Soleful

The shoes reside by the back door. In piles. Soccer boots, basketball shoes, running shoes x many, cycle shoes x many, futsal shoes, slides, slippers, everyday shoes (work shoes and dress up shoes tend to dwell on feet and/or in the cupboard). How many shoes does one family need? I think about the money, better spent elsewhere, but tied up in these kicks. So much sole-less consumerism. Sort after and then forgotten, relics of time past and different identities tried on and then moved on from. Maybe this is why I am reluctant to throw shoes out as it’s like admitting that you (and they) are past it, whatever it is. The shoes in this painting are, like the paths and roads in many of my other paintings, symbolic of the passage of time as well as the bittersweet business of a family growing up. Gone is the pitter patter of little feet, replaced by something that you’ve paid for, but can’t quite relate too and I am struck by how small and insignificant my own shoes look in comparison to the relative bigness and garishness of my children’s shoes. As I ponder the pile, it’s hard not to imagine a diminishing of self happening in parallel to the young ones stepping out into the world. But I guess that’s also the way it should be and always was.

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I am an artist who has run an e-bike business from home for the past 15 years while raising three children and loves most things about living in the “People’s Republic of O’connor” (Inner North, Canberra). I graduated with an MBA (Strategic Operations Management) from Charles Stuart University a long time ago and a BA in Visual Arts (Painting) from the Australian National University a very, very, long, long time ago.
There are a couple of underlying, reoccurring and interrelated themes that inform my art practice and bubble to the surface of my paintings (both implicitly or explicitly) from time to time.
The first of these themes is the idea of ‘desire lines’. In urban and transport planning ‘desire lines’ refer to the unofficial paths that collective feet make through the landscape over time. These well-trodden paths are both subversive, being illicit, and conversely, the path of least resistance. Desire Lines are paths that form themselves and are evidence of both humanity and the impact of humans in the environment.
Secondly, I use the landscape, and elements within the landscape, to explore what I’m thinking about ‘in the moment’. The moment (or muse) can include an emotion or idea, such as gratitude to a friend or joy in life’s journey.
Often, the inspiration for a painting, is a personal reaction to the zeitgeist and current bigger picture concerns.
A third related theme is an interest in, and love of exercise, and being outdoors.
Finally related to all of the above, it's impossible to paint landscapes, or places or people (in fact anything) without having some awareness in and reaction to climate change and our role in it, so as inferred above, this is also a frequently occurring theme throughout my paintings. I hope my paintings inspire others to actively explore the world around them, as well as their relationship to it.