Friday, August 07, 2015

A write of passage

Hi pal, nice to see ya, hope everything's going all write with you.

And speaking of things going all write, this just a quick blog post to announce that I'm very excited to have been selected for the Kings Emerging Writers Program, as best illustrated here, in this photo of me coming out of a pool wearing a crown and holding my favourite pen and the best moleskin journal that money can buy.
Portrait of a Kings emerging writer.
Basically the outcome of the Kings Emerging Writers program is that I'll write three 500 word essay text things to accompany three exhibitions held throughout the remainder of this year at Kings Artist Run Gallery, (which is located at 171 Kings Street in Melbourne).

This is the first time I'll have ever written an exhibition essay for somebody else's show, which is very exciting and also it means I'm now one step closer to being a big hotshot art writer, AKA pretty much the next Clement Greenburg; (who was the American art critic most noted for being one of the earliest and biggest supporters of the great tin can tipper Jackson Pollock). 

A fun fact about Clement Greenburg is that he follows me on twitter.
This fun fact is made all the more impressive by the much less fun fact that Clement Greenburg died of emphysema in 1994, breathing his last breath twelve years before the creation of twitter.

And so with Greenburg's passing it now means that the biggest living supporter of Jackson Pollock is, (despite the fact this person hasn't quite yet mastered the spelling of Pollock's name), American actor Billy Zane.
Billy Zane is of course most notable for playing the bad guy in the movie Titanic, as seen in this quick drawing I did of him.
And Billy Zane is one tough critic. If you remember correctly from Titanic, (speaking as someone who saw it three times in the cinema), Billy Zane famously scoffed at his fiancee Rose's immense collection of paintings, saying that Picasso 'won't amount to anything'.
Just goes to show what I know, I've always thought Picasso was pretty good, but I guess I can't be write all of the time. And so even though I'm definitely going to be the next Clement Greenburg, unfortunately I don't think I'll ever be the next Billy Zane. 

But that's fine, I don't wanna be Billy Zane anyway, I'd much rather be Jack Dawson.
Actually no, scratch that, I wanna be Rose.
Rose was the best star in the film who didn't drown, and no thank you, no drowning for me. In fact quite the opposite, I'm emerging. 

Which brings me write back to the whole point of this blog post, which is to say that I'm very excited to be in the Kings Emerging Writers Program, and if you please come along to see the exhibition you can take home a copy of my very first exhibition essay, as well as obviously seeing the exhibition itself, which is a solo show by the excellent Melbourne artist Fleur Summers. The opening is tonight from 6-8pm.

If you can't make it tonight though the exhibition runs until August 29. Also, the essay will be published on the Kings Artist Run website so I'll be sure to put a link to it on here sometime very soon.

In the meantime though thanks so much for reading, hopefully see you tonight, and here's a picture of me as Jack Dawson at the front of the Titanic shouting "I'm the King(s Artist Run Emerging Writer) of the world!"

Saturday, August 01, 2015

Keep fighting the Goodes fight

Hi pal, hope your weekend's getting off to a Goodes start.

I wasn't planning on writing a blog post today but since it's so cold I've decided to try and warm myself up by writing about the time last year when I was lucky enough to meet the 2014 Australian of the Year and Sydney Swans football superstar Adam Goodes, at an event he spoke at about the work he does with Indigenous communities.

Here's a photo of me and Goodes. (See if you're able to tell which one of us is the professional athlete and which is the dorky fan?) 

After we'd had that photo taken I asked him if we could quickly take one more where I was wearing my Collingwood bandana, and he laughed and said "sure", and then he told me that when he was growing up he actually went for Collingwood as well. 


The other thing from that day is I'd made a painting of my Adam Goodes football card and so I asked him if he would please autograph it, just the same way he'd sign any other footy card, and here's Goodes' very generous reaction to when he looked at the painting.
And here's the signed painting.
Earlier this year I was up in Sydney when my friend told me she'd been offered two tickets to see the Swans play Richmond at the SCG. I was excited to go as I'd never been to the SCG, (which is a really nice ground to watch a game at by the way!) 

As well as never having gone to the SCG before 
I'd also never been to an AFL match where Collingwood wasn't playing, and through watching the game up close and objectively I was really able to appreciate what a great player Goodes is. (Ha, but of course me saying Goodes is a great player is not news to anyone!)

Anyway here's a photo I took on the night. That's him there, number 37.
I hope Goodes is able to get back out on the ground again sometime soon, (although I wish he were playing for Collingwood), but of course I understand Goodes returning to football is not so much up to Goodes as much as it is up to the actions of all of us. 

I've got nothing but love, respect and support for Adam Goodes, he's a genuine inspiration and just an all round legend.

Here's a drawing I did of him last year.


Acrylic on A3 paper. 2014.

I was thinking about that drawing yesterday and I realised I hadn't quite captured Goodes as the incredibly important leader that he is, so I had another shot at it, and thanks heaps for reading, I really appreciate it, and to finish off this blog post here's a drawing I did yesterday.
Acrylic and love on A3 paper. 2015.