Turns out I am not great at wank factor

I’m just not. I can’t be like the Artist who says their home town is London.

Despite the fact they haven’t lived there since they were knee high to a grass hopper.

See, I could say home town ‘Monrovia’ . Legit.

I could also say Dar es Salaam, or Port Moresby, or Hamburg or even Berlin, that global art hub… Legit.

What, because I was there as a 6 month old, or 3 year old or in my early 20’s. Whatever. Pfft. Not saying that.

I’m just not good at it. Actually it’s more that I am not interested. I find it inauthentic.

When I went to uni, high-conceptual wank was a major factor. If you didn’t have the right conceptual lingo you were never going to be a Star-chitecture student. No matter how hard you worked. It also helped if you wore black Prada clothes and your mum owned a fab art gallery in the city. Mine did not. No, try a ford dealership in a country town. I moved around the edges of that scene but I found much of it inauthentic then just as I do now. Don’t get me wrong. I made some lovely friends, and respected the authentic amongst them. Alas, most I have not stayed in contact with. To be honest I only stayed in contact with the ones who left or who were actually really lovely friends. I certainly didn’t stay friends with those that purported to be Londoners but didn’t actually leave their actual home town ( smirk).

I think going straight overseas after uni into a practical design office, and then into a below the line ad agency ( try conceptual wank when you are designing dunny paper)… and then into the very practical world of designing a Uni campus in the developing world with a design office that had me working with an aging septegenarian and about 15 Keralan drafting staff…well let’s just say highfallutin conceptual bullshit was irrelevant. I totally rejected it 😂. My ideas were practical and one dimensional. You want a courtyard oasis, right let’s put lemons and herbs in it.

So, now, in art, my concepts are pretty transparent. The landscapes I paint feel to me like the high plains. Or the Wingecarribee river. Or Berrima . Or whichever place I’m transported to in my mind. I could wank on about semiotics in art and typology of landscape, but argh. Maybe I should talk about Archaeology more, and collections, and windows, and assemblages more …. But Who can be bothered?

Well clearly some people can. 🤣

Instead, here’s a sketch inspired by many things landscape which I sold recently.