2014 QRAA Award Winners
- The Wayne Kratzmann Award – Sharon McKenzie, Exquisite Corpse
- Highly Commended: Kelly Dee Knight, Breathe Life
- Brian Tucker Young Artist Development Award – Lauren Ryan, The Rescue
- The Edge Digital Art Award – Buck Richardson, Serenity Mill
- Highly Commended: Donna Davis, One…
- Art Shed Brisbane People’s Choice Award – Renton Bishopric/Clare Botfield, Millinoma (Open)
- Kiera Byrne, Mikki (Youth)
- Gray Puksand /TAFTA Textile Award – Ilona Demecs, Abbot Point
Touring Exhibition
Click the images below to view larger pictures of these artworks.
Artist: Denise Vanderlugt
Artist Location: Proserpine
Medium: Artist Book hand bound, Digital Imagery on 160g/m2 Fabriano Paper (2014)
Dimensions: 10 x 26 x 23 cm
Artist Statement:
Insect Art The journey of growing a garden of local plants has produced a healthy green gallery filled with a vast array of different shaped leaves. These leaves are the food for the insects that produced the artwork presented in this book. What is not there … the holes in the leaves … is evidence of the ‘Vital Signs’ of life
Artist: Kelly-Dee Knight
Artist Location: Cedar Creek
Medium: Hand cut & coloured paper, pins, foamboard in a white box frame with perspex (2014)
Dimensions: 120 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
This artwork addresses the precarious and complex relationships humans experience with our natural environment and resources. It honours my deep connection to the Australian bush (having spent many years living in regional Queensland) and the healing power of the breath. The work also comments on the interconnectedness of humans to the environment, our consciousness and impact upon it. Humans are destroying the living support system for our planet through climate change — we are suffocating the very thing that we depend on for survival. I have created a respiratory system from drawings of local flora located within 10km of my home. These drawings were meticulously hand cut and colored then pinned to reference specimens found in a museum. Through the making of this work I am forced to slow down and reflect upon the importance of nature for my existence. I breathe in life and breathe out life.
Artist: Julie Norman
Artist Location: Flying Fish Point
Medium: Acrylic on canvas (2014)
Dimensions: 102 x 76 cm
Artist Statement:
At my doorstep in Far North Queensland is one of the world’s great natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef, home to a myriad of creatures including the elusive Painted Crayfish which hide deep in coral caves. My Grandson spear fishes, providing me with occasional crayfish heads I cook for soup stock. I am entranced by their natural vivacious beauty; such an array of unique vibrant colours and patterns. Creating its organic essence onto canvas was as elusive as catching one in the ocean. It took a long time, many different techniques to achieve. I learned a lot about myself, my work. Even thought of giving up sometimes, feeling overwhelmed. Finally, this painting took me where it wanted to go rather than vice versa. I began to feel its lusty pulse; vital signs indicative of the Reef’s dynamic energies, its thriving life forms, sustaining my body and my art practice.
Artist: Sharon McKenzie
Artist Location: West Ipswich
Medium: Pen (2014)
Dimensions: 120 x 95 cm
Artist Statement:
The theme of “vital signs” is explored through species loss due to urbanization of regional areas. Threatened species are becoming more prevalent in regional areas as intact bush land is being cleared to make way for development and mining exploration. The animals featured in this image are the black throated finch, grey headed flying fox, swift parrot and the squatter pigeon. These animals are all endangered or vulnerable animals of my hometown of Ipswich. The title refers to the beauty of the preserved animal in a museum context and also the game played by the Surrealists. The “exquisite corpse” is made up of several parts of these animals and references preservation (how that which is preserved can be edited), cloning, and fragmentation and art history.
Artist: Seabastion Toast
Artist Location: Palm Beach
Medium: Acrylic on canvas (2014)
Dimensions: 75 x 75 cm
Artist Statement:
I see urban wild life as a vital sign of the health of a city. Foxes are one of the the first species who will move into built up areas to scavenge. Thus they are an important signifier that our “wild” areas are in peril. In Australia, the fox as an introduced species is causing havoc to the original habitat but conversely helps to control one of our other major pests, the rabbit. I used the idea of the mask to explore the nature of this difficult interplay whereby the fox can masquerade both as a vital saviour, or destructive villain.
