“I was 17 years old when I began my apprenticeship as a commercial artist, in one of the oldest commercial art houses in Melbourne, born of the thespian world, a world which exists no more. I was taught craft, drafting and construction by artisans, reproductionists, illusionists, and masters. It was about aesthetics and technique, precision and flamboyancy, the extreme, colour tones and textures, movement and theatricality.

 When I studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts it was all about philosophical and intellectual meaning. I would here learn to question and answer everything, to influence and be influenced and discern every mark I was to make. I was to learn that literature was the diverse poetry of language both within sound and movement. I could give you a myriad of philosophical meanings… how many of them would truly be intellectual would be debatable.

 Intellectual design stinks of ascetic value – what it is worth to an artist or audience may be mediocre. The beauty of art, theatre, film is the ability to take an audience on a personal and communal journey into the spirit of wonder, to open a doorway to the unknown, to go behind the frame and experience magic, something akin to prayer.

 As a professional theatre and film designer, writer and filmmaker I learnt the art of free form: abandonment. I discovered emotion and the art of pure emotion, the continuous line, the line that started from aesthetic technique, through philosophical debate, to discovery of ownership, and finally abandonment… freedom and the ultimate art form; that of collaboration.

 In 1999 I held my first solo visual art exhibition in a response to all, and all that had come before. I discovered the moment, the innate response emotionally born of a deeper consciousness and released. I was to experience the solitary Zen-like state of myself and began to see through my eyes from my hear. I drew inspiration from my senses and began the new journey to gather all events I had experienced and unite them. This work has brought me back to the theatrical state of immersion, the invitation to join in, to make a mark, to express something greater than a still life.

 It may be the inevitable loss to illuminate the expansion of originality, to the sufferance of the still life, the 2-dimensional abstraction of realism, naturalism, the kitchen sink drama of reality; it is for the artist to express that which has not been discovered, to alchemy new life, to hold up a light under which miracles may be performed and the world may move to be viewed in each and every unique way: life. It is not to make people suffer, but to deliver them from sufferance, so that we may express our uniqueness of intimacy.

 In these past 10 years I have taken the diversity of knowledge, skills and philosophies into the corporate space, facilitating human centred design, ideation, creative thinking and community-driven change management through collaborative processes. Great collaboration is achieved when we celebrate our personal agency within a group, and open up the space to sharing and expanding any one idea, past a singular ideology or ownership. Possibilities become great ideas, actions, executions, when we question what is our true Burning Question, our core, hence allowing our innate ability to imagine, feel, contemplate and observe to shine through. We need a great sense of play.

 After 57 years of play, of exploration, of observation, of questioning everything, of dreaming and expressing through a unique lens of dyslexia, ambidextrousness and poetry, I find myself within the somatic movement. The movement entails embodying the continual line of interconnectivity, of mark making. It often takes years to really understand a creative moment’s story; it has taken me 23 years to see my signature visual art practice ‘Ice Works’ as ‘mark making’… it took me years to understand why my short film ‘Burnout’ a spoken word poem set to a visual narrative did so well in the US and at Sundance, why it was included on 3 DVD sets with directors like Lucas and Lars von Trier.  I now understand that the world wants unique voices – we want to be carried away, set alight within our own imaginations, inspired by the heart of art… It is always less satisfying when we are told what to think and feel, to be generalized by curatorial statements that often are led by administrative processes. The literary manager and producer Jerry Kalajian, a champion of my work, once asked me to name the most successful independent film directors; I reeled of the usual suspects, and his answer back to me was now add Lucas and Spielberg to the list – he said the most successful creatives produce works that change the world, not add to the already available.

 I have a curious mind, I see things within the flow of movement, I dream in possibilities, I experience through a sensory landscape. I went to NIDA not to be a designer, but to collaborate with people whose creative skills and interests wanted – needed – to create magic, to be changeable and fluid, to experiment, to experience and learn, to feel and make a mark upon this life. My recent project Sound of Prayer is an expedition, and I am a journeyman upon the vast interconnection I feel. Why me? Because I have no fear of creating beauty, of telling stories through visual and sound narratives, of connecting with people from diverse landscapes and creative expressions. I am curious about the poetry we call prayer, because I want to experience and share in an abundant compassionate world that unites rather than excludes.

 As an artist I see everything as an extension of flow, as immersive and collaborative. My language is to offer this to others, to play as I play.”

“What I believe is that we need to lead young and emerging artists through inspiration. Critique often represents itself through a fear of letting in, letting go, and experiencing the ‘other’ as new.

 It is not always about gaining a new way; however, experimentation even within an already quantified technique or style is a key to the sense of discovery. To find, to discover, to yield in and to, to play, to seek, is to experience a new expression of something we may already think we understand, opens us to gaining knowledge, wisdom and compassion. Art has an inherent gifting of compassionate source. I imagine a world where everyone is inspired to lead by their imaginative creativity.

 How do we invite students to be individual and collaborative? How do we inspire the coming together within building new gatherings and companies across the multiple disciplines we call the arts? My answer: inspiring artists to ignite ideas and follow through with a thorough expression of exploration to a final work that enlightens a sense of awe.

 As a creative maker for over 38 years I offer a vessel to draw upon; I also offer the confidence to encourage play, exploration, and a seeking outside any one student’s comfort zones of expression.

 Diversity and union are not opposing forces, for within each (like within artist and audience) we see the other, eliciting an understanding of hearted compassion, acceptance and curiosity, guiding from one conceptual nuance to another. Like a river that carves itself through an ever changing yet constant landscape – from a source, into a creek, into a river, into an estuary, out into the ocean, into a torrent, and up into the clouds, into the falling rain…

 When we bundle individuals into groups by labelling them, we so often overlook the diversities that make them part of any such group. If we are only looking, hearing and sensing what we believe we know, or perceive we know, we often miss the horizon of multiple opportunities, ideas, influences and adventures that any one journey may excite.

 “Things are not singularly created

Nor destroyed

Everything is within the endless transformation of life”

When we watch a baby, we realise that they follow their vision as their eyes move from one object to another – for a baby, the journey between locations is as important as the beginning and end locations.

 When we become present – ‘observe’, ‘contemplate’, ‘meditate’,  ‘breathe’, ‘participate’ – we see past our mind’s preconceptions of what we perceive something is; we find a flow of movement towards our imaginations, our own version of the storytelling.

 As an artist, an idea will dictate the medium, the medium for me being one of the tools experienced to create an expression of life.”