From January through to February I was given the privelege of exhibiting alongside some of Perth's best artists like Andrew Nicholls, Olga Cironis, Eva Fernandez, and Carla Adams. As part of the Fringe World Festival, the exhibition LUST FOR LUSTRE featured 23 artists including myself, curated by artist Gemma Ben-Ary and Rizzy at Ellenbrook Arts Centre. LUST FOR LUSTRE focused on our cultural and individual relationships to pearls, from myth to scientific to personal significance, in any way the artist wished. The show concluded with a Fringe Award for Visual Arts and Design.
I've somehow misplaced my hi-res photographs. I'll post them another time. So we'll have to make do with some bad phone pictures of small details of my painting ''The Farming''. Click to enlarge each photo. I painted something perhaps unexpected, of cows birthing pearls in a factory farm, surrounding miserable factory workers. It became a diptych after I decided one panel couldn't convey the painting's atmosphere, and I wanted to add a third panel and maybe a fourth. But under the time constraints, learning to paint cows and then finish a painting of this type was tough. |
These two exhibitions have been the biggest jump in my career. I am very grateful for the opportunities given me by Gemma Ben-Ary and Emanuel von Baeyer, and for Sophie La Maitre who pushes me towards greater things.