Artist: Denise Vanderlugt
Artist Location: Proserpine
Medium: Artist Book hand bound, Digital Imagery on 160g/m2 Fabriano Paper (2014)
Dimensions: 10 x 26 x 23 cm
Artist Statement:
Insect Art The journey of growing a garden of local plants has produced a healthy green gallery filled with a vast array of different shaped leaves. These leaves are the food for the insects that produced the artwork presented in this book. What is not there … the holes in the leaves … is evidence of the ‘Vital Signs’ of life
Artist: Leanne Vincent
Artist Location: Sadliers Crossing
Medium: Digital print on gloss aluminium panel (2014)
Dimensions: 70 x 70 cm
Artist Statement:
Natural environments are constantly changing due to ecological factors and human intervention. Our landscapes are becoming increasingly industrialised as the population increases, and as urban development’s spread we encroach further into wildlife habitats. My work is focused on raising awareness of the plight of Australia’s native bird species that are becoming displaced and threatened due to habitat destruction and fragmentation. The Glossy Black Cockatoo is a threatened species of Ipswich and is in decline throughout Australia due to the consequences of land clearing for agriculture and urban development. The foundation of my arts practice, which is predominately digital photography, is constructed on themes of environmental concerns, human behaviour and notions of public and private spaces with the view to change our perceptions of the way we live and how we influence the surrounding ecosystems.
Artist: Hasdieh Afshani
Artist Location: Miami
Medium: Oil on timber (2014)
Dimensions: 82 x 70 cm
Artist Statement:
My work is focused on the new experiences of migration/transplantation and the subsequent absence/presence of people, places and emotions in my life. They are based on the emotional journey an immigrant takes to Australia. This journey is not just from one place to another, but, in reality, a journey of identity, of replacement and the process of becoming familiar with, and finding of one’s self in a new and unknown place. The human psychology that keeps us hopeful in these situations, which produce such sense of depression and loss, as in period of war, the death of beloved, and immigration are universal and interest me particularly and finally how the incredible unfamiliar trees and plants in this new land can be a good symbol for this “Hope” and a good reason to go out of a dark familiar interior.
Artist: Doug Spowart and Victoria Cooper
Artist Location: Toowoomba
Medium: Photograph – pigment inks on photo paper (2013)
Dimensions: 77 x 66 cm
Artist Statement:
On a recent journey to Miles in Central Southern Queensland, this sign captivated our attention. We contemplated how it demands, exclaims and proclaims – Produce! So Miles, once a centre for agriculture, is now pulsating with the growth of the energy industry. This land continues to give food, or energy, or shelter to satisfy the relentless and escalating human demand. Perhaps in a deeper reading of this sign, there is also a poignant story of humanity’s insatiable diet for progress dependent on a seemingly limitless Nature producing for its consumption.
Artist: Lauren Ryan
Artist Location: Beaudesert
Medium: Stop-motion animation (2014)
Artist Statement:
Set in the prep-room at my parent’s veterinary practice, ‘The Rescue’ alludes to the decline of the dairy industry in Queensland after its deregulation in 2000. Performed by left over milking machine parts from my father’s defunct consultancy business, ‘The Rescue’ also makes reference to the trials my family endured in attempting to survive within the dairy industry through those difficult times. The notion of ‘Vital Signs’ is also explored through childhood memories of growing up around a family business in a rural town, and how that has shaped my creativity. Playful and naïve, the work echoes musings on long hours spent waiting at the clinic with only my imagination and a box full of forgotten parts to entertain me. Creating the animation was, in a way, a re-enactment of those times – the movement of the objects intuitive decisions based on years of imaginative play as a child.
Artist: Buck Richardson
Artist Location: Kuranda
Medium: Photography/Digital Art (2014)
Dimensions: 80 x 108 cm
Artist Statement:
In Serenity Mill I have juxtaposed the demolition of the decaying Babinda Sugar Mill with the meticulously maintained Serenity Garden. These two icons of Babinda were only a stone’s throw apart fronting the Bruce Highway. Now, the mill has gone. One must pose the question: Which of these images represents the vital sign for the future of rural and remote Queensland?
