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.

Dog Day Afternoon Delight

Hey, here's a quick drawing I did of an adorable, (and a-drawable), dog in the park.

Speaking of dogs, the group exhibition I was in called Every Dog Will Have It's Day has just come to a close, (held at the dog-gone Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Sydney, curated by Sophia Cai and Kathleen Linn).

My work in the exhibition was this triptych titled "Underdog, Hotdog, Western bulldog".

The triptych consists of a big canvas painting of an underdog, a ceramic hotdog, and a ceramic sculpture of a book by now retired AFL Western Bulldogs footballer Bob Murphy. 

But my Bob Murphy book sculpture wasn't the only ceramic book I made for the exhibition because in the lead up to the opening of the show I also made this sculpture of an exhibition catalogue about another person in the show, the great Sydney based artist Anastasia Klose, from her 2011 Gertrude exhibition "I Can't Stop Living". 

Here's the sculpture photographed in my backyard.

Did you know that apparently in the Middle Ages when we needed some copying done we couldn't just go to Officeworks? Instead, there were Monks whose job it was to individually reproduce manuscripts by hand.

I'm reading a great book at the moment all about the history of libraries and it says that supposedly these Monks believed "The very act of copying out texts by forming each letter and each stroke by hand was itself an act of observance and devotion". 

I really like that quote because it's definitely how I feel when painting away on a lot of my sculptures, like the inside cover of this ceramic Anastasia Klose catalogue. 

Anyway though, at the end of the day I guess it's all just a bit of Monk-y business 

And here's a photo from the opening of Anastasia and I, standing in front of both our work.

In other exciting news, I've got three drawings in an exhibition that's just opened at the Melbourne Town Hall Gallery. The show is all about the decline of the newspaper industry, and it's titled Ink in the blood: The life of Melbourne's newspapers.

The exhibition is curated by Andrew Stephens, a former journalist for the The Age newspaper, and the show's on until to February 17th, 2018. Which means, just like if you were holding a stack of newspapers, you've got Ages.

And in really fantastic news, the City of Melbourne have acquired all three of my drawings in this exhibition for the Victorian state collection. 

Here's one of the drawings, titled 'five people on the train reading The Age'.

Other than that, just two blocks up the road, is the group exhibition I'm in about Artist Books at the State Library of Victoria, which is still on until November 12. The feedback for this show has been seriously amazing so please check that out too if you can!

And the last thing to mention for today is that I'm super thrilled to be a finalist in the upcoming 2017 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, opening on the spooky day of this Friday the 13th. So if you're in Sydney at the end of the week then please join me for the exhibition opening, here's your invitation;

In the meantime though I hope you're having a nice week, being kind to others and being kind to yourself. And finally, here's a ceramic sculpture I made of a Rainbow Paddlepop.

Chinvitation

Whenever I see a pro athlete I admire I always seem to turn back into a 6 year old dorky fan. (Well, whenever I see someone who's a pro at anything really!)

Here's a photo from February when I very excitedly got to meet the great bulldogs captain Bob Murphy, who just this weekend played his last game of AFL football. 

Bob Murphy is a pretty special footballer for a lot of reasons, not least of which being the insightful, romantic and funny column he regularly wrote for The Age newspaper during his career, often reflecting on the game of football he'd played just a couple of days earlier.

These pieces were later compiled into a book called "Murphy's Lore", which as a little tribute I made a ceramic replica of, and then amazingly Bob was kind enough to autograph.

My sculpture of the bulldogs book is included amongst other new dog themed work in the exhibition Every Dog Has It's Day, on now until September 17 at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. So if you're in Sydney then please go sniff it out dog gone it!

(Quick drawing done while watching Collingwood defeat the Bulldogs in the AFL Womens League.)

Also, another thing on if you're in Sydney, I have a painting in the upcoming Firstdraft fundraiser auction that's on tomorrow night, (Friday September 1st), from 6-9pm!

 

To save me from having to write out the names of all the other artists who have donated work to the fundraiser, here's a flyer with the full list;

Firstdraft is a fantastic artist run gallery in Sydney and all the money raised from this fundraiser goes towards keeping the gallery rent free for all next years exhibiting artists. 

My piece you can bid on is this acrylic on canvas painting, titled 'Chinspiration'.

Chinspiration. Acrylic on canvas. 30 x 40cm. 2017

So yeah, thanks heaps for reading, and if you're chin Sydney tomorrow then you are very much chinvited to come bid on an artwork and at the same time help out a great gallery, it's a chin-chin situation!

