Monday, December 9, 2013

The Graduate.

I find myself once again writing on here that its been ages since my last post, and as usual I have an excuse…That being that I have been buried under my course work for the last 3 or 4 months since I last got around to posting something. HOWEVAH- I am now the proud owner of a Bachelors Degree in Visual Arts and Design- FINALLY, it’s only taken six years BUT I made it and that’s the most important thing… The last few weeks have been fraught with peril, including some rather late nights at the studio- which actually I don’t know if I mentioned this in previous posts but I am now a member of the most awesome MINT artist studios family (www.mintartiststudios.com)- I am lucky enough to be ensconced with a posse of some of the best and brightest art types in this here town. Its located in a top secret facility just off of Waymouth street in the city. This was integral to my ability to be able to work late and on weekends, as I had found that many of the people I studied with were unable to stay as late as I would have liked, as often as I would have liked (being that at the art school I attended, the rule was you could stay until 9pm but only if you had a second person with you…) and also my school wasn’t open on weekends so when I was offered the opportunity to take an outside studio space, I jumped at the chance and was very happy to find a place where I could paint on any day until the wee small hours if I so desired…And it was great to know that I would be in a group studio with a great gang of very talented like-minded cats beyond the end of school… So as a part of the whole finishing thing, we had the Graduation show at the beginning of November, in the Light square gallery at AC Arts…It all went off very well with all of the class working very hard to get things organized…I ended up kind of MCing the show, thanking all and sundry and introducing our guest speaker and generally encouraging people to drink the free wine, from our wonderful friends at FOX CREEK wines in McLaren Vale, a free plug there just in case they are looking to perhaps, sponsor a certain artists studio (www.mintartiststudios.com)?? All in all, it was a good shindig and now, I, like many of my comrades now shift our attention to the Helpmann Graduation show early next year. This is a show that selects the best artworks of the graduating students to go into a kind of all star showcase, which I will hope to be a part of.
This is me with the 2nd of the 3 paintings at the Graduation show. The finishing of one course invariably leads to people asking the obvious question, What Next? And in my case I have my fingers in a few pies…I have applied to Adelaide University to do some more study because lets face it, too much punishment is barely enough…I have a notion to perhaps start leaning toward art criticism and arts journalism, so I have applied for a graduate diploma in Art History that would, all going according to plan, lead to a masters in Art History. Yes I know, Im an Art History geek but I just cant help myself…I’m also looking at some residences both local and overseas, so I’ll let you know what happens closer to the date. So I’ve got some reasonably average photo’s of the finished paintings to share with you and give a little background on the works and where they came from. I ended up calling the paintings the Life/Time series, as an overall title and then, because I think I was possessed by the spirit of Damien Hirst, all the individual paintings ended up with titles as long as your average essay… So the original idea for these paintings started at the end of my last body of work- as a part of it I had done a large monochromatic piece which got me thinking about the idea of using the technique I had been developing to create monochromatic black paintings- that is using primary colors to make black. I happened to visit the planetarium at Mawson Lakes with my son and whilst there I had my mind summarily blown by considering the utter vastness of the universe. It made my head hurt to think of the distances between planets and stars, and I left feeling somewhat insignificant. After that a lot of things on the human realm- life, death, religion, politics- didn’t really seem to mean so much and it occurred to me that it almost seemed that humans were kind of arrogant to think that in comparison to the rest of the universe, any of that stuff had any real significance. Someone suggested that I read Cosmos by Carl Sagan, which I’ll be honest, I tried to do- I mean I found some of it interesting but more often than not I was bored to tears- even though it was recommended to me by someone who said that it was a landmark book because it made popular science easily readable…not real sure about that one…So I guess I got a little something out of it- The ridiculous fact that one light year equals 10 trillion kilometres and then these science dudes casually say that something is so many thousand light years away…This led to the realization that a light year doesn’t measure time, it measures distance…ah the tyranny of distance- one of my favourite lines from a Split Enz song (im a 70s kid who grew up in the 80’s and yeah, I wore flouro socks)- oh sorry where was I??? TIME right…this was the turning point for my paintings I guess in that the next discovery was to really solidify my concept. So there I am at work, funnily enough, (I work in a department store) and I began to think about the nature of time and how a lot of people have a fear of death. I understand that people have a fear of death but it’s the why that puzzles me. There is one thing that is guaranteed to happen to you in this life- you may or may not get married, you may or may not have children, you may or may not climb Mt. Everest but I can say at this stage, unequivocally, without a shadow of a doubt, you will eventually die. Not if, not maybe but it is a guaranteed certainty that you and everyone you know, including your esteemed author, will die. You can’t escape it, you can’t outrun it, you can’t pay it to go away. So this is what got me thinking, why fear it? Why be afraid? And beyond that as well, if you know there is a definite end, why live as if there isn’t one? Why waste time? Why spend your time doing insignificant, menial shit that amounts to nothing? When people find out they have a terminal disease, often their first reaction is to set about doing all the things they had been putting off- the bucket list deal- They found out they were going to die and so they