Acrylic on canvas
Signed on the front.
ThisIsNotALoveSong is a large abstract acrylic artwork about the coronavirus. There are not many Pop Art artists in Australia so I decided I wanted to do a painting in the Pop Art genre. I constructed the imagery using symbols and metaphors to tell a story. The smiley faces represent the world population, and the colours of the smiley faces represent different nations around the world. Ignorant or racist people often categorise as ‘white people’, or ‘black people’, I have even overheard comments like ‘yellow skins’ referring to Chinese. So I used colours for ethnic groups, the size of the smiley faces as a metaphor for age, the smallest dots are babies and as the size gets larger it relates to age. I included symbolic coronavirus ‘cells’ to indicate the infection is running amok amongst us. Finally, the straight horizontal lines are symbols for death, flat lines in hospitals. The smiley faces represent a way forward, giving us hope for the future.
Abstraction: This is not considered an accurate representation of the world around us. Basically, it uses colour, forms, and gestural mark-making to convey the artist’s interpretation or vision. Abstraction is used to convey a story or evoke a feeling. There are a myriad of different ways to approach abstraction in painting and I have developed a few distinct or unique styles.
Text paintings: this style is generally layers of text in a stylised font. I build combinations of different colours and font sizes to create patterns so the letters or words start to merge or entwine thus becoming obscure. I want the viewer to really look at the work to find meaning, and thus immerse themselves in the artwork.
Geometric shapes: this style is more about building patterns and colour combinations however I do like to covertly work a theme into the artwork sometimes. Because of my background in sign writing, I find the above two styles of abstraction to ‘fit’ with my identity, and I like to challenge myself with new concepts or approaches to my art.
Theme-based: basically I can go crazy combining any and all tools in my repertoire and come up with a million different artworks. First I choose a theme or topic: coronavirus | climate change | seascape – whatever I choose, I then think about how I want the artwork to look when finished.
The coronavirus reared it’s insidious head late 2019 and rapidly spread across the globe with terrifying effectiveness. As the death count soured, humanity watched with despair as we mourned for all those who had suffered the loss of loved ones.
The Coronavirus Collection is my response to this pandemic and the impact it has had on global populations.
I have tried to translate the lockdowns, the trauma and the fear into artworks, thus the act of creating becomes a coping mechanism.
ART IS PART OF THE HEALING PROCESS!
Throughout this body of work, I have tried to represent a myriad of ideas: *mortality *fear *isolation *depression and finally *hope!