Flicking through the photos on my phone, I came across a shot of the bushfires around Braidwood in December last year. It jolted me back to the bushfires that ravaged the land around our home for weeks and weeks and weeks. What was so surprising for me that it rekindled this underlying trauma which I thought I had left behind. After spending a few months in Seattle, cool, wet Seattle, the feelings of the bushfires had dropped away. I hadn’t forgotten them, but I thought they

When the corona virus starting locking down cities around the world, my studio became off-limits. I had to find a way to work without the studio. I throw some things in a box that slowly evolves into my travelling studio. After three months in hibernation, I drive. From Washington to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. My travelling studio becomes my life. Here’s how to make art on the road. 1. Travel light. I abandon canvas for something much slimmer and firmer. These acrylic papers

There’s no greater compliment for an artist to have someone recommend your work. It says they like your work. It says they like your work enough to share your work with other people. Is an art recommendation really that important? Yes. It’s not like recommending a sofa or a brand of milk. They like your work enough to stake their own integrity on your art. This is a big deal. Duffy’s Lane, (Courtcliffe Acres), Ray Monde, collage and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 2018. Th

One of the most-significant Australian novels, My Brother Jack, was written by George Johnston on the Greek island of Hydra. Sidney Nolan moved the England in 1953, dying there there in 1992, yet the vast bulk of his work revived the Australia he carried in his mind. Detail; Burke on Camel in a Landscape, Sidney Nolan (1917–1992) © Sidney Nolan Trust / Bridgeman Images. Photo credit: Aberystwyth University School of Art Museum and Galleries “We have to remove ourselves to see

Jerry Saltz, Senior Art Critic for New York Magazine and Pulitzer Prize winner, was a long-haul truck driver. Till he was 41 years old. I started making art at the same age. This was one of the most surprising (and inspiring) things for me to come out of his new book; How to be an artist. It really is never too late to start doing what you love – and see what happens. Self-help that we already know; but now we can trust our guts more. The book is a short little piece, with 63

At this point in self-isolation things start going crazy, off-piste. Somewhere between the half-way and three-quarter mark, people get wobbly. It happens to astronauts, cosmonauts and people wintering in Antartica. I blame the dreaded third-quarter for HAL9000 losing his shit. For us at home, it’s manifested itself as some very unusual interpretive dancing and an unhealthy obsession with hot sopressata. One of the last exhibitions I saw was John Akomfrah’s remarkable Future H

What you can do to help artists during COVID-19. Everyone is meeting their friends for drinks online. From our dining chairs in Seattle we look across the table through our laptop to our friends at the other side of the table in Summer Hill. We’re all drinking white negronis and it’s beautiful. Two hours in a heartbeat. People are working online, making startling discoveries about the working life of their partners. Kids are learning online. And they’re gorging on Tiger King.

What the Australian bushfires taught me about making decisions in a time of coronavirus (COVID-19). I’m one of those people that likes to be prepared. I check the exits on a airplane. I feel under my seat to make sure there’s a life jacket there. So when the mountains burst into flames behind my house in November 2019, I planned to leave. I love my home at Riverbend, it’s insured, it’s replaceable. I didn’t want to be one of those people to die with a garden hose in my hand.

Sometimes art goes bad. Look at her face. The horror. This is not intentional. I wasn’t trying to create an image of a women who had been burnt in an accident. Or a woman trapped in a disfiguring face mask. I was trying to create a woman with attitude, cigarette in hand, giving the viewer a withering glance. I didn’t have the right colour papers to create realistic tones in collage. I ended up with a mess. A right awful mess. A week later, it happened again. I was struggling

Studio space in Seattle is really hard to come by. I was fortunate that Clare Johnson had landed a residency and would be out of the state for three months. She was looking for someone to look after her space in 57 Biscayne and I was keen to look after it. We hit it off and is kindly letting me work in this beautiful space. My new short-term studio The space is roomy, has wonderful high ceilings and is beautifully lit. The big white wall is just dying to be covered in my stuf

Taking risks sometimes pays dividends. The risk is worth the reward. Other times, they fail terribly. Like at my high school dance. Important lessons from risk-taking The school dance is beach themed. I thought it would be a good idea to make breasts out of coconuts and pink socks, wrap myself in a hibiscus tablecloth and apply red lipstick. I remember looking at myself in the mirror in the bathroom and almost chickening out. Then I told myself, if I don’t do this I will regr

Sydney Contemporary kicks off Thursday 12 September and I'm almost bursting out of my skin with excitement to be there to see the incredible work that's going to be on show. Even more thrilling and unexpected, is my first foray into Sydney Contemporary as part of REID FAIR NOW. This is an Australian first, an exclusively online exhibition timed to absolutely coincide with Sydney Contemporary: 12 – 15 September 2019. Michael Reid are offering their global audience new, fresh t

What's the future of art in 2019. Ray Monde takes a look at the year ahead and plans to get stuffed

I've got my first solo show in a commercial gallery coming up in May - at Michael Reid Murrurundi. It's an extraordinary opportunity to showcase my work to an unseen audience. I have an extraordinary sense of obligation to 'do a good job'. To create works that will not only resonate with the audience but will also reward the gallery with sales. I am coming to realise I need to dismiss the thoughts running through my head 'Who would buy this?' and instead focus on producing th

I’ve just gone through the most excruciating gestation for an artwork that I’ve ever gone through. And I’m still not sure the experience is over yet. It started fairly straight-forward enough. The place I live now is in the Australian countryside, on a river surrounded by vast paddocks grazed by black cattle. Ever since I moved here ten years ago, every now and then I glimpse a figure outside in the darkened windows. It’s not a reflection. It’s a horned man. The current serie

I’ve just gone through the most excruciating gestation for an artwork that I’ve ever gone through. And I’m still not sure the experience is over yet. It started fairly straight-forward enough. The place I live now is in the Australian countryside, on a river surrounded by vast paddocks grazed by black cattle. Ever since I moved here ten years ago, every now and then I glimpse a figure outside in the darkened windows. It’s not a reflection. It’s a horned man. The current serie

I’m working late into the night on a new series that focuses on the suburbs. It was inspired by a recent trip to Madrid where I saw a lot of works by Picasso at the Reina Sofia – Pity and Terror, Picasso’s Path To Guernica. What struck me about his early works was that they were often limited to a single room, they were painted as a closed space. It got me thinking about the closed spaces in wide, brown Australia. For me this led me to the suburbs, in particular suburban back

I’m working late into the night on a new series that focuses on the suburbs. It was inspired by a recent trip to Madrid where I saw a lot of works by Picasso at the Reina Sofia – Pity and Terror, Picasso’s Path To Guernica. What struck me about his early works was that they were often limited to a single room, they were painted as a closed space. It got me thinking about the closed spaces in wide, brown Australia. For me this led me to the suburbs, in particular suburban back

It’s rare to get up in the face of artists. See their work. Hear first hand what their work is all about. When you’re at exhibition openings in galleries, it’s sometimes hard to know who the artist is, let alone get a chance to speak with them and dive into their mind. Yet this is exactly what happen at The Other Art Fair (TOAF). When it was quiet, I ducked off from my stand to talk to other artists, see their work, hear their stories and revel in their creations. It was grea

It’s rare to get up in the face of artists. See their work. Hear first hand what their work is all about. When you’re at exhibition openings in galleries, it’s sometimes hard to know who the artist is, let alone get a chance to speak with them and dive into their mind. Ray Monde at The Other Art Fair Yet this is exactly what happen at The Other Art Fair (TOAF). When it was quiet, I ducked off from my stand to talk to other artists, see their work, hear their stories and revel