suddenly sprung into action…However- our time is ticking away- you as you sit reading this and me as I write it- our time on this big green rock, hurtling through space is limited…so why do we waste our time? I mean, I wasn’t interested in being existentialist or depressing or anything and ultimately when I found out what I found out, it actually made me feel more at peace with the idea of death. What I did was, that day when I was standing there, wishing away the hours at the retail emporium where I am employed, was I thought about the average human life, which I found out was, in Australia, 82 years of age. Then it occurred to me, how many minutes is that? How many hours is that? How many days, weeks, months is that? And what I came up with was this: An average 82 year human life breaks down to- 43,099,200 minutes 716,852 hours 29,930 days 4264 weeks 984 months It was amazing people’s reactions when I would tell them about this- many would tell me to stop, that they didn’t want to hear- others said- is that all? One in particular was- 43 million minutes?? Is that it?? To which I replied that it was all a question of perception. If I was to give you 43 million dollars would you say, is that it? Is that all? Well some might say that, but you get the picture. So I got to thinking about the preciousness of time- and more than that, the idea that every single minutes is important. That you only get so much time so you better get to it and live now, not tomorrow or next week or when I finish the latest grand theft auto game but NOW.
So the paintings I made in response to this are in three parts- the first part is called, get this: 43,099,200 minutes- the freedom that comes with the realization that death is inevitable.
To look at this first painting, you can see a few things…A line that runs from top to bottom- looks like a break in the action that is going on throughout the rest of the painting, that the painting is made up of marks in the primary colors- red, blue and yellow, applied in layers and parts of it look almost black, other parts you can see the separated colors. I will say that this is my interpretation of what I painted, but this is in no way binding- part of the idea of these paintings is that people look at them in relation to themselves and the world around them- this idea of perception again- and draw their own conclusions. In my mind, this first painting in the bigger scheme of things represents birth, an ascension. I called the first one the realization that death is inevitable- without being too depressing about it- because in essence, once you are born, the clock is ticking and the sooner you realize that your time is limited, the sooner you will get on with the business of living. The reason I chose the palette relates mainly to the idea of elements, of atomic particles. When they combine they end up the same- just like us. We may be different races, religions or have different political leanings but all human beings. Which I know sounds incredibly naïve- but I don’t see it that way, I just see it as the stripped down, pared back truth. So when you look at the painting and you see these layers and layers of colours melting into black and then you see the break, it’s as if it’s a moment of clarity- when you see through all the confusion and make your realization, when you find your truth. The second painting is called: 716,852 hours- the freedom that comes with the realization you were free all along.
I think this title really came to me after I considered the implications of what I was doing in relation to my own life. I am now, as I was when I started these paintings, 41 years of age. So I’m at the half-way point. When I consider my life, thus far, I have spent time and energy on things that really were of no benefit. Not for me or anyone. When I think that I used time that could have been better used on something else it made me realize the importance of my time. Now don’t get me wrong, I still get caught up in time wasting, resentment and regret and all of that stuff, however, now that I have an awareness of it, I feel as though I’m learning, making progress. The second or middle painting represents life itself, you travel through, keep your eyes on the horizon and rise above the negative, taking from it what it has to give you and on to the next thing. Onward and upward. The third and final painting is: 29,930 days- the freedom that comes with the realization that everything is everything.
Everything is everything is a phrase you would probably know if you listen to hip hop. Lauryn Hill wrote a song with the title and used it in the chorus- Everything is everything What is meant to be, will be After winter, must come spring Change, it comes eventually And often people like the RZA from the Wu Tang clan talk about it representing something of the order of the universe, which I agree with. For me it also goes further to the idea I talked about before- the idea that we are all human beings and realistically all the same. I don’t necessarily agree with the fatalist aspect that seems to come through in Hill’s lyric, but I certainly like the sense it has of the inevitable. This last piece of the puzzle, for me is the dying of the light, to paraphrase Dylan Thomas- who wrote, do not go gently into that good night, rage, rage against the dying of the light. This is the painting that shows the inevitable death, or the descent. The coming of autumn and winter after summer, the inevitable changing of the seasons, which is of course a well-worn metaphor in literary and art circles. With these paintings, after looking at the work of my master and mentor, Barnett Newman, I wanted to make paintings that showed the beginning and the ending all at once- that is in the individual paintings themselves, but also in the works as a group. I feel I have achieved my aims with this series and hopefully they will have a similar effect on the viewer as they did on me when I was creating them. I found with these Life/Time paintings, I invested myself probably more than I ever have in a painting. When I presented them to the class, I actually got very emotional when I was trying to reiterate how much I had put into these works. I put everything I had into these paintings, every shred of my being- there was no separation- nothing left in reserve, nothing held back. I personally believe, for me, this is the only way to create- to give anything less than everything is to cheat my audience and myself. This is my truth- show me yours. Until next time….

