Tasmoonia

Hey, for the past two weeks I've been painting murals in Tasmania as part of the upcoming MONA FOMA Festival. 

If you'd have told me ten years ago that I'd get to work with MONA I would've said, "Huh, what's that?" because MONA only opened in 2011. Ha, but working with MONA is such a dream come true!!

Curated by Pippa Mott, I've been invited to paint three murals, consisting of about 25 wall paintings, spread across multiple venues in Launceston. 

The first mural I painted is out the front of the Workers Club and is titled Fairly Armless.

Fairly Armless is showing alongside amazing new work by Sydney pals Rosie Deacon and Heath Franco. Come check it out, here's your invitation!

My second mural is at the Inveresk Artspace in the University of Tasmania. This work is titled The Tasmanian Symphony Orchidstra and consists of ten large scale paintings.

Here's a sneak peak at some of them.

Don't mind me, just painting my toenails.

These ten paintings open tomorrow night alongside great new work by amazing Melbourne artist Lou Hubbard, and also UK artist Nick Ryan. Here's your invite!

My third mural isn't actually a mural at all- it's a Mooral. 

Painted in the large stairway (and elevators) in the iconic Albert Hall, the Mooral consists of dozens of paintings of cows all herding their way down the stairs.

There's an urban legend that apparently cows can't walk down stairs, something to do with the way their knees bend, but this Mooral will show that's a load of bull.

You may be wondering what cows have in common with the performers at Albert Hall? Well, they're both out-standing in their field.

Here's a couple of sneak peaks of the Mooral. My hope is it will put you in the perfect moo-d to grab your day by the horns.

Last week I was interviewed about my work on ABC radio and I mentioned the thing about cows not being able to walk down stairs and a farmer called up to say that I was wrong and that his cows walk down four stairs every day just fine.

I was then interviewed by Shannon on Chili FM and we decided that four stairs doesn't count as a staircase, (haha, so my concept still stands!)

The third radio station I went on was LA FM where I got to speak about MONA Foma with Jules. It was lots of fun and they put our little chat up online so if you wanna hear me be very nervous on the radio you can listen by clicking here. 

Here's a photo Jules took of me after the interview holding up a drawing I'd just done of two Tasmanian devils.

Amazingly, (and a-moo-singly), my Mooral made it onto the cover of the main Launceston newspaper The Examiner. Huge thanks to Frances Vinall for such a great article.

Although I reckon I might need to stop eating quite so many hot cross buns because I don't remember ever having this many chins. 

Far out!
And speaking of things that are far out- another article I read in the Launceston newspaper said that UFO's have been spotted in the area.

Luckily I haven't encountered any yet... Hang on, wait a sec... Uh oh I think they got me!!
Big thanks again to curator Pip Mott and everyone at MONA for being so amazing to work with.
Big thanks to Zak Hutchinson for helping me with the ladder, and for surprising me with boysenberries.
Big thanks to my girlfriend Emmy for helping me eat the boysenberries, and for all her support.
And a big thanks to all the Launceston locals who've said nice things when they've seen me out painting.

The MONA FOMA Festival is happening until January 20th. Some of my murals are staying up until around mid year so if you're in Tasmania why not work your calf muscles and herd over to see them!

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you're having an udderly delightful start to the year.

I’d like to acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which the murals are located, the palawa and pakana people.