Hanging in There

$400.00

31 x 3cm
x 46cm

This was one of my final 9 apaintings from the 80 artworks project, I decided to paint a bird out of practicality for the time constraint and I also wanted to paint a bird, like a previous artwork ‘Flock Party’, since I haven’t in a while. One that’s in a position you’d be lucky to have photographed… only executed through painting in some capacity. I also wanted to paint something which the viewer needed to think about, how it’s hanging onto a cloud and what is the cloud to each person? There’s a small reference to that cat poster “Hang in there”. This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Going in Blind

$400.00

40 x 3cm
x 26cm

This is the second last painting of my 80 artworks project, I aimed to paint something simple since I was low on time but it also fit into the concept very well and ended up being one of my favourites from the lot. Before creating the artwork I looked at my website and came across a painting I almost forgot about ‘Obedience’, a painting with a dusk purple sky and bees buzzing around in bubbles. I wanted to create something similar. The concept was influenced by my project and how my life is so different to other people (it’s part of my job to stop everything and intensely create art for 11 weeks straight), they’re too busy doing the “This is what’s expected of me” to stop and wonder if they’re blindly flying through life in the bubble caught in the wind. Do you genuinely control the direction your life is going?

I also wanted to channel the style of my digital artworks, a challenge I’ve been working on as I find it difficult to have the two genre’s overlap. I believe this artwork really did a good job with that. My digital artworks have moon balloons in them, the moon also represents your emotions in astrology so I definitely put a moon in there. This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Surrealists and Psychology

$400.00

32.58 x 1.7cm
x 26cm

I was listening to a video about Magritte one day and the narrator dropped the comment that surrealists tend to be interested in psychology. I agree with that, I’m a surrealist and I find it fascinating how people act, not in a pop-psychology-internet-article kind of way, in a way that I’ll borrow books that are referenced in uni degree’s and understand you can’t just go around diagnosing people. Time is limited for this activity though. A few years back, around 26, I learnt that creativity is the brain making connections between parts of the brain. Where other people who aren’t creative don’t make those connections. Until I learnt that I genuinely believed people were being lazy when they’d say things like “How do you think of that?”… In my mind, you just stop and think for two seconds, get a grip. Then I continued on and learnt about synesthesia and have a personal theory that’s just intense creativity. All very interesting. Then that comes to the art, just an extension of how I think and representative of how I see things. So here I painted my thoughts and ideas falling through the roof of my mind and entering the real world. The items that represent my ideas then begin to die, “How high are you?”, “It’s so abstract!”. There’s also a reference to a digital artwork I created. Some hands reach out wanting to share the ideas. People don’t tend to look at the artwork and guess what I’m conveying with it, of coarse! That would be quite a party trick, like reading my mind. But the wonderful thing about art is that everyone sees something individual in each artwork and they personalise it. 
It becomes a lovely plot twist that the artworks enter the real world to die, then rebirth in a new way for each individual. I find it so interesting that people break down historic artists artworks and label what they were thinking, without descriptions you just don’t know… Bosch. This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

My Bird Shit’s All Over Naomi's

$400.00

40 x 1.7cm
x 30cm

This artwork is an appropriation of a 17th century Swedish leading artist David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl’s 1670 artwork ‘Negro with Parrots and Monkeys’. When I saw this artwork originally I really enjoyed the composition and expression used. However we live in a cancel culture where even in the most fitting situations we aren’t allowed to mention a growing vocabulary of words purely because someone else has repeatedly used them in a derogatory manner and therefore it’s assumed all uses of the word are derogatory. “The asian girl over there” for example, is now considered a racist comment instead of describing the person you’re referring to. I feel as if I’m not allowed to tell anyone about the original artwork, it’s now considered racist despite portraying the opposite of how we now associate the word, negro. By appropriating this artwork I’m giving the original artwork a new platform to be seen, we shouldn’t shun art history out of fear of using a word in the most appropriate context and being cancelled. I could have named it “I’m not allowed to title this artwork” but I don’t believe that would have reflected the original enough or even conveyed the point I’m making. I have two other appropriations and they’re each titled referencing the originals. I did think about just appropriating the artwork into my own style, surrealist and bold colours although after starting I changed my mind and tried to ring true to the thin and many layers artists of the time would have used. Putting censor bars and staying true to the style seemed more appropriate to my goal. The approach to thinly layering paint didn’t sit well with me and I ended up stopping this to paint a massive artwork in my own style. Toward the end of this artwork I ended up rage quitting because I felt like it took too long. Had I isolated more time in the first week of this artwork then I would have stayed interested in keeping it realistic. I wasn’t able to perfectly match the perspective. This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Galaxy