Artist: Tommy Pau
Artist Location: Townsville
Medium: Digital (Photoshop) (2014)
Dimensions: 50 x 70 cm
Artist Statement:
The Torres Strait Flag was a vital sign that Torres Strait Islanders were taking their own existence into their own hands. John Douglas, the Government resident and magistrate at Thursday Island in 1885, implemented a system of local island government, where island leaders would handle the affairs of their community. This semi-autonomous government gave Torres Strait Islanders enormous confident in greater autonomy. Torres Strait Islanders understood assimilation and worked to be included into being outstanding British citizens. When Queensland, annexed the Torres Strait and Islanders became Australian citizens all hope of self autonomy was taken away and Islanders were put under what was called, the Dog Act, the Aboriginal Protection and Restrictions of the Sale of Opium Act 1897. The Torres Strait Flag is a journey of a minority group of people who have come through assimilation, loss, war, identity crisis, mortality, discrimination and Australian colonialism hegemony to contributed and achieved success in Australian and Queensland society and economic. The pearl shell industry, the cane industry, the railway network and war effort are the few examples of Islanders contribution and achievements to Australia. The recognisation of the Torres Strait flag in July 1995 is a significant milestone in Torres Strait and Australian history highlighting the vital role of Torres Strait Islanders as Australian. Torres Strait is a vital sign of the welfare of Australian agriculture, as it is the buffer zone for pests and disease coming from Asia. Australia and Australians should be proud and thankful of the present day role the Torres Strait Islands have for the Australian continent. Artwork Explanation The main image is of Thawie draped by the Torres Strait flag. I was with my father having breakfast when Thawie and I gave my dad our entries to take to the Island Co-coordinating Council (ICC) office for the competition. We were overwhelmed by him winning the competition but never anticipated that his design would be flown nationally and internationally. The circle above and below the are some of Mr. Namok’s life achievements: Top symbols from left to right: • The first circle above is of an IBIS (Islanders Board of Industries and Service). Thawie worked for IBIS after finishing school and work till made redundant. • The second circle is of a Dibidibi (chest ornament) worn by warriors which he was. • The Third circle is of his Christian belief, being baptised in Jesus Name for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38 King James Version); • The fourth circle is of a traditional headdress, the Dhari, worn only by men who have been initiated and allow to contributing to the community. Those who are not initiated are called- Nog le(no body or man without a tribe, clan or totem); • The fifth circle is of a canoe and speaks of his seamanship. The Bottom symbols from left to right: • The first circle is of a Dibidibi, Dhari and Crown a symbol, I created for the Coming of the Light, when Christianity first came to the Torres Strait; • The second circle speaks of his loving relationship with family and friends; • The third circle is of Thawie’s layman ministry as a Pentecostal preacher; • The fourth is of his passion for rugby league. The icon is of the Torres Eels, which dominated the league on Thursday Island for ten years and the only team he played and supported; • The fifth circle is Thawie’s Pacific heritage from Vanuatu. The images in white are of various animals of the Torres Strait. The images surrounded by the crocodile feet pattern are stylised headdress, the Dhari. The diamond, triangles and oblongs are called, Karr (fence patterns).
Artist: Ross McMaster
Artist Location: Frenchville
Medium: Mixed media on wood panel (2014)
Dimensions: 120 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
Ross McMaster is an artist who uses appropriated images and texts in a mixed-media approach to art production. His work explores the corruption of democracy in it’s myriad of forms. His entries, (theme, Vital Signs), comment on the long-term destruction of the environment by large multi-national resource corporations in the quest for short-term profit. His work seeks to draw attention to the corruption of the democratic process by corporations with their own agenda. The Queensland government subsidised this industry to the tune of 9.5 billion dollars over a six-year period to June 2014, yet our agricultural industry receive little by comparison. Environmental reports are often ignored and as a result, our future food security is being slowly eroded. The vital signs of our arable land and productive ocean are nearing flat-line. The question is, once they are in intensive care, will we be able to resuscitate?
Artist: Baoying Li
Artist Location: Proserpine
Medium: Oil on board (2014)
Dimensions: 90 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
Before I was relocated to regional of Queensland, I was lived in a high rise building above ground 100 meters. Since I moved to Whitsunday and lived in a real Queensland’s home in 5 acres of wilderness land, I was deeply touched by the beauty of sub tropical nature and the sense of my freedom to grown and eat my organic fresh fruits and veggies. every moment I am breathing in the unpolluted mountain fresh air. I am living with a well protected natural environment, the uplifting energy flushed into my body and my mind which offers my wellbeing every day. The biggest change of my every day intake of food supply have changed from supermarket to my back year. The Lemon from my back yard has become important source of made daily drinking water. My oil painting “The lemon from my backyard ” is a celebration of organic living.
