International Moth Week

The last week of July is International Moth Week. As my contribution to the celebrations, here is a small selection of mysterious masked Moth Women. To find out how they got their moth masks, click HERE.

Agathia pisina Moth Mask, 2007, oil pastel, 112 x 76 cm. Photo: Tim Gresham

Aictis erythozona Moth Mask, 2007, oil pastel, 112 x 76 cm.
Photograph by Viki Petherbridge

Anthela oressarcha Moth Mask, 2009, oil pastel and Chinagraph pencil, 112 x 76 cm
Photograph by Tim Gresham

Attacus Atlas Moth Mask, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 25 x 20cm. Photo: Viki Petherbridge

Campylotes desgonsini Moth Mask, 2007, oil pastel, 112 x 76cm
Photograph by Viki Petherbridge

Coscinocera hercules Moth Mask, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 25 x 20 cm. Photo: Tim Gresham

Dudgeonea actinias Moth Mask, 2009, acrylic on canvas 25 x 20 cm. Photo: Tim Gresham

An Interview on ART-STUFF

Lace Face, 1996, linocut, 46 x 30 cm

The artist/writer Steve Gray has just interviewed me for his ART-STUFF blog. Other recent interviewees include the painter Shane Jones and printmakers Rona Green and Deborah Williams. The site is packed with interviews of this calibre and Steve has many more planned. I highly recommend his blog, which is an essential resource for students and art lovers alike. Steve encourages ART-STUFF visitors to share their responses to the interviews; there's a "leave a comment" button at the bottom of each post.

My interview has now been published. It's generously illustrated with images old (see above) and new. You can read the interview by clicking HERE.

Two-faced Woman shortlisted for 2013 Geelong Print Prize

Two-faced Woman, 2013, linocut with Chine-collé and hand colouring 37.5 x 28 cm.
Photograph by Shane Jones

The rear view head 'portraits' that dominated my work for well over a decade were first unveiled in the solo exhibition Private Collection at Australian Galleries, Melbourne in 2000. Katherine McDonald's accompanying catalogue essay was perceptively titled Woman’s Other Visage.

It has been several years now since my protagonists turned again to face the viewer. Almost invariably, however, they wear masks, frequently in the form of moths. In Two-faced Woman hair and mask iconography are combined, creating the illusion of an individual with a second self whose eyes watch us as we watch her back.

This work has had a lengthy period of gestation. It was conceived during a residency at the Art Vault in 2011, but put on hold when several other projects intervened. Meanwhile, it became the basis for a drawing of the same title, which was a finalist in the 2012 Rick Amor Drawing Prize.

Two-faced Woman, 2012, pencil and pastel,
75 x 56 cm. Photograph by Shane Jones

The Moth Woman Vigilantes Unmasked, 2012, zine, folded from A4 sized paper. Photograph by DK

The unfinished linocut was also the primary inspiration for a limited edition illustrated zine, The Moth Woman Vigilantes Unmasked, 2012. Having spawned so many other images, the original Two-faced Woman is finally about to stand in its own right. Recently completed, it has just been selected as a finalist in the 2013 Geelong Print Prize.

Printing Two-faced Woman at Ballarat, 2013. Photograph by Shane Jones

Endings and Beginnings

Foreground right: Red Bodied Swallowtail Winged Woman and Emergent Cicada Woman, 2013, linocuts, hand coloured, 22 x 18.5 cm. 
Borders and Crossings, Art Gallery of Ballarat. Also pictured, from left: works by Anne Langdon and Melissa Proposch. Photograph: DK.

This weekend brought a couple of endings that are also beginnings.

We had a steady stream of visitors and some very lively conversations during the final day of Tall Tales. But for much of the work, this was just the first step. An extended version of the artist book installation will be included in Wonder Room, a forthcoming group exhibition at Maroondah Art Gallery, which opens on 17 October.

Although today is the last day of Borders and Crossings, the Goldfields Printmakers exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, this too is only its first stop. The exhibition will shortly head to Scotland for the IMPACT 8 Printmaking Symposium at the University of Dundee (28 August – 1 September). And in 2014 the show will travel to Wharepuke Gallery in New Zealand. (See also Blog Post Tuesday, May 14, 2013).

My two linocuts in Borders and Crossings (pictured above in situ at the Art Gallery of Ballarat) are part of a small portfolio of ‘unnatural history’ prints, a work in progress also destined for the Wonder Room exhibition.