$380.00

40 x 1.7cm
x 50cm

A friend recently gifted me an artwork he found on the road so I put it in my pantry. One day when I stood there looking for food I reflected on the fact that I haven’t ever attempted to paint outer space. So I did and I wouldn’t call it challenging. I decided to add a space cadet. This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Schadenfreude

$370.00

50 x 1.7cm
x 39.5cm

Scadenfreude is when people find enjoyment from other people failing.. Somewhat similar to survival of the fittest. I started the painting with an entirely different idea in mind, when I listen to the song 'Hotel California' I whip up an image of a house that shaped like a head, gold and in the middle of a desert. I started to paint that and then didn't.. When I started painting this I also re-watched a Bosch documentary which highlighted the right panel of 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' where a woman is made of egg shell. So I decided to paint eggs building houses from the cracked egg shells of other eggs. I painted the eggs to represent peoples minds.. As I see it, survival of the fittest is a mental game in this century (besides Rona). This is one of my hand-stretched ones, has a certificate of authenticity and always sold with hooks ready to hang!

Corporate

$350.00

46 x 3cm
x 46cm

This artwork is one of my best represented artworks in my original colouring in book, just sharing that you can make an amazing artwork yourself with this one! It’s an artwork I still look back at and think, “I really hit the mark with this”. Birds are meant to represent freedom and money is meant to unlock freedom. But how much have you sold your soul for corporate life? I tell my friends that as an artist, yes my income is currently lower (until one day), but I’m just as wealthy as the next because I’m spending my time doing what I love. Whereas when you work in a place you don’t enjoy, you only have about 2 hours each day as actual leisure, then the weekends, sometimes filled with chores (unless you have robots). So naturally, you spend whatever money you have on compensating. So there you go, there’s your freedom dampened by the man. This artwork is oil based, isn’t one of my hand-stretched ones and sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Vaguely

$350.00

68 x 3cm
x 68cm

You know that feeling when you wake up from a dream and know your consciousness experienced events but not sure really what happened. This. That’s what I wanted to paint. This artwork is oil based, is one of my hand-stretched ones and sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Portal

$350.00

48.5 x 2cm
x 47.5cm

I saw an artwork of a painting that looked like a window when hung up, I then wanted to paint something similar but with a different concept, I also wanted to have a go at creating a painting that had more reds in it as sometimes I create plenty of blue artworks. So with those parameters in mind I decided to paint a cloud in a gallery seated, watching either a painting hung up as the window, or a window watching other clouds as if it’s an artwork. This artwork is oil based, is one of my hand-stretched ones and sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Chameleon

$350.00

45 x 3cm
x 56cm

Honestly, when starting this artwork I just really wanted to master clouds, ground and have something hidden in between. It took me a while after this to master clouds and ground and I’m not sure the hidden horns are fitting but you can see my style end up where it is through artworks like this. This artwork is oil based, is one of my hand-stretched ones and sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

The Essence of Freedom

$350.00

38 x 3cm
x 38cm

I started off painting this painting with the intention of making a raised platform with a boat floating on top.. Didn't happen. Sometimes the paintings I make just make themselves and are entirely unplanned, this one ended up with vines and by that time I'd decided I wanted flowers at the end of the vines to be birds. The way I see it is the vines are your roots and when the flower blossoms and drained everything it can from the roots then the birds fly away. This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones and always sold with hooks ready to hang!

Hello, No

$350.00

42 x 3cm
x 30cm

I made this painting after learning that for each language there's a sign language... instead of there only being one universal sign language. So I learnt a bit, this painting has a hand on the left which says hello in Bulgarian (BSL) and no in Auslan. The whole genre seemed exclusive and excluded to me. Bulgaria only just passed a bill to recognize BSL as a language in January of this year (2021), before that, from what I've learnt, they would learn Russian sign language in school and then adopt their own in the real world. I feel like that's just how Bulgarians do things, their own way. I painted a clear sheet falling down, metaphorical for the language barriers. So you say “Hi” in Bulgarian and rejected with a “No” in Auslan. Oil Based, hand stretched, signed and ready to hang with a certificate of authenticity.

Positive Disposition

$350.00

30 x 3cm
x 42cm

This painting is somewhat a follow-up on some of my digital artworks that I've created based on zoo animals with wheels for feet. As if they're in wheel chairs, there aren't enough artworks representing the disabled in my opinion. The painting is of two single coloured paintings where one is torn down and the other has the giraffes head peeking through it, like a window. The sky then rubs off on the giraffe and leaks into the home as if it represents a positive disposition. After understanding the differences and how society overlooks disabled people, I feel like they generally have a much more cheerful outlook on life than abled people I meet, a rare quality. This is one of my hand-stretched ones, has a certificate of authenticity and always sold with hooks ready to hang!

