Trait

Have you ever watched commercial news? Its like glossy junk mail for petty crime and hearsay.

Flashing lights, banners and borders. Scrolling headlines, 3d graphics and news anchors with no desks or degrees. Even the weather has B-grade CGI of lightning strikes that would send any epileptic viewer convulsing to the floor. ‘Journalists’ speaking in tongues with newspeak so blasphemes it would have George Orwell frothing at the mouth.

There’s no in-depth analysis of the war in Syria and its implications for the global humanitarian refugee crisis. No, just an entire article about some young olive-skinned Muslim boy who took a selfie whilst raising his index finger to the sky.

Fears on the trains, fears on the roads, fears in the water and fear thy neighbour. We’ll be back after these messages from corporate marketing monkeys selling you a half empty bottle of insecurity. Buy this, buy that, you don’t need it but it might inflate your sense of self worth if only for a moment. Retail therapy followed by buyer’s remorse.

And now to our final story. “A Tree on Fire’. No shit, that was the last story. A single tree on fire in a suburban Sydney street. It even had its own drop banner at the bottom of the screen in large capital letters, SYDNEY TREE FIRE. The epitome of cutting edge journalism brought to you with shaky mobile phone footage from two different camera angles running under the audio of a concerned local resident, ‘I just can’t believe something like this would ever happen here’.

And now … Sport.

Who can blame em... A narcissistic president personified in narcissistic pubescents. Status update from a selfie stick. Male mascara, shaved calves for a steroid addiction. Change your skin, change your hair, aiming for that Disney princess look. Designer water, three month wardrobe cycles and a pet poodle with urinary tract defects.  Go Pro strapped to the kick-board, personal hashtag, upload now, quick, quick give me another way to validate myself.

Can’t do that, too hard, takes too long and it’s not cool now anymore.

It was only a few centuries ago that the only way to look at yourself was in the reflection of the water surface on a calm day. There was no ME only US, you were only as good as the tribe around you. The only reason you looked into the glassy blue was to gather water, catch fish and watch out for the Crocodile trying to gnaw on your fucking shin bone. Spend too long admiring your reflection and you'd find yourself clawing at the muddy river bank as as a one tonne relative of the dinosaurs drags you down into the murky depths.

No eulogy, no memorial not even a fucking headstone just a fable told to be passed down the generations about the pretty parrot who fell victim to the dangerous sin of vanity.

"Vanity" - Acrylic on paper.

"The Offering", acrylic and aerosol on wood.

This piece was part of a group show exhibition held at Moving Mountains Gallery in Wollongong. The show was titled "The Art of Food Waste" hosted by Hidden Harvest. The exhibition aimed to high light the issue of food waste through art.

This piece is still available for purchase. Please contact me if you are interested.

I painted this mural on the old stables in Kiama overlooking Surf Beach. The project was self directed, a local graffitti artist suggested I should try paint this wall back in mid 2016. After approaching council it was suggested I apply for a grant. After first failing to gain a grant I was successful on the second attempt and then once all approvals were gained I was able to start the piece over twelve months later.

Painting murals always has its challenges, it is one of the things I enjoy about painting large scale public pieces. The first day of this piece there was a few interesting challenges I've never had to deal with before.

I've had to deal with bad weather before be it rain, wind or even extreme heat but I have never had to contend with the ocean before. Prior to painting the mural I was watching the weather forecast as there was the possibility of rain and wind. The forecast for the weather looked good but I didn't check the surf forecast as I've never had to contend with large waves crashing literally at my feet whist I painted. At the western end of the mural I was coping a lot of sea spray every time a large wave hit the rocks but as I worked my way east sketching up the mural I was coming closer and closer to the rocks and by the time I was sketching up the horse the waves were landing right behind me.

Once I had the mural sketched up I took a break and placed my work platform behind the pine tree and then sat in my car twenty metres away to get out of the sea spray and waves. Whilst I ate some food with my back to the wall I guess some opportunistic individual thought my platform was up for grabs. When I went back to work I was shocked to find it had been stolen. Lesson learned I guess.

Approximately one hour after my platform had been stolen I had a visit from the Police. Apparently someone had called the cops because they thought I was illegally painting the wall. I found it rather humorous that I was being considered the villain when only an hour earlier I was the victim. 

