Dreams of working in an antiquated forge manifest as weathered metal drawings. Future designs for these castings will include machine parts, inspection plates and window frames from a civilisation yet to come into or one that has well and truly fallen out of focus. it's hard to tell sometimes. Ink, sterling silver, coloured pencil and graphite on paper.

First in a series of reliefs that will examine the fictitious details lurking behind decommissioned wall fixtures of Victorian era service rooms. What tools were used to extract these fittings? What tools were used by the inhabitants whom used these rooms? Oil, ink, bronze, copper, enamel, lime, coloured pencil, magnet and bees wax on steel and hardwood.

This is what happens when a young man rejects his parents love of heritage restoration, declaring it fussy and over-wrought and in a final act of defiance enrols in a modernist design degree to prove a point. Upon completing said degree, said not so young man needs employment and finds himself working for said father as wait for it, a restoration slate roofer. He loves the work. The slowly rewarding result of hard repetitive graft but more-so he develops a deep connection to and an intense appreciation for old buildings. The filigree, shadow and slow decay of them had him enchanted. Now middle aged man makes art. Modernism and the grid are at its core but the presentation, the process and the material selection are saturated with thoughts of old buildings. Ink, copper, graphite and coloured pencil on paper.

The strictness and rigour of the architects plan is a pristine vision in waiting. Once acted upon however the vision begins to soften and as each subsequent trade and subset of tools play their part in the construction an imperfect and organic layering of textures emerges. Ink, coloured pencil and graphite on paper.

An exploration of the materials, construction techniques and labour contained within historical buildings. I contemplate the effort by those involved in their production. The hard, repetitive graft acknowledged and hereby committed to paper as slow, abstract and hypnotic linear patterns. Ink and graphite on paper.

Abstract and seemingly non-functioning renditions of antiquated devices of leisure. Steel, hardwood, brass, copper, enamel inlay and leather.

Austerity is in order. The need to preserve energy will transform our daily activities. Every task, including those performed during moments of respite will be examined for their efficiency and then subsequently transformed to meet new measures. Further to this cause, one will need to prove their idleness. An ‘Intermission’ if you will from consumption: of time, of resources, of productivity. A moment of recovery will be forced upon us and in a perverse twist of expectations, inhabitants will endure ‘forced leisure’. Here in lies a set of games: instruments of leisure from a bygone era dragged brutally into focus for the needs of today.  Steel, hardwood, bronze, brass, copper, wool, leather, paper, linen and beeswax. 

Selection of my jewellery, leatherwork and drawings alongside the work of @highteawithmrswoo as part of the Meryl Ryan curated show ‘Headquarters’ at Lake Macquarie Art Gallery. An exhibition that investigates some of the burgeoning Hunter-based studio clusters and the preoccupations of the labour-intensive, time-invested, hands-on practices that take place in these spaces. Selected tools, raw materials, process documentation, and finished works combine to conjure a sense of the makers’ realms.

There is a gentle softness to the light that filters through stained glass windows in old churches. It punctuates with elegance the heavy set walls and thoughts contained within. Coloured pencil, graphite, charcoal, enamel, oil and lime on steel and hardwood. 

Moss will invariably find it's way. Your efforts to halt it are in vein. Learn instead, to embrace the soft advance upon your dwelling. All buildings decay.... some do it with grace. Ink, graphite, gesso and slate dust on paper. 

For the love of material! How we chose it, use it, arrange and manipulate it. First in a series of works that will dissect, and then compress the material qualities of a manually operated trade. Hardwood, slate, lead, copper, steel, iron, wool, leather, bitumen. 

Deeply rooted in my love of old buildings and people whom built them, lived in them and serviced them. Set within three timber arrangements rest sets of Archaic tools presented as polished casts in an attempt to illuminate their fading values, to acknowledge their importance and to preserve their place in the future. Aluminium, hardwood, lead, cedar, slate, copper and cotton.