Artist: Alinta Krauth
Artist Location: Witheren
Medium: Interactive digital artwork – hypertext webpage (2014)
Artist Statement:
What are the vital signs? Is vitality the same for everyone? “to arrive by chance” is an interactive digital poetry artwork that questions what is vital, and plays with the notion of life and death, and human evolution, by mixing absurdist, dark, and naive styles of art and animation, represented by four different animals. Viewers interact with this piece by finding the hidden hyperlinks on each page to move to the next stanza. Each animal is accompanied by poetry that explores the grey area between life and death, and asks us to question what it is that animates life and creates vitality – personally and scientifically. “to arrive by chance” explores the notion that if vital signs are what we use to know that we are alive, then the same signs cannot be attributed to everyone. Computer coding, digital drawing, watercolour, paint, mixed media. For computer and tablet display. Click on the link to be taken to the interactive website – http://www.alintakrauth.com/toarrivebychance/index.html
Artist: Kelly-Dee Knight
Artist Location: Cedar Creek
Medium: Hand cut & coloured paper, pins, foamboard in a white box frame with perspex (2014)
Dimensions: 120 x 120 cm
Artist Statement:
This artwork addresses the precarious and complex relationships humans experience with our natural environment and resources. It honours my deep connection to the Australian bush (having spent many years living in regional Queensland) and the healing power of the breath. The work also comments on the interconnectedness of humans to the environment, our consciousness and impact upon it. Humans are destroying the living support system for our planet through climate change — we are suffocating the very thing that we depend on for survival. I have created a respiratory system from drawings of local flora located within 10km of my home. These drawings were meticulously hand cut and colored then pinned to reference specimens found in a museum. Through the making of this work I am forced to slow down and reflect upon the importance of nature for my existence. I breathe in life and breathe out life.
Artist: Maki Horanai
Artist Location: Tamborine Mountain
Medium: Acrylic on linen (2013)
Dimensions: 91 x 122 cm
Artist Statement:
“non mihi, non tibi, sed nobis”: not for you, not for me – for us. The red ribbon in this painting is like a river of blood, a vein that connects each of us to all of us. It is this connection that is the vital sign for all humanity and for all of nature.
Artist: Nicola Hooper
Artist Location: Shailer Park
Medium: Hand coloured lithograph (2014)
Dimensions: 100 x 70 cm
Artist Statement:
The hand-colored lithograph titled ‘She The Cannonball Tree’ was created during an artists residency at TANKS Art Centre in Cairns, it references the vigor and beauty of the anthropomorphic and medicinal properties of the plants growing in the Cairns Botanical Gardens with a particular focus on the ‘sacred’ Cannonball tree referenced frequently in Hindu and Buddhists religions. The study of medicinal plants and our relationships with animals, particularly those utilized in science provide the context for this work. The hand coloring of the piece appropriates Victorian botanical drawings, which is used as a juxtaposition to the theming. The lithograph was created on stone whilst undertaking lithography mentoring from Theo Tremblay at Canopy Arts Centre, Cairns which ran concurrently with the residency. This piece was created with the support of RADF. RADF is a Queensland Government and Logan City Council partnership to support local arts and culture.
Artist: Elise Higginson
Artist Location: Pimlico
Medium: Mixed media on canvas (2013)
Dimensions: 50 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
As an artist living in regional North Queensland, cane fires are a common sight during the crushing season. The Burdekin is one of the few areas that still burn cane before harvesting the crop. It’s a practice that has raised much debate and concern about the impact on our environment. For some, it’s a sign of destruction and damage, but for the farmers it’s a vital sign; symbolising an end to all their hard work in producing the crop. Having grown up in this community, the sight, sound, and smell will be forever etched into my memory. In the evenings during “the crush,” the sky lights up with the brilliance of the flames. To capture the essence of a cane fire, I have used a mix of materials. It has warm tones throughout, and includes a blend of acrylic paint, artist’s ink, shellac flakes, and black and gold marker pens.
Artist: Geoffrey Head
Artist Location: Glastone
Medium: Acrylic with lino ink and aerosol on ply (2014)
Dimensions: 98 x 98 cm
Artist Statement:
The colour red is a vital sign for local fishermen where two specific fish species are concerned. For coral trout, the colour varies between brown, pink and red with red being the most desirable. It is the red coral trout which is deemed to bring good luck to consumers in the huge Asian market and is therefore the most financially profitable for local fishermen. The red Chinese symbol for good fortune is included as a seal of suitability. For species like the local barramundi, red spots and lesions are recognised as a sign of poor health and disease serving as a warning against consumption. The red colour and markings, whether caused by human intervention or environmental impact, make them unsafe and unfit for sale locally and overseas. The regular grid of red spots signifies both industrial activity in the marine environment and the ill health of this particular fish species.