Friday, October 18, 2013

the devil makes work for idle hands....

Busy busy, I’m very busy…and I kinda want to freak out every time someone says- Hey, only FIVE WEEKS LEFT!!! to me like it’s a joke or something…goodness me, whats wrong with these people…Soooo I just got back from Sydney, where I went to the opening of the Stencil Art Prize at the Chrissie Cotter Gallery, in picturesque Camperdown…I was selected as a finalist for the second time and alas, I came away with bupkiss….but hey, whaddaya gonna do??? The winner for the Australian Stencil Art prize was Ralf Kempken, who also won last year with his amazing hand cut stencil works- Ralf has used the stencil itself cut into paper the last couple years and the results speak for themselves. I was fortunate enough to meet him and have a bit of a chat- one of the main drink sponsors this year was Milagro tequila, so I was plenty chatty… So far, my entry, which I featured on my previous blog post, hasn’t sold…so hopefully it does so I don’t have to pay to ship it back to Adelaide! My three big paintings are still coming although I feel a little as though I am at a bit of an impasse. I feel like they need something else, but at this stage, Im not sure what…I think what is required is some sitting and looking ala Mark Rothko... These paintings need to be ready before the Grad show, which you are all invited to on the 6th of November...I will obviously do a post with the invite, all in due course...I will be able to work in my studio- which I wasn't sure whether I said anything last time- but I am now a resident at Mint Artist studios, just off waymouth street...so if you ever in the city and you want to check out my stuff, just text me and I can let you in...Now sleep beckons...

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Clean up in aisle five!

