Ten pieces of paper I found in shopping trolleys this month that I thought were shopping lists but aren't

Hi. I work two days a week at a supermarket where my job is to push the shopping trolleys from the car-park back into the store.

Yesterday a guy I work with told me that the job was starting to feel a bit repetitive. "Pardon?" I said. "A bit repetitive" he said. "Pardon?" I said. "A bit repetitive" he said.

One thing that helps keep the job interesting for me is I collect shopping lists. 

Sometimes though, I think I've found a shopping list but it's not until I pick it up and turn it over that I realise I've actually found something else. Here's ten non-lists I found this month.

I thought I found a shopping list but turns out I actually found...

1. A map.

2. A reminder to go to Mecca.

3. Matching notes to Mum and Dad.

4. A request from Grace's Mum.

5. A Medical Certificate.

6. A ripped up note from someone who bumped into someone else's car while parking.

7. Directions to the Big Fight.

8. Entry to Heaven.

9. Phill's Home Improvements.

And number 10. A perfume sample card.

Now that I've got these ten things I may as well put them to good use.

Thanks to the medical certificate I won't be going in to work tomorrow, instead I'll go to Mecca.  

I've never been to Mecca before but I should have no trouble finding it thanks to my new map. And if I bump into a car in the car-park, or if I bump into the ankle of anyone named Grace, it's ok as I've already got my notes ready for that as well.

I'm gonna send the matching love letters to my parents and then call up Phill from Phill's Home Improvements to ask if he wants to watch the Big Fight with me.

Anyway thanks for reading, let me know if you're feeling a bit stinky and would like me to send you the Dior perfume card. Other than that, hope you're having a nice day and see you in Heaven.

The ball's in your Court...ney Barnett

Hey, last Friday the incredible painter and wonderful person Yvette Coppersmith was awarded this years Archibald prize. 

Here's a quick portrait I did of Yvette Coppersmith, standing in front of her amazing portrait of Yvette Coppersmith. Congrats Yvette Coppersmith!!

Looking at all the other great Archibald finalists I was excited to see one of my fave singer-songwriters is also in there as a subject; Courtney Barnett, painted by Melbourne artist Melisa Grisancich. Here's a little drawing I did of Grisancich's painting.

And speaking of Courtney Barnett; she has a new album coming out tomorrow! Which "coincidentally" is also my birthday!

It's so cool even though I've never met Courtney Barnett and she has no idea I even exist that she still somehow definitely remembered my birthday and decided to give me this special b-day prezzie! 

And sure it's a little annoying that her record company must've forced Courtney to share the album that she made just for me with the rest of the world as well, but hey I guess that's just show biz. 

So thanks heaps for the birthday album Courtney!! And here I was thinking that nothing could top the birthday email that Subway sent me.

You can pre-order the new Courtney Barnett album by clicking here. Or you can do what I'm gonna do and just wait till it comes out tomorrow and get it using the JB gift voucher your brother gave you for Christmas.

Here's a little painting on board that I did of the voucher I will be trading tomorrow for the album.

Ha, anyway I don't really have any reason to be plugging the new Courtney Barnett album aside from the fact that I'm really excited to hear it! 

But another thing I'm perhaps even more excited to plug is the exhibition Monuments To The Everyday, featuring Carly Fisher, Nathan Taylor and myself, which opened this weekend at Realm Artspace in Ringwood. 

A huge thanks to everyone who braved the cold for the opening but if you weren't able to see it there's still plenty of time as it's running until July 15!

Here's the cover of the exhibition catalogue, which is available for free at the show, featuring an essay by Melbourne based writer (currently in Germany) Jane O'Neil.

But so yeah, I'm turning 30 tomorrow and in the meantime I'm clinging to the last moments of today by doing lots of online surveys while I still get to tick the box of falling into the very cool demographic of being in my twenties...

Ha, but so if unlike Courtney Barnett and Subway you've somehow forgotten to get me a bday pres then please remember I still collect abandoned shopping lists!

Quick side note on that; Coming into the rainy season you have to be very careful picking up lists due to the fact they tear so easily when they're wet, so if picking up lists outside be sure to use all those skills you acquired when you were a kid playing the game Operation.

Here's a particularly fragile list I recently rescued from a puddle.

And here it is the next day, all nice and dried out.

But so yeah, if you have an old list lying around I would love it if you could please send it my way at P.O. Box 5039, Moreland West. Victoria. 3055. 

Perhaps you could just make a list that says "Send kenny this piece of paper", and then when you get to the post box you'll be able to tick it off the list.

Ha, but ok thanks so much for reading, I hope you're really well, and the last thing I wanna mention is that in addition to the show I'm in at Realm Artspace I've also been painting a mural on the outside of the gallery, next to Ringwood library, so if you get a chance to see the show please don't forget to check the mural out as well!

And in the meantime here's a sneak of how it's coming along.

(The mural's not even complete yet but already it's proving to be a bit of a photo hotspot.)

Much like the above pic I also took my photo with Gromit, but rather than drink a smoothie in front of him I found that he likes it best when you scratch under his chin. 

And tomorrow at the mural I'll be sure to bring along my discman and my new CD and then Gromit and I can each share an ear of my headphones. 

A fun fact about Gromit is he's nearly thirty too! 

And so as the two of us listen to Courtney sing Need A Little Time we'll be sure to think about everything that's lead us to this point, taking a little time out and enjoying our free six inch sub.

The Empire Strikes Cat

Happy May the Fourth!

Here's a new ceramic sculpture of Princess Leia, photographed as she was just about to quickly turn around, fire her pistol and blast Jabba the Cat out into space.

Speaking of space, I'm in an upcoming three person exhibition at Realm Art space in Ringwood, Victoria. 