Artist: Joolie Gibbs
Artist Location: Gympie
Medium: Ink and Mary River flood mud on paper (2013)
Dimensions: 80 x 105 cm
Artist Statement:
Flood Language is my response to increased flooding activities due to extreme weather activities, especially in Queensland in the last couple of years. These catastrophic conditions as part of the climate change phenomena force us to re-envision our relationship with nature. Through observation of many Gympie floods, the debris appeared to have it’s own random language made from grasses, branches etc. This ‘language’ was speaking to me like a form of graffiti. Local authorities and land owners appeared to be treating the debris like it was graffiti by ripping it off the fences as quickly as they could once the waters receded. The fences become the defining “walls” for my “graffiti”, exhibiting defiance at this marking of boundaries. the series of works in Flood Language has been explored through literal works on hand made paper and graphic works on paper.
Artist: Louise George
Artist Location: Townsville
Medium: Digital Photograph on Metallic Paper (2014)
Dimensions: 40 x 60 cm
Artist Statement:
Resilience. This photograph was taken at a public garden. The image has been enhanced with sharpening, contrast and tone adjustments. The pebbles represent the hard times stacked against the people of Regional Queensland; the droughts, the floods, hardships and testing times. The diagonal lines in the composition signify the ups and downs of life, meeting at a point of growth – the resilient little plant. The Vital Sign that we have the strength and the determination to continue on.
Artist: Tim Ellis
Artist Location: Port Douglas
Medium: Acrylic on canvas (2013)
Dimensions: 110 x 90 cm
Artist Statement:
A snake getting trapped in a drink can – going in to drink the liquid, then stuck and unable to retreat – is a common sight in remote communities. This painting sets up those VITAL SIGNS as a warning to us all; that careless actions can have devastating consequences for our animal friends. SNAKE comes from a collection called ‘Animal Kingdom’, a series of portraits from tropical Far North Queensland, depicting aminlas in vulnerable environments. The collection was shown at the Cairns Regional Gallery as part of their Emerging Artists program in late 2013. It was my second solo exhibition after taking up painting in 2010. I come from a background in TV and film production, where I worked as an Art Director for 20 years, hence my paintings are infused with my eye for cinematic composition and hyper-real characters, using settings and props to convey the story being told.
Artist: Helen Dennis
Artist Location: Chinchilla
Artist Statement:
Evidence of community evolution, arising from the expansion of the Coal Seam Gas industry, is found within the new urban-like housing estates ‘stampeding’ across a traditionally rural Western Downs. Colliding head-on with inadequately prepared local physical and social infrastructure, these estates are forecasters of impending irreversible change. Pragmatic economists, and ambitious entrepreneurs, will tote triumphantly that this growth of the housing industry is one of the ‘vital signs’ of growth within our economy. Concerned sociologists, and original rural dwellers, point to the challenges that unfettered growth creates and its resulting degeneration of a community’s social connections, identity and environment. The question arises as to whether the urbanisation of once rural communities is a ‘vital sign’ of economic wellbeing or a ‘vital sign’ of impending social degeneration. Once the mining ‘boom’ has passed, and the housing industry has ceased expanding, what sort of community will be left in the Western Downs?
Artist: Ilona Demecs
Artist Location: Imbil
Medium: Handwoven tapestry; wool, cotton, metallic yarn, acrylic paint and felted wool (2014)
Dimensions: 60 x 38 cm
Artist Statement:
Abbot Point is to be dredged, millions of tons of sediment lifted from the seabed and dumped near the Great Barrier Reef, to enable the cheapest way of getting coal onto ships. This vital and beautiful ecosystem will bleed away as a result of the lack of regard for the importance of nature.
Artist: Donna Davis
Artist Location: Deebing Heights
Medium: Digital print on acrylic (2014)
Dimensions: 30 x 20 cm
Artist Statement:
one… depicts an individual flora specimen removed from its natural environment and placed into a foreign landscape. Reflecting the current evolving ecological discourse, the specimen appears to hang in suspended animation in a state of ambiguity awaiting some form of intervention. Every individual plant forms part of a vital interconnected network of living life support systems for our planet, without which humans could not survive. The landscape, however, is changing with an estimated one in every five plant species vulnerable to extinction; with human intervention being the leading cause. one… reflects notions of life and death simultaneously in order to explore how our interventions will inform our ecological future. The work invites the viewer to contemplate what vital ecological signs they would consider important enough to effect change in the way we interact with our environment.