Well now, it has been a while since I posted on here…Obviously, I been very busy with school and also other projects- as usual biting off more than I can chew, the only way I know how….anyways, latest news is that I have been selected as a finalist in the Stencil Art Prize again- this time, it’s the Australian and World stencil art prize, so I’m feeling pretty good about getting a Guernsey, second year in a row…The piece I did is called “The Shock of the New” partly as a tribute to the Late Australian art critic and Historian, Robert Hughes, who died last year and wrote the landmark book of the same name. The title also reflects my approach to stencils, trying to do something different and use them for abstraction rather than figurative painting- having the courage to break away from the well-worn path and go my own way…Look at that, I put a Fleetwood Mac lyric in, who woulda thought? My new paintings are coming along quite nicely, after an initial period of uncertainty…I am using the technique I have used for my last two bodies of work and it seems to be that the more I use it, the more in control of it I feel. People who see me working for the first time don’t often understand that I been working this technique for the better part of a year and a bit and I have a fair idea of how things are going to work out…This series of paintings are about mortality…Without being too morbid, I wanted to look at the idea that death is inevitable so it makes no sense to be afraid of it…be aware of it by all means but being afraid seems like a waste of time and energy…After going to the planetarium at Mawson Lakes, I started to get a sense of how ridiculously big the universe is and in contrast how insignificant a human life is…The fact that a light year is a unit of measuring distance- equivalent to some 10 trillion kilometres, compared to the average Australian life expectancy of 82 years, it seems kind of trifling…So then I started thinking about a human life- and I wanted a different perspective so I broke it down into minutes/hours/days/months…That’s 43,099,600 minutes, 716,352 Hours, 29,930 days, 4275 weeks, 984 months…obviously each of these numbers adds up to 82 years… When you look at it like this, you can see there is a definite end and you all of a sudden realize that you better get on with it….For those who know my work, you would probably recognize the technique I use when I paint- I started with this technique in second semester of last year and since then it has continued to develop…I have begun to really push colour this time- In previous paintings I used reds and then on the last lot of works I used mainly neutral colours- now I’ve gone with more or less primary colours- red, blue and yellow and it took some testing to get it right, but once I decided on the types of red, blue and yellow it started to come together…the combinations of layers means you get some really nice effects…The other reason I decided on these colours was to do with the life cycle of stars- young foolish stars burn blue, conservative middle age stars burn yellow and cranky old stars burn red, while dying stars are either white or black… The marks themselves are all more or less horizontal or vertical and for me they set up a rhythm through repetition which makes them quite interesting to look at- after a few layers they begin to pulse and seethe and really mess with your eyes, especially in these colours…So ultimately these paintings are about stopping to look around you and realizing that nothing is permanent, everything is ever changing so don't get complacent because in a second it could all be gone... From the top, you have the first of the three of these new paintings, remembering that they measure 54 inches tall by 48 inches wide and all of them are untitled right now...under that you have the second painting and then the third of the three second to last followed by a picture of them all in my studio, waiting to be worked on...These are all early stages photos- they will probably all have at least between 5-10 more layers of paint- we'll see how we go... Another piece I been working on, just getting started really is for a friend of mine’s charity that she has to raise awareness of Organ Donation for children…A subject for some that can be difficult but a very important one none the less…She will be having a silent auction in December and asked me if I would like to donate a work, which of course I was more than happy to do…So this is the beginning of the painting, with a whole lot more layers to go… So the beat goes on, Ill keep bashing away at my paintings- one of which will be in the grad show in November which obviously everyone who reads this will be invited to closer to the date and check out the Stencil art prize either on Facebook or www.stencilartprize.com for information on the opening which will be in Sydney on the 16th of October at The Chrissie Cotter Gallery in Camperdown- which of course, if you are in Sydney for, you should come and check it out and I'll be there for the opening night, so hopefully I'll see you if you come around...Until next time, have fun, you crazy kids...

Thursday, July 18, 2013

The road leads where it's led...

