Connecting Sculpture with the Drawings from the Hospital

Karragarra Island in Southern Moreton Bay has always been a place of release and freedom to me. In 2015 I had an awesome experience on the islands with entering the inaugural Girt By Sea exhibition. The following year we returned to enjoy another stint on the island.

This year I entered the competition again, with two works that cut to the heart of what it means to be a sculptor and to lay bare your own soul in the context of the work.

The two sculptures - Curlew's Viewpoint and Flightful Tinnie - are both a homage to the Curlew and to two related experiences: the first in 2015 when I pitched a tent next to Lighfboat on Karragarra and multitudes of curlews visited me overnight, and the accident I later had, which landed me in hospital in November 2016 for four months. While laying in bed in the hospital I dreamed in a semi conscious state about making wings that would lift me out of where I was and fly me to freedom, and of rising above the pain and confusion I was feeling.

Curlew's Viewpoint is formed with dotted lines - these were echoes of the drawings that I did in my sketch books while in hospital. Dotted lines are often used in diagrams to represent hidden lines, which may be delineating a hidden object - revealing those things that are between here and there. Just as they show hidden lines... so too could be the destiny of the curlews... so too could be the destiny of a patient in a hospital.

Flightful Tinnie carries forward the notion of escape, lofty intentions, the ability to realise that we're able to rise above any troubled waters. It's an optimistic piece, instead of on top of a 'frightful' experience, it is a 'Flightful' experience.