Artist: Lucy Carroll
Artist Location: Redlynch
Medium: Textile (2013)
Dimensions: 40 x 80 cm
Artist Statement:
New land estates are vital to ongoing development and residential expansion. In highly populated areas they provide room for new places to live and decrease pressure on existing residential markets. Many new developments often denude the land of trees before building commences, robbing the land of its natural beauty and the new occupants the privilege of living amongst old and beautiful trees. This tree was a deviation – an ancient yellow box tree left in the middle of our new estate. This approach was highly successful, increasing land values surrounding the trees, and it created a special place for us and our children to live. The tree is a vital sign of life, of native ecosystems co-existing with urban living space, and of more positive possibilities for future developments.
Artist: Renton Bishopric and Clare Botfield
Artist Location: Byfield
Medium: Ceramic / Glazed Stoneware (2014)
Dimensions: 50 x 50 x 5 cm
Artist Statement:
Experimenting with new glazes means examining the subtleties of the glazed surface. I undertake the fascinating task of observing the changes in behaviour of the glazes depending on the atmosphere in the kiln and other variables. I analyse the surface down to the millimetre. It’s those tiny layers and specks that reveal the next amazing process to pursue. I am constantly reminded to examine another surface regularly and thoroughly, checking for minute changes, observing the tiny specks and textures – my skin. Recently several friends and family have dealt with the ordeal of Melanoma. As Australians this is a serious reality. I invite you to participate in glaze examination with ‘Millinoma’. Meticulously observe the details, look deeply and enjoy the process. I encourage you to return home, repeat the process with the surface of your own skin with the same focus and fascination. Be aware of the vital signs.
Artist: Karen Benjamin
Artist Location: Wellignton Point
Medium: Heat fused plastic bags on canvas (2013)
Dimensions: 90 x 90 cm
Artist Statement:
FLINDERS REEF. Karen Benjamin is an emerging artist who lives at Wellington Point which is situated in Redland City on Moreton Bay. Karen’s art practice consists mainly of plastic. Plastic is durable, cheap, in plentiful supply and comes in beautiful colours. When the plastic is heated the possibilities for creating are endless! This is very disturbing for Karen. Living by the water the effect that plastic has on the environment is staggering. Vital signs such as, animals caught in plastic, plastic in the stomachs of fish and turtles and the levels of estrogen in the waterways prove that plastic is an ecological disaster. It is Karen’s personal nightmare that without proper education about plastic it will eventually bleach and kill the local reef, Flinders Reef.
Artist: Carmen Beezley-Drake
Artist Location: Rockhampton
Medium: Acrylic on canvas (2014)
Dimensions: 122 x 92 cm
Artist Statement:
The stark ghostly trees are both real and symbolic reminders of a past forest. The scene evokes the image of a cemetery; their motif-like shapes visualize a quietness and stillness that is ethereal in its quality. The shadows casting a dark image on the ground, give movement and a clue as their dark shapes record each passing day. The shadows are transient as the sunlight moves relentlessly across the layers of ground creating reminders of the ever changing pattern of life. The use of subtle tones of ochres and texturing of the background, layered with the decayed vegetation indicates the signs of a salt encrusted earth which is mottled, dry and caked from severe drought and climate change. A very small touch of green is the vital sign that a resurgent of vegetation is about to take place.
Artist: Kym Barrett
Artist Location: Chatsworth
Medium: Oil, crayon, wax on board (2014)
Dimensions: 60 x 60 cm
Artist Statement:
“And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.” (East of Eden, John Steinbeck, 1952) A recent prolonged, abnormally dry period left our place lifeless, parched, crisp, monochrome, fissured. Huge trees perished. We hardly believed things could grow again. We had already forgotten the deluge last year! Then the natural weather cycle prevailed. Critical, refreshing rain and vigorous sparks of life emerged. And very soon, we had forgotten the drought! My intention is to evoke a sense of Place, by allowing the work to evolve through the addition and subtraction of materials, echoing the natural processes of weathering during drought and rain. Marks left by previous events remain, TOGETHER WITH signs of hope, BOTH with their own beauty and richness, not to be forgotten.