Schools one day program Wed May 28
Full day program for students presented by
Southern Cross University
on behalf of FEHVA and Southern Cross University we welcome students , teachers, parents and adults to enjoy this day of wonderful visual arts lectures. tickets: students: $35/ teachers $50/ adults $65 66 856 554
10.00-11.00am
speaker John Dahlsen
theme: John will talk about his art practice - its reference to the world we inhabit, its influences and evolution.
John turned from abstract painter to environmental artist in the mid 1990’s. For approximately 10 years, he scoured Australian beaches for found objects, washed up 'ocean litter' - a worldwide phenomenon, affecting beaches on a global level. John’s 2007 landscape and seascape paintings, were painted as a continued response to our local environment. He remembers saying in interviews during the late 90’s, that he hoped that one day he would see less and less litter washing up on our beaches, so that quite naturally his work would find a new direction. This has now happened – on a local level at least. The situation on a global level has worsened considerably. The Byron Bay local seascapes and landscapes, mostly images seen on his daily walk around the lighthouse and beaches, have been painted somewhat with a sense of urgency, due to his ever growing concerns about global warming and its impact. Q and A 10mins
11 -12.00pm
speaker Peter Sharp
theme: Peter will be discussing his art practice and the process from found object to artful abstraction.
“There’s a certain process that I go through: paperworks, drawings, the paintings, then the sculpture. … For me it’s really important to start from seeing and then put these processes in the way to abstract what I’m seeing, to do something else to it. …. I make lots of drawings and hang them up on the wall – it becomes like an encyclopaedia. … My job is to extract that truth from whatever process of image making I’m using. Sometimes I have no idea what I’m doing and if that line of truth gets me to the end, it mightn’t remind you of a spider web but it will still look real or like it exists to itself or has some meaning.
I don’t mind if the viewer doesn’t get the original intent, but hopefully it will still look beautiful, it wills till say something about nature in the world.”
Q and A 10mins
1 -2.00pm
speaker John Smith
theme: John will be discussing the importance of and giving practical tips regarding the practice of maintaining an artist’s journal.
John Smith is the Senior Lecturer in Painting at Southern Cross University. He has a BA and MA from Sydney University. He has had many solo exhibitions in private and public galleries and is represented in major Australian collections including the Queensland Art Gallery and the Australian National Gallery. John is represented by the Legge Gallery in Sydney. John is also a convenor of the Centre of Art and Land Literacy (the CALL) an operation that promotes the development of art practice that responds to the culture of environmental and ecological issues.Q and A 10mins
2.30 -3.30pm
speaker Reg Mombassa aka Chris O’Doherty
theme: Reg will discuss the way he develops themes from personal experience and social concerns to final artwork.
Reg’s early artwork revolved around solitary houses of the style that his father had built, simple fibro homes bleached white in the sun. His work extended to encompass almost traditional landscapes observed on his numerous car trips touring with band Mental As Anything as well as surreal narratives with comic-book colouration featuring a bizarre range of fictional characters. His commentary on society and his use of religious, political and popular culture themes reveal that, beneath the artist’s humour and amusing parodies, lie incisive insight, sympathy, serious intent and expressions of social concern. Some works, like those created for or used by Mambo, unashamedly challenge existing social mores and knock society’s sacred cows off their podiums. Q and A 10mins
For information and FEHVA program updates
visit http://www.fehva.com or call 02 6687 1623
