It took me many years to get used to drawing on any kind of large scale, especially anything larger than A2 size. Several different experiences helped free me up in this area; in particular, when I began running cartoon workshops in schools, drawing on large blackboards (remember them?) and whiteboards in front of a class. […]
Murals & public art Read More »
As described elsewhere in this archive, the 90s were a creatively prolific period for me, and I developed simultaneously in many directions, and through many different media. Most of my focus was on the four strands of esoteric art I was developing – Essence Portraits, Power Symbols, Personalised Mandalas & ‘cave paintings’ – but I
Cartoon illustration: Funky 90s Read More »
At various times during the early 90s, in an entrepreneurial effort to generate some income from my cartoon art, I designed and self-published several series of gift cards & cartoon art prints. Self-publishing, in this case, meant spending what little money I had on laminated colour photocopies (not particularly cheap back then), and hawking them
Cartoon illustration: Card designs Read More »
Even as a five year old I was a keen observer of human behaviour, often coupled with a sense of the absurd, so it’s not surprising that caricature became part of my cartooning repertoire from an early age. Comics and cartoons, to a child of my interests, were a form of sociological and psychological text,
Cartoon illustration: Caricature Read More »
Over the years my illustration has often found a home in various areas of health & well-being, with clients ranging from government health services, mental health organisations, educational ‘well-being’ projects through to private practitioners and community arts projects. My empathic nature, my sense of social conscience, along with my personal insights from lived experience (long-term
Cartoon illustration: Health & well-being projects Read More »
In the early 90s I began journaling my dreams, inspired by Jungian dream analysis and accounts of lucid dreaming, as another tool for communicating with my subconscious. I had often found that certain dreams offered important insights or solutions to events in my life, and several times even predicted an event. I developed a habit
Esoteric art 4: Cave paintings (1992 – 94) Read More »
My understanding of mandalas as ‘maps of consciousness’ probably began somewhere in 91 or 92, through the work of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and others; I also learned that the use of mandalas (a symbolic drawing or design within a circle) appears not only in Tibetan Buddhism but in the sacred art of ancient cultures
Esoteric art 3: Personalised mandalas (1995 – 96) Read More »
The previous post describes a period during my mid-20s to late-30s, of self-discovery and transformation , and how these ‘reprogramming’ experiences shifted some of my creative work into more esoteric or transpersonal art and design. My first few years in Melbourne brought me into contact with a number of people involved in the ‘new age’
Esoteric art 2: Personal Power Symbols (1992 – 97) Read More »
In 1990 a very different kind of illustration emerged in my work, and continued to develop throughout the 90s in the form of personalised ‘esoteric’ artworks – portraits, symbols and mandalas intended to reflect and affirm the deeper nature of the individual they were designed for. Before I continue, I feel it’s important to set
Esoteric art 1: Essence Portraits (1990 – 92) Read More »
Community arts, health & well-being and education seem to be where I gravitate in my creative work. Over the last 20 years I’ve often been engaged by councils, usually via their Community Arts or Community Development teams, to facilitate workshops, youth or community arts projects, or provide illustration such as promotional art, logo design &
Cartoon Illustration – Knox City Council (2007 – 2016) Read More »
One of my most enduring creative relationships was as in-house illustrator & creative consultant for music education publishers Bushfire Press. Bushfire Press are a passionate team of ex-music teachers / musicians, who began writing & publishing Performing Arts resources for primary & secondary schools in the late 80s. My work for them has included a
Cartoon Illustration – Bushfire Press (2000 – 2016) Read More »
In Oct 2015, Relationships Australia Tas employed me as a “visual mapper”, to illustrate in realtime the core themes and ideas that emerged from their annual 2-Day conference of 150 employees from around the state. I stood at the back of the room, listening, observing, interpreting & translating into symbolic images & key words. At
Visual Scribe @ Relationships Australia (TAS) Conference, Hobart Read More »
Following my experience as visual scribe at Calvary Hospital’s Death Café in 2015, one of the organisers Belinda Clarke approached me about being involved in an innovative pilot program she had devised in partnership with Calvary Hospital & two Hobart high schools.A group of Yr 12 girls who were considering a career in nursing, were
Visual Scribe @ Calvary Palliative Care schools pilot program 2016 Read More »
In 2015 I was invited to provide live cartoon “scribing” for a 2-hour “Death Café” event at Calvary Hospital in Hobart. The general public were invited to meet and have open conversations about death and dying – not a grief group, but a safe space in which to normalise the usually-taboo subject. More than 1000
Death Cafe: Visual Scribing @ Calvary Hospital 2015 Read More »
In 2003 I spontaneously answered a small hand-drawn ad in MacFie’s Music shop in Nth Hobart, someone looking for interested parties with whom to play guitar music of a Eurofolk bent. It was Luke Yates, a young uni student recently-returned from travels in France, previously an 80s metal guitarist who had an acoustic epiphany while
Mini-Exhibition: Spondooli Brothers artwork Read More »