The show's called Monuments to the Everyday and is curated by the astronomically amazing Emily Jones. 

The two shining art stars I'm excited to be exhibiting alongside are Melbourne based sculptor Carly Fischer and Tasmanian based painter Nathan Taylor. Here's one of his paintings on the flyer, as seen here in the current issue of Art Guide Australia.

The exhibition's on from May 10th until July 15th so hopefully you donut miss out on seeing it! 

The opening's from 2-4pm on Saturday May 12th and will be officially opened by the Mayor of Maroondah CR Lora Lamont, followed by guest speaker Kieran Robinson. Very fancy. So please scribble it into your diary, punch the co-ordinates into your spaceship and come along if you can!

Hopefully cat-ch you there and in the meantime here's another photo that was taken a long time ago in a galaxy fur, fur away. 

May the paws be with you.

Everybody needs good Neighbours

Attention Hollywood, in an attempt to pursue my lifelong dream of being an extra on Neighbours I've done something a little scary and officially joined up with an extras agency. 

Ideally I would like to be in a scene with either Dr. Karl or Toadie...

Also, in city planning news, here's my pitch for a new Melbourne train network, painted in the arcade below Flinders Street Station.

Big thanks to curator Brigid Hansen for inviting me to do it. It's been up for a month and is staying there for just a couple of days more, so please check it out next time your train's delayed.

Here's a shot of me standing in front of the city loop de loop while doing a loop de loop on my yo-yo.

And also, I have a few more bits of equally exciting art news!..

If you're in Victoria, I have a new solo show that opens today at Bunjil Place gallery in Narre Warren. It's on until April 29, I've worked super hard on it and would Love for you to see it! Please click here for more info.

And if you're in Sydney, I have new work in group show that opens tomorrow 5-8pm at Cement Fondu gallery in Paddington, curated by Megan Monte and Josephine Skinner. Please come say hi!

And then next week, back in Melbourne after a couple of shifts working as a trolley boy, I'm doing a week long drawing residency in the art gallery at Deakin Uni in Burwood, curated by James Lynch.

The project is called The Drawing Room and basically the idea is that over the course of a month four different artists, (and in one case an artist duo), come spend a week within the gallery space, responding directly to the university campus and the works within Deakin's art collection. Click here for more info. 

And if you happen to be around the Deakin campus next week be sure to skip class and come draw with me!

And so yeah, thanks heaps for reading and hopefully see you soon, either in an art gallery or as a 1 second background blur on your TV at 6.30pm weeknights.

Sunny loving, happened so fast

Hi, here's some new ceramic sculptures of everyone's favourite icy treat that they actually stopped making last year but you can still find in some milk bars; the Sunny-boy.

I photographed the ceramic Sunny-boys here in sunny St. Kilda, on top of my wooden esky sculpture, with a couple of real life sunny boys going for a run in the background.  

And here I am away from the beach, with four of the Sunny-boys hanging on my studio wall.

Amazingly, I was commissioned to make these Sunny-boy sculptures for the great Peter Oxley, AKA the bass player in the awesome Australian band the Sunnyboys!!!

And so yeah, super exciting, here's a photo of Peter alongside his brother and Sunnyboys bandmate Jeremy. I'm told this photo was taken in Newtown in Sydney in 1980, (apparently back then Sunny-boys were only 20 cents!), and best of all the photo shows Peter holding an actual Sunny-boy.

And now, here's Pete just last week, holding my Sunny-boy sculpture.

It's so cool to be able to compare the two images of Peter and the Sunny-boy, separated in time by almost four decades!

A huge thank you to Pete's partner, Heidi Jackson, for organising this commission. Heidi is also a stellar artist herself, and I'm super thrilled to have a fantastic little painting of hers hanging in my bedroom. 

Here's a photo I took of Heidi's painting while standing in the middle of the road.

And you can (and should!) check out more of Heidi's paintings by clicking here.

As well as Heidi, I also wanna say a big thanks to Peter for his support, and also a big thanks to Melbourne filmmaker Emmy Clifton for helping me document the Sunny-boy sculptures.

Lastly of course a big thanks to the band the Sunnyboys for all their music. And in exciting news, the Sunnyboys will be performing live this February 2nd at the Melbourne Zoo as part of the concert series of Music Against Wildlife Extinction. For more info on that click here.

So yeah, looking forward to the zoo next year, and in the meantime if you're desperate for a Sunny-boy fix then you're in luck because earlier today I spotted this Razz Rasberry flavoured six pack, all yours for just $2.99, still currently available in the PAST DATED section at the Foodworks in Flemington.

Oh boy, oh boy. Thanks heaps for reading, I hope you're having a particularly sunny day, and to finish up here's one of my very favourite Sunnyboys songs. It's called Happy Man, it's from 1981 and if possible my hot tip is that it's best played at full volume while driving to the beach. Or the zoo. Or Flemington Foodworks.

Somewhere over the rainbow paddlepop

Hi, here's seven new little ceramic sculptures I was commissioned to make for the Melbourne Town Hall art collection.

I was going to photograph them in my studio but the weather was nice so I decided to go for a walk around the block and photograph them in front of some flowers.

Golden Gaytime. Acrylic on ceramic. 20 x 7 x 4cm. 2017.

Rainbow Paddlepop. Acrylic on ceramic. 19 x 6 x 2cm. 2017.

Milko. Acrylic on ceramic. 10 x 2 x 1cm. 2017.

Redskin. Acrylic on ceramic. 10 x 2 x 1cm. 2017.

Dead horse. Acrylic on ceramic. 21.5 x 8 x 6cm. 2017.

It's a long way to the shop if you wanna sausage roll. 22 x 7 x 7cm. Acrylic on ceramic. 2017.

A saucey smile. Acrylic on ceramic. 6 x 6 x 3cm. 2017.