ABOUT ME
1983 – I was born in Sydney but both of my parents are kiwis, so our family moved back to New Zealand when I was 4. I've lived most of my life in the small beach community of Campbells Bay, on Auckland's North Shore.
1994 - I was a founding student of the North Shore Children's Art House Foundation. This was my second home, where I thrived on the encouragement and freedom given to me by Shona Hammond-Boyes and her husband Meulis.
1996 – I attended Rangitoto College from 1996 to 2000 – avoiding mathematics classes by hiding out in the art room!
I enjoyed my time as an art student under Mary Martin and Sonia Sage, and my love of photography developed thanks to my teacher Clive Bartlett. I remain in contact with these people from my formative years.
2000 - I was recognized as the 'Emerging Artist of the Year' by the International Child Art foundation – an honour which was later given to Keisha Castle-Hughes of 'Whale Rider' fame.
2001 - After high school I enrolled and was accepted into Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. James More and Judy Millar were my painting tutors and Fiona Pardington led me in photography. I felt like I had done all this before at the Art House and left Elam not wanting to waste anymore precious little time that there is in life! The one thing I did learn there was how much bullshit there is in the art world.
2003 - Driven by curiosity and an obsession to travel, I began trotting around the globe starting in Thailand & Laos. I wanted to open my senses and experience everything I possibly could. I was in search of iridescent colours, an array of cultures and something much bigger, but I'm still not sure what. I returned home and within a week decided to move to Queenstown for the year. One of the most important things that I brought home with me was an appreciation of home - a love of this place, and new set of eyes to view what I had thought of as 'ordinary'.
2004 – I backpacked around Spain and Portugal, hung out in Morocco for a couple of months and picked grapes at family's vineyard in Southern France.
2005/06 - Another calling for Africa, this time the other end of it, to South Africa and Swaziland to take in a new set of landscapes and another way of life.
2007 – My first major solo exhibition, 'OUR TURF', was displayed at the depot art space in Devonport, Auckland, and in the Exalt Gallery of Wellington. I indulged in my love of travel once again, meandering through Hungary, the Western Balkans, Italy and Germany.
2008 - This year ushered in one of the worst days of my life – when I woke to the news that fire had destroyed my studio in Auckland. I spent much of 2008 'getting back on my feet', learning to deal with the lows of life, as well as its highpoints.
2009 – Built up stock toward another show before setting off throughout Southern India. Starting in Bombay, manic with energy. Tenement buildings festooned with laundry, blaring horns, shimmering saris & spicy, smokey heat. Starting from big busy Bombay, to ancient caves, the once-were hippy beaches of Goa, deserted temple villages of Hampi, resting on a coffee estate before climbing the highest peak up in the lush mountains of the Kodagu region, with leaches, no people & fresh air! Out of the jungle to the Maharajas Palace in Mysore, to Fort Cochin, a blend of medieval Portugal, Holland & an English country village grafted onto the tropical Malabar coast, up into the misty hills of Munnar carpeted with Tea. Pickers engulfed in a sea of stunning green. Indians speak a delightful English, the kind you can only find in India which includes words as "splendid" & "nonsense". "Congratulations to meet you!" they say as they shake your hand. Cows mill about enjoying their sacred status. It's the land of Silk, gaudy & kitsch taste, Sandalwood & Bollywood, Royal Enfield's, Lady-Finger curry & more temples than you can poke a stick at.
2010 – Working toward exhibiting my second major body of artworks. Exciting to be working alongside an old friend who knows me pretty well, well enough to create a very me, brand & catch phrase.
IN ESSENCE –I am mostly self-taught, with a 'back to front' approach – where I start with a vision of what I want to create, only then figuring out which method will help me to achieve the desired finish. I push my acrylics to their limit and I'm happy to admit I have no patience for oils - striving as I am for that fleshy, plastic-smooth billboard finish. The works are certainly not chromaphobic either, in fact ridiculously bright, which is sadly often associated with being superfluous, a delusion I'd like to change. Colour is so important giving structure, meaning and emotion to art. I feel that most people don't have a good grasp on colour and are afraid of it.
My travels have made me appreciative of what New Zealand is and what we represent. I want people to delight with me in the ordinary things of our country – things that are so essential to who we are that we no longer examine them and recognize their beauty. My works initially capture us with their boldness and immediacy. They signify our past, our home grown culture & do-it-yourself, number 8 wire mentality. They tell a real story of life in what will hopefully be, a bygone, but remembered time as New Zealand moves forward. Let's call it the end of the Golden Weather, our glory days.
I love the barely-veiled conformity slogans of 1950s advertising telling you which detergent to buy and the life you could have with humorously exaggerated ways of looking at things.
We are surrounded by the leftovers of a culture that is already dying – Kiwiana culture. I want to capture these fast-vanishing icons, so that we can take pride in our short but colourful history. I want to paint the pages of New Zealand's history books - so that we can look back and smile.
There is one page in my own history which I always turn back to. During my time in Queenstown, I met two fellow artists who became friends as well as mentors. Minhal Al-Halabi and John Shrewy made me realise that living as an artist is a freedom - something you can't buy or sell. It's a place in your heart and in your mind. Although this life is a struggle, it's the only struggle that's worthwhile.