A slipper the tounge

#1 Hot Tip For Staying Warm This Winter
If you're in Melbourne then drop by the Queen Victoria Market, they have heaps of good quality slippers for only $25. 

#2 Hot Tip For Staying Warm This Winter

Before you go to sleep, take your new slippers and slip them onto the paws of the nearest sleeping cat. Now all you have to do is wake up earlier than the cat and you can start your day off right wearing some toasty warm slippaws.

Be warned though, the temptation will be to take this a step further and also warm up your hat and mug handle.

But enough about Melbourne and cats, let's talk about Sydney and dogs, because my number 3 hot tip for staying warm this winter is to please check out this group exhibition I've got work in called "Every dog will have Its Day", curated by Sophia Cai and Kathleen Linn and presented at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre.

The show runs until September 17 and features work by ten Australia based artists; Abdul-Rahman Abdullah (WA), Dion Beasley (NT), David Capra (NSW), Anastasia Klose (NSW), Noel McKenna (NSW), Clare Peake (WA), Danielle Reynolds (VIC), Adrian Stojkovich (VIC) Natalie Thomas (VIC), and me (hello).

For the show I made three new dog themed pieces, one of which being a ceramic hotdog. Here's the claydog in progress.

How the sausage is made.

And here it is looking seedy and saucy, hanging on the gallery wall.

Hotdog. Acrylic on ceramic. 10 x 10 x 28cm. 2017.

In more exciting exhibition news; I've actually got work in 4 other group shows that you're very much invited to please check out...

First up, "You're my Number One" is still on at Firstdraft gallery in Sydney and finishes this Friday. The curator of the exhibition Talia Smith is giving a floor talk tomorrow evening (Thursday 27th) at 6pm so you should totally drop by for that if you can.

Next up I'm in the first group show at True Estate gallery at 134 Lygon Street. The show's called Open House, and curated by Beau Emmet and Elvis Richardson. The opening is this Tuesday, August 1st and then running until September 4th. The show's about what made us the artists we are today, and for this show I'm really excited to be exhibiting a drawing I made way back in 1998 when I was in grade four.

Here's the flyer with the complete artist list, should be rad hope you can check it out.

Thirdly, I'm in a show at Lamington Drive gallery, (52 Budd Street in Collingwood). The opening is next Wednesday, August 2nd, from 6-9pm, and it then runs until Saturday August 19. Also exhibiting in this show is Susan Robey, Madeleine Thornton-Smith, Tai Snaith, Andrei Davidov, Mechelle Bounpraseuth and Dawn Vachon. 

The exhibition is basically a hot pot of local artists who sometimes work with ceramics, and it's called "Cooked".

And last but not least I've got a new sculpture and some of my self published books in an exhibition called "Self Made; Zines and Artist Books" at the State Library of Victoria. 

The exhibition is curated by Monica Syrette and runs from Friday August 11 all the way until Sunday November 12th. For more details about this one just click here. 

And so yeah, hopefully you get a chance to slip on your slippers and check out one or maybe even all five of the exhibitions I've just mentioned, and if you'd like any more info on any of them definitely don't hesitate to send me an email or to shout at me from across the street. 

Most importantly though thanks heaps for reading, hope you're having a nice week, and just for fun here's a drawing I did of two puppies that I saw today.

Two dogs, (me before and after my morning coffee). Acrylic on 225gsm paper. 21 x 29.5cm. 2017

Murals Wedding

Hello, hello!

why did I write hello twice? Because I have two things to share!

first up, if you're in Sydney, (or going to be in Sydney at some point this month), I've got a new series of work in a group exhibition that opens tonight, 6-8pm, at Firstdraft gallery. 

The show runs until July 28 and has been expertly curated by Talia Smith. The show's called "You're My Number One" and basically it's a collection of works that play around with celebrity, fandom and popular culture, with humour and heart, bringing together artists from Thailand and New Zealand as well as Australia. 

The complete list of artists in the show is Zoe Wong, Daniel Mudie Cunningham, d.a.n.c.e art club, Janet Lilo, Natasha Matila-Smith, Marc Etherington, Low Cost Cosplay Group, Raquel Caballero, and me.

Click here for a link to the website Concrete Jungle where they have a list of "ten shows in Sydney this month that will drag you in from the cold", because in awesome news; this exhibition was put at number 3 on the list!... (ha, although surely they should've put a show with the title "You're my number One" in at their number 1.)