It was an eventful first day and thankfully the next two days went relatively smoothly although I did get lucky in the final hours when a storm past by just to the north.

Every artwork tells a story and also creates one.

Over the last three years I have painted live murals at the Yours and Owls Festival in Wollongong. The murals have been painted in conjunction with The Forever Projects (@foreverprojects) who do amazing work in Tanzania empowering families to create sustainable employment and deal with child nutrition and health.

My piece is titled "Tying Up or Untying?" Featuring Red Browed Finches.

This year we had ten artists transforming this picnic shelter into a vibrant art installation to raise awareness of the work The Forever Projects do and promoting their theme of empowering people by Using Whats in Your Hands (#whatsinyourhands). The artists involved were BafCat, Sion Griff, Caitilin O.J., Mikey Freedom, Nici Bedson, Zealot, Craoni and Courtney Beatson.

Photographer Sarah Pulling and Filmer Ryan Grant were also involved. A full clip of the event can be found on Forever Projects instagram. The whole installation was curated by myself and the ever resourceful Dan Robson.

I was painting alongside my good friend Sam Clouston (@samsonclouston).

"Useless Wooden Toys" was a Skateboard deck exhibition and auction held at Howling Wolf Bar in Wollongong. The event was hosted by Sion Griff at Kraken Kreative to raise funds for the organisations Three For The Sea and Plastic Free Wollongong. Both these organisations aim to reduce the amount of pollution in our environment. There was over thirty skateboards in the exhibition by local artists and all boards were sold on the night. 

These were the two boards I donated for the event. The first board is titled "Reality Tv', painted with acrylic and aerosol on an old Anti Hero Skateboard. The piece was inspired by an old Slave Skateboards design.

The second board is titled "Rats Get Fat", painted with acrylic and aerosol on an old SHFC board. This piece was inspired by a song by B. Dolan titled "Rats Get Fat While Great Men Die".

A collaboration project with Ryan Grant.

This is an ongoing series which I brain-strormed with Ryan. I had the idea to paint an image on a wall and then get a photo of myself wall riding on the painting. It wasn't until Ryan hit me up to shoot a photo in front of one of my murals that the idea expanded. That's when I came up with the idea of handplants. And the best place to do this project was at Kiama skatepark one of the only parks that you can still actually paint on.

I know there are skateboarders and definitely members of the public that don't like graffiti and art on skateparks. But I feel these places should be more open to all forms of creativity. I learnt to skate and how to paint at this skatepark and if it wasn't for the freedom of expression allowed there I would never have become the artist I am today.

Recently I fractured my tail bone skating on a park that had been re-surfaced with an anti-graffiti coating. The coating allows the council to easily clean off any graffiti or art but it makes the park slippery when there is any dust or moisture on the surface. I think a park with bad graffiti is a lot better than a park that's dangerous to even roll around on. That's just my opinion but id rather see a crudely draw penis than have a fractured tailbone.

Thanks to Ryan Grant for motivating me to start this project. There s still a lot more handplants id like to install in the future.

All skate photos were shot by Ryan Grant.

Unanderra, NSW.

I always find it interesting that people can be so against trees but seem to be so oblivious to power lines.

My solo show "The Waiting Room" was the first exhibition in the new Moving Mountains Gallery space in the Crown St Mall, Wollongong.

The show featured paintings on found and recycled objects such as signs, skateboards and wood as well as some installations created from found wood.

"Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig of curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting."
DR Seuss

Windang - NSW

The traditional beach side shack is disappearing under bunker style mansions up and down the coast whilst the coastline is disappearing due to rising sea levels. Coastal native vegetation that protects our coast is disappearing to create views for people in mansions to lazy to walk down to the sand. Pretty soon we'll have castles on the sand.

This shipping container has been repurposed into a kiosk at Mt Kiera overlooking Wollongong. Commissioned work by Wollongong City Council.

Live art mural collaboration with Mike Watt and Sam Clouston at the Yours and Owls festival, 2016. This live art project was done with The Forever Projects to raise awareness and funds to there amazing charity work in Tanzania. The mock market stall installation also featured artists, Mikey Freedom and Nicci Bedson.

Solo exhibition at Rad Bar in Wollongong. June 2015

Painted on a roller door in Bulli near Wollongong.

This mural was commissioned by Sydney Water on a pump house beside the Princes Hwy in Kiama.