- Ray Monde
Art work, work, work: 2019
2019 is the year that's going be one relentless pursuit of art. There is no room for anything else. I am going to jam it down my throat. I am going to scoff into it. I am going to gag on the almighty glutton-inducing torrent of art coming my way.
My focus in 2019 is going to be four-fold:
1. Art work, work, work, work
The new studio we built last year is the 'room of one's own' I'd always hoped for. Now I have it, it's like a dam wall has been burst and I have all these things I want to do. Experimental dioramas, large scale canvases, large portraits, landscapes based on the Sixty-nine stations of the Kiso Kaido. On top of all this, I want to do a series of landscapes that chart the epic journey in 1797 of shipwrecked sailors walking the east coast of Australia to return to Sydney and passing through and helped by different Aboriginal nations.
2. Art exhibitions
I'm going to scour all the exhibitions planned for the year - public, commercial and ARI - and make sure I am there to see as many of them as I can. For me, there's no better way to get inspired, see new techniques, discover old ones, than to see work in the flesh.
3. Art awards
As an emerging artist, it's important to share my work, get pieces in front of people who will become familiar with it, start to follow and then recognise my practice when they see future pieces. I'm going to try and not let an opportunity pass by. That's why I'm cracking on to complete this piece (pictured below) for the Glover Prize.
4. Art salon
The last thing on my to-do list this year is to have monthly long lunches in the studio. I have always been anxious about bringing strangers together - but I've recently rediscovered the thrill of making new connections, hearing other people's stories and see the magic of a group of people being larger than the sum of their parts.
Now, time to get back into the studio.