Weeeelllll now! I finally managed to get my act together enough to write this thing here, after about a billion years of not writing anything...I think my last post was actually April, when I was just getting started with my three big paintings and I didn't end up posting many progress shots due to being so crazy busy with these things. So I finished these ones in time and were reasnobly well received with the exception of a few people who no matter how much I explained still couldn't get their heads around them, which is fine, there's always going to be some people who don't get it...What else has been happening? I had a painting accepted for the Hill-Smith third year show, which is something that has become an annual event for third year visual arts students from ac arts...During SALA festival, the Hill-Smith gallery kindly gives it's upstairs gallery over to the work of third year students, so pretty excited to be involved in this again...The opening is the 7th of August, so if you happen to be anywhere near Pirie Street, Adelaide, drop in and check out the work- from what I've seen it should be a great show in a number of different disciplines including Painting, Drawing, Printmaking, Sculpture, Jewellery, Ceramics...The painting I've put in is pictured at the bottom of the page here, but I'll talk more about that when I get to it...
Alright, so on to the paintings, I'm not sure if I mentioned before what this project was all about, but I'll give you the abridged version. My intention from day one with my paintings has been to create artworks that have a universal appeal- by this I mean that I want people to be able to find something in my work that they can relate to regardless of my original intent...The three paintings were my ideas relating to the situation that has been going on for what seems like forever in Israel and Palestine. It is an issue that is so very complex but what I wanted to do was to strip it back to key themes that anyone could relate to. The ideas of Isolation, Displacement, Separation, Division and Alienation were at the fore of these works. My position on the situation relating to Israel and Palestine is that where we find ourselves now, we have to keep moving forward. To continually dwell on the idea that there can be one absolute right and one absolute wrong is counter productive and will only result in maintaining the status quo. This was one of my reasons for using a very reduced palette. The main colours used were Payne's grey, Zinc White, Unbleached Titanium and Yellow Ochre- The paintings to me seem to be an ongoing battle for territory, each colour pushing or marching against the other...However at no point do I assign a colour to anyone- The common perception is that Dark is Evil and Light is Good but here we have a situation where the lines are blurred. A terrorist act by definition is evil, no matter which side it is perpetrated by, so by using the spare palette, I hoped to cause people to think about the situation in a way that would make them consider all sides. The cry is often that Israel has a right to exist, however, shouldn't it then follow that that very same right should be extended to Palestine? As an outside observer obviously I have the luxury of being removed from the situation but it seems that no good can come of one side or the other constantly claiming that they are "right".
The aim of the third painting, the one that is only one colour is to show that no matter how naïve or simplistic it seems, ultimately, we are all human beings and all deserve to be treated in the manner that we would wish to be treated. The third painting shows that the end result is up to us, it is as much about hope as it is about despair, we have the ability to choose the outcome regardless of how complex the matter. If we choose despair then the painting is ominous and desolate, a requiem. If we choose hope, then the painting is a blank slate, a chance for new beginnings. Overall, I wanted people, regardless of their position or awareness of this matter to find something they could relate to their own lives and make a meaningful connection with the work. This further underlines my personal philosophy that abstract paintings should not be something you look at and try to "work out what it is", rather you should engage with it and ask yourself- what do I feel about this, what effect does it have on me...I have done half of the work in creating the painting, the viewer then needs to complete it by connecting with the painting. I wanted to create works that would mean something to everyone that looked at them, for my paintings to be universal, and I feel abstraction offers the perfect opportunity for this.
The technique I have used is something I have been working on for some time now and I thought that it was a perfect fit for this subject matter. The fact that the marks are horizontal and vertical could represent the idea that despite things looking only black or white, sometimes you can find alternate approaches that may not at first appear. The rigid and inflexible could also turn out to be fluid and flexible depending on how you perceive it. The marks also had the feeling, at least to me, of being calligraphic, a secret or lost language that nobody truly understands...The idea of check marks as well, used for counting years on a cell wall, or the number of kills on a rifle butt were also things that occurred to me. The layers of marks, each partially obscuring the last lends itself to the idea of confusion and complexity, that the original truths have been covered and uncovered so many times by people changing truths to suit their needs or ends, that we have actually forgotten what they are. These are some the many zillions of ideas that occurred to me in the course of the creation of these works and the way that my paintings are constantly evolving and changing.
This last painting is the one that was selected for the Hill-Smith show and hopefully I'll egt to see some of you guys there so you can see it in person...So that's pretty much it for now, I start a new semester, my final semester of work next week so hope fully I'l have some new blog entries in the not too distant future...Have fun and be good to each other....

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

How much wood would a wood chuck chuck?

So here I am back again, back for my final year of school after what was a long and busy break...some of you may or may not know I had my first solo show of stencil paintings which was an eye opener to say the least. When it came down to crunch time I all of a sudden realized what I had signed up for- when I first had the offer to do it, I was all casual but then as the date approached I found myself freaking out not knowing if my ass could cash the cheques my mouth had been writing...In the end, despite the ridiculous amount of work it took to get it there, I had a great opening and some really positive feedback as well as some sales... I am actually foolishly thinking of another show early next year, after I've graduated, of my mammoth oil paintings- all I need to do is find a space big enough... Now to new business, I started school again, six or so weeks ago and of course that means I've started the first of my last two painting subjects. The first one I have this semester is "current issues" and in my true fashion I've chosen a subject that is gigantic...There was a lot of interest in subjects like body image, the environment etc etc but I went for a subject that I have long had an interest in...My paintings look at the partition of Palestine. I wanted to evoke a sense of displacement, of isolation, of complexity and confusion, to give an idea of the conditions that people live under in places like Gaza. I recognised from the beginning that I would need to do some serious research on the matter, and so I have been reading everything I can get my hands on...I decided to return to a technique I explored last year with my painting "Atlas" and also with the "three Jewels" series, as it seemed perfect for what I wanted to get across. I have kept my pallet fairly minimal, using only Paynes Grey, White and Unbleached Titanium, as I didn't want people to immediately assume that because something had red on it therefore it's about death. These first three are progress images of the first of the new paintings- And these ones are progress of the newest one- all going well I should have more pics over the next two weeks of holidays, so ill do my best to get new ones up as soon as I can...

Friday, January 11, 2013

Move on up...

