I acknowledge that I live and work on the land of the Warangerie people in Naaarm, on land that was never ceded. Always was and always will be aboriginal land. Who can make images of another world unless a part of them has been shattered by the world we are in. Melanie constructs imaginings of another world possible. Her "No planet B" series cry for the burning earth, for the melting ice, for the dying species. and the unalterable sadness and need to save our planet. For moments I have seen the ripples of other possibilities, strikes challenging injustices of systems of unfair and deadened authority. As a librarian for the years I dreamed in the moments between. To pay the bills, the mortgage, school fees, I worked then I retired to paint.
In the interim, the world changed, there was a rupture where capital took a greedy hold increased it emissions, stumbled into a crisis of Covid, underpaid its nurses, teachers, and its infrastructure. How can art capture that terrible moment of dire need, a need so great and unspeakable, not yet defined, revolutionary?
I work to calm my mind with the tools and shapes that build universes, spheres, triangles, squares rectangles and mostly colour, colur is what I love. The human eye perceives differently from any other being on earth, and each of us have our own perception and interpretation of colour and shape. This is mine. Photos of the night, constructions for a better world, the garden in lockdown, (that. strange universal experience of alienation of all)
Most of humanity deplores the degradation of the planet, racism, homophobia and war. Yet I applaud those who take an active stand. These photos are my appreciation.
In 2014 I returned to a once lush green road through the Grampians, Western Victoria to find it burnt and destroyed. I can not know for sure that the devastation was due to our lack of care and climate ignoral, but my camera recoded a death.