Ha, but so ok, that was the first thing, really hope you get a chance to see this show. The second thing I wanted to quickly share is here's a few photos of a mural I've just painted in a new carpark they're building at the Clayton campus of Monash Uni. The mural's called "Murals Wedding" and it's made up of forty something different paintings all mingling together by the elevators. 

A huge thanks to the team at MUMA (the Monash University Museum of Art) for this incredible opportunity, it was so much fun and I loved getting to paint on this scale. 

And so yeah, the carpark is meant to open in a couple of weeks and the mural will be there permanently so really hope you get a chance to see it, and really hope you like it!

And in the meantime thanks heaps for reading, hope you're having a nice day and if you're in Sydney hopefully see you tonight at Firstdraft!

Oh for Evans sake

Hey pal, happy new year! 

On new years eve I worked my job collecting shopping trolleys when I spotted a car that had a number plate I could really relate to;

Yes it's true; now that I live on the Northside, I cycle...

To the X-treme!!!

The bike was my Christmas present and it's so rad, I'd forgotten how much fun riding is. Now it's just a matter of time before I get car doored and I can really call myself a city kid.

The other present I got for Christmas was this thing called an Egg-Xite, used for cooking eggs in the microwave.

I'm not convinced about the Egg-Xite. For starters the pun in its name doesn't work; it should be spelt Egg-Cite.

One thing that really cracks me up about the Egg-Xite though is, well you know how some products have a thing on them that says "As seen on TV!" (which basically just means the company paid for an ad or an infomercial), well, the Egg-Xite doesn't even have that, it just says "TV".

Anyway I love the bike. My Dad got it from the Trash And Treasure market for $30, which means technically you might actually be better off stealing my bike-lock than my bike. But please, if you're gonna steal anything from me, take the Egg-Xite.

And so yeah, now that I own a bike I guess it was inevitable that I'd eventually bump into one of my peers who also owns a bike; the 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans. 

Here's a photo taken by my studio mate Sophie, it's of me making a sculpture of Cadel Evans' new memoir. 

The photo also features Jason, a video artist I share the studio with, sneaking up behind me to re-enact that scene from the movie Ghost.

Jason told me that his good friend Mark is also a cyclist, and that a few years ago he and Mark were in an airport together in Dubai and they saw Cadel Evans. Apparently Mark asked Cadel for a photo but Cadel said sorry but no. 

Maybe Cadel was busy, or having a bad day, or who knows, there's a million good reasons Cadel might not have wanted a photo at that moment, maybe his tyres were flat and he'd forgot to pack his favourite pump, but whatever the case Mark was disappointed he didn't get a photo.

So I asked Jason to send me a photo of Mark and I'd see what I can do. Here's what Jason sent me.

My favourite thing about this photo is the awesome woman in the centre of it who's doing the robot. 

Working for a supermarket I see first hand that robots are taking away our jobs, so it's only fair that we fight back and take away their dance moves.

Anyway so I cropped the image and printed it out and then when I met Cadel I told him how Mark was a big fan and would seriously love a photo... 

and so yeah, here's a photo of Cadel and Mark.




A huge thank you to Cadel Evans for being a total superstar and playing along. Also a huge thank you to Giulia McGauran for being such a pro photographer and taking the photos, (and also a huge thank you to Giulia's Dad for lending me his cycling gear).

Cadel was also kind enough to sign not one but two ceramic sculptures I made of his new memoir.

The reason I made two sculptures of this book is so that one could go into my collection, (AKA sit on my bookshelf), and the other I was thinking could possibly go into a new exhibition I'm about to have that opens in Singapore this January 10th.



But so yeah, in really amazing news, in a few days I'm flying to Singapore for a solo show at Chan Hampe Gallery! The exhibition's titled 'She smiled at me', it's curated by Khai Hori and goes from Jan 10 until Feb 9. The opening starts at 10pm which is pretty different and makes me feel like a cool DJ. 

Here's a ceramic sculpture I made of one of the library books I've been reading in preparation for the trip:

Thanks a bunch to Channel News Asia for including me in the list of "5 unique tours to check out at Singapore Art Week 2017". You can read that by clicking anywhere on this sentence.

And so this feels like a surreal thing to say, but if you do happen to be in Singapore this month then please check out my show, and if you wanna meet up somewhere for a chili crab or a flat noodle then definitely let me know!

Anyway thanks heaps for reading, hope that you're having a very egg-Xiting holiday break, and I'm about to go break some eggs and microwave myself a very egg-Xiting dinner.