Bronze Bust commission

A beautiful long term commission this year has been sculpting the delightful Laurie. Commissioned by his son in a lovely act of respect, Laurie was shy and bemused by the attention as he sat for me over 5 x 2 hour sessions but we had fun getting to know each other and enjoying the process. After I had sculpted Laurie in oil based clay, I then had the finished bust scanned and 3D printed by Sculpt Studios at a smaller size so we could take molds and make multiple bronze versions in two sizes. Thanks as always to Chalkos Art Foundry for the care and attention to bring this to fruition.

Book Launch

I was so delighted to have been asked to collaborate with the Women Writers Qld, and their latest anthology entitled ‘Stuffed’.

A taxidermy sketch from my ‘Animal as Object’ research sketchbooks chosen by author and editor Toni Risson to grace the covers, as the writers all took on the challenge to ‘stuff’ their story between the opening and closing lines of a popular novel (‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ by Delia Owens)

It was so much fun with this lively bunch of authors as they joined in the spirit at the Brisbane Square Library launch bringing their own ‘animal objects’ and letting me chat about taxidermy and my arts practice and the crossover between arts, science and writing. A great morning .

Get a copy of ‘Stuffed’ from @tonirissonauthor

Projected sketches!

Over a week in July a selection of my brown paper portraits of ordinary humans were projected onto 143 Brisbane Street in Ipswich as part of the Spark Festival 2023. From Thursday 6 – Sunday 16 July 2023 d’Arcy Doyle Place was transformed into a visual spectacle that profiled local artists, architecture and the nooks and crannies of this popular Ipswich meeting place.

Projectionist James Muller from Earth Base Productions worked with all 10 artists including Jacob Sarra, Chenaya Bancroft-Davis, Donna Davis, Eulalia Martin, Kylie Stevens, Eva D San Miguel, Jason McNamara, Mieke Den Otter, Renee Yates and LeAnne Vincent to have their works projected onto the building.

It was a fun time to get out and see local artists works featured over the nights of the festival. Thanks to Ipswich Festivals and Ipswich City Council and the Spark Festival.

drone footage courtesy of Earth Base Productions and featuring my own work plus Jacob Serra on St Paul’s Church and photographer Jason McNamara

Bronze Trophies

This exciting commission was for the Brisbane Racing Club who wished to have a bronze thoroughbred racehorse head as a trophy for the Queensland Oaks Carnival Race, the richest race in the Brisbane Racing calender. I had no experience with racing or these sorts of horses, so I spent some time at the racetrack drawing and watching the horses in preparation for this sculptural challenge. A lot of the process pics in my sketchbook can be seen here at my virtual sketchbook project. If you click on the flashing white boxes you can see extra hidden audio visuals
https://heyzine.com/flip-book/a0bbda9449.html#page/25

Bronze Sculptures – public art

These bronze sculptures were commissioned by TLCC (The Landscape Company) for Brisbane City Council to be part of George Clayton Park at Manly. I made the orginal sculptures from oil based clay and then made molds which I gave to Chalkos Art Foundry to make wax positives and then convert to bronze for me. As the brief was for discovery elements of a very tactile kind, I had a lot of fun making very textured and touchable sea creatures to be mounted on rocks and totems. I look forward to visiting them installed and get some shots insitu.