make Gravy, by one of my favourite singer-songwriters, the great Paul Kelly.

And here's a new ceramic sculpture I made of a tin of Gravox, which is how I make gravy :)

For the 4th book of Book Week, here's a ceramic sculpture I made of the stunning book Theme Park by contemporary artist Brook Andrew.

Huge thank you to Brook Andrew for being so kind and signing the sculpture. Also, a huge thanks to the brilliant artist Giulia Giannini McGauran for taking these next two photos of me and Brook Andrew with my book Andrew.

And my last book for Book Week is the fantastic At My Table, by English food writer Nigella Lawson.

My favourite part of this book is where Nigella writes about when NASA originally designed their first spaceship they didn't put in a table, it wasn't thought necessary. But it turned out the astronauts did mind. They asked for one to be put in, even if it meant strapping on a tray with velcroed food to it. As Mary Roach wrote in Packing For Mars, in the alienating isolation of space the astronauts wanted "to sit around a table at the end of the day and eat".

Nigella suggests that a table is more than furniture, just as food is more than fuel. She quotes M.F.K. Fisher who says that "Our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and intertwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others." And Nigella adds that "around a table is where these three things meet".

And so to finish up Book Week, here's a pic of the great Nigella and I around a table.
A humungous thanks again to all the writers for being so amazing and signing the book sculptures, and also a huge thanks to you for reading this. I hope you've had a nice Book Week and that you have an even nicer Book Weekend!

The path of Weis resistance

Hi, here's a new ceramic sculpture I was recently commissioned to make of an orchid with a ladybug on its leaf.

Well this is orchid..

A big thank you to Danielle for this awesome commission. Or should I say, this orch-some commission. 

In other exciting news, I'm exhibiting a few works alongside lots of really great artists in the upcoming c3 gallery fundraiser exhibition, titled The Utopian Object, which opens this Thursday evening.

My works in the exhibition are titled Weisier Said Than Done.

It's the Weist I Can Do.

And Everything Happens For A Weison. 

The Utopian Object opens this Thursday (July 25th) from 6-8pm. Hopefully see you there! I'm so excited about it I might even wet my plants!

Thanks heaps for reading, and as a final drawing to leaf you on here's a little study I made in preparation for my orchid sculpture. 

KitKat got your tounge

Hi, hope you're really well, just thought I'd say hello and share a few things I've been up to.

Today I got to be the Artist In Residence on the ABC Arts Show!

At the start of the interview I made a ceramic sculpture of a potato.And then during the interview I sculpted the ceramic potato into a ceramic potato chip. 

As I was leaving the wonderful ABC studios a security guard looked at my ceramic chips and the chopping board I'd been working on and asked "So, you're a chef?" To which I replied, "Yep!"

A huge thanks to writer and broadcaster Fiona Gruber for inviting me on, it was an incredible opp-chip-chewnity, and to producer Alice Walker for taking the photos, I really appre-chip-ate it! To have a listen to the podcast just click here.

In other news, here's a new ceramic sculpture I made of a book about the brilliant architect photographer John Gollings.

I first met John Gollings back in 2015. He was working on a book about the Nicholas Building, and my studio was in the Nicholas Building, so John dropped by to take some pictures.

Here's a photo of John and I in my studio in 2015.

And four years later here we are just last weekend, where John was kind enough to autograph my sculpture.

Huge thank you to John for his wonderful generosity, (or should I say, John-erosity!)

In other news I've just completed seven weeks of teaching ceramics and painting to year 11 and year 12 art students at the VCA secondary school. A huge thanks to all the staff for having me, and to the students for being so committed and producing some fantastic work. 

Anyway thanks so much for reading and hope you're having a nice week choc full of fun.

Speaking of choc, to finish up here's a recent commission I made of some ceramic KitKat sculptures.