So my exhibition opened wednesday night and it ended up working out pretty good- i thought...I was worried initally about having enough work to fill the space and especially when I had trouble organising framing- thanks to both Philip and Geoff in that department- but in the end the amount of work I had was just right and with alot of going up and down a ladder and some tips from Tom Borgas, i was ready to go...It was great to see everyone there and though i feel like I didn't spend more than three seconds talking to any one person, I appreciate all the love from all concerned... So as promised, for anyone who wants a second look without having to go into the gallery, or a first look if you couldn't make it on the night- here are the paintings, as they were hanging, from the exhibition. Any that have been sold will be marked as such and if you have any questions or enquiries, you can email me at dcmansutti@hotmail.com... Enjoy...
1. Atlas II, 2012, Spray paint/stencil on canvas $750.00
2. Primavera, 2012, Spray paint/stencil on paper, framed $550.00
3. Surrender to the Void, 2011, Spray paint/stencil on paper, framed $550.00
4. Everything in its right place, 2011, Spray paint/stencil on paper, framed $550.00
5. Metropolis, 2011, Spray paint/stencil on paper, framed $550.00
6. Tomorrow Never Knows, 2012, Spray paint/stencil on canvas, 2012 $750.00
7.Force of Nature, 2012, Spray paint/stencil on paper, framed $550.00
8.Deeper Water, 2012, Spray paint/stencil on paper framed SOLD
9. The Thin edge of Nothingness, 2012, Spray paint/stencil on paper, framed SOLD
10. There is a light that never goes out, 2011, Spray paint/stencil on paper, framed SOLD. So the show is on until the second week of February, so if you haven't had the chance, check it out, let me know what you think....

Monday, January 7, 2013

The thin edge of nothingness...

This was a piece of writing I have been putting together for a kinda catalogue for my show, it will be available there but I thought I would put it on here (or at least a version there of) for all you hardcore cats who been down with me since day one….Have a read, see what you think…
In the beginning, this whole stencil thing for me was not much more than a momentary amusement. I had seen the potential of Stencils via the work of Blek Le Rat, Banksy and Shepard Fairey amongst many others. Their work interested me a great deal as an observer but I didn’t consider that I was capable of producing work in the same league . I had considered that maybe I could look at it from another angle but shelved the idea and continued with what I had been working on. As fate would have it, after a project I had done for a class, I had offcuts of stencil paper, some cans of paint and started experimenting with cutting shapes and just generally getting a feeling for what stencils could do. Principally up to that point, I had been painting in oils and was starting to get a handle on painting larger scale abstract paintings. What had drawn me to it in the first place was the boundless possibilities. With Abstraction, there was no restrictions placed on me by reality or the outer world or even my conscious mind; I had the opportunity to make a connection with every person who saw my work. So I decided to combine the two techniques and when I found myself slicing into the stencil paper, I realized that while stencils had been confined to mostly the replication of the real world, Stencils and Abstraction initially seemed mismatched due to the fact that stencils were static and fixed. Jackson Pollock, who for so long has been a polarizing figure in the world of art, once told an interviewer that he had no interest in replicating nature, he wanted to become nature, to be its rival. When I looked at the idea of stencils and abstraction, I realized I too would have to become nature. To release stencils from the confines of their borders, I need to look at the way the stencils were cut and the way they were painted. Following early experimentation, I approached the cutting by just sitting down and without a preconceived plan, just committing to the creation of the stencil. When it was done, I used a similar technique with the application of the paint- no sketches or plans, just applying the paint where it needed to go, working intuitively. This created a result which took me somewhat by surprise. I had expected that I could put together a cohesive image, but what the stencils allowed me to do was create a greater feeling of balance, an elusive element so important in abstraction. With continued experimentation, I started to consistently achieve the results I was looking for and develop the technique. Due to the process described and the way the works are created, each one is marked as an edition, in the print making tradition- 1/1 obviously because the works cannot be replicated- no two are the same. So as the logical conclusion to all of this I have put together a show of a selection of work from 2011 to present, which I think shows the progression of my exploration of this technique. Included is the first work I did- Titled “Everything in it’s right place” and fittingly so because of it’s deliberate, almost cautious positioning and technique and followed by works like “Tomorrow never knows”, which was inspired by techniques I was using in oil painting towards the end of 2012 and “Atlas II” which ended up being a finalist in the Australian Stencil Art Prize in 2012.