Nothing in the Desert

$350.00

41 x 3cm
x 30.5cm

I made this painting right after my Apple Tree painting and decided to carry on the idea of a pear shape which resembles the back of a woman’s head, also having so many paintings that feature one item in the centre I wanted to break away from a style I'd made for myself and feature repetition instead. I wanted the painting to appear as if there's a life-like presence in it yet not actually have anyone in it, Oil based, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity!

Taking in the View

$350.00

30 x 3cm
x 40cm

I originally decided to paint a woman looking out the window with furniture floating around and as I created the artwork I decided that the room should be relatively empty and have a scene of presence at the same time which brought me to paint the chair in front of the window with a woman sitting in it as the shadow. I didn't feel like painting the corner of the room in the corner so I centred it adding to the centre focus. I did put thought into the floor although as the painting wrapped up it didn't turn out as I would have ideally made the pattern. I also chose to whip out a Magritte and paint the chair with the image of the sky on it. This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, always sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Inception

$350.00

50 x 3cm
x 40cm

I woke up from a dream shortly before painting this artwork, well... I thought I woke up from a dream, then I thought I woke up from a dream again, then I woke to a dream that was actually a dream then I actually woke up. I found this insane, I’d never had such a weird experience and had to paint it, I felt like Christopher Nolan must have had a similar dream in order to feel compelled to write ‘Inception’. All that aside, I rushed into painting it and don’t think I captured what I felt, but here’s to the first attempt! The first two dreams were entirely mundane which threw me off, the last one, clearly I was in a dream at that point. So I painted an entry, a super basic entry, then a garden, then a wave in a room. I painted the bird to be a common occurrence in each, watching you figure it out. This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

No Magic

$350.00

50 x 3cm
x 40cm

As I watched an astrology lecture I noticed one of the astrologers who’s opinion I respect mention “magic”. At first I thought he was joking then I realised, no, this person genuinely believes in magic. Down the magic rabbit hole I went and learnt that there’s a whole community that believe in magic. Respectable people. Listening to how they came to make sense of it made sense to me and up it’s to this artwork description reader to learn for themselves. However the gist is these people are manipulating the luck they have at hand, not working spells to be billionaires that we’d all assume. I continue this train of thought in a different artwork, however this idea pivots in comparison to the other. During my rabbit hole hunt I came across a story about a well respected psychologist(?) who had the chance to speak somewhere. He picked someone from the audience to take his jacket and he’ll give them $10. Gladly they did. Until he told them a murderer owned this jacket. How can you entirely dismiss magic yet believe a jacket is tainted because a murderer owned it. Perhaps some people are more in tune, a sentence that comes up often. I painted the jacket in the forefront, and each pear representing people front and centre, however the more in tune pear had a mini world swirling around it. Perhaps this could be the most interesting still life image you’ll see today. If you can call it still life. This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Surface Level People

$350.00

40 x 1.7cm
x 30cm

Sometimes I find myself hanging around people who are very preoccupied with whatever event they’re planning or mediocre activities like who they’re dating and it’s hard to maintain an actual conversation that would still be relevant in years time, like how video games improve hand eye coordination, or the pyramids. I remember talking to someone and when I brought up something less surface level she’d say “mhmm” and not add to the thought. It’s hard to find like-minded people so I painted a thinking statue, between two surfaces, I like to see it that one is filled with the faces of people who do the 9-5 and their conversations don’t extend much further than their work dramas, very important to them, but still surface level. Then on the roof it’s another perspective where there’s people who think they’re entirely different to the ones following life’s expectations but still aren’t digging deep, the topics of conversation still revolve around why this isn’t happening or that doesn’t work. In the middle the statues thoughts are clouds locked in bubbles, floating away. This artwork isn't one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Conspiracy Theorist

$350.00

40 x 1.7cm
x 50cm

I was watching the Zuckerberg Joe Rogan interview and Zuckerberg is ‘Red pilling’ just a bit… Over the past year I’ve been watching conspiracy theories for art but the ones I’ve seen (most of them) have merit. However, you can’t explain that to someone who hasn’t given more than two seconds to any of these theories without being labelled a conspiracy theorist. It’s the same as giving a movie half the trailer. I found it important to watch different people discuss the same topic. So this is the red pill… Being labelled a conspiracy theorist. I put a laser for the pyramid plant theory, a wrap to represent muslims (soon to make an artwork about religions), a satellite for the propaganda, the document where Albanese tried to cancel the internet, a COVID clot and more. This artwork is one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.

Law Needs Crime

$350.00

50 x 1.7cm
x 40cm

While in uni we covered the topic of whether graffiti is art or criminal (spoiler, the law says any paint on any surface that you don’t own is crime) which lead to the lecturer stating that law needs crime, the police need the criminals to keep coming in order to exist. That thought, alongside recently dealing with insane people (check out my car sign being stolen video now on YT as an example) I experienced how difficult it is to have the justice system help you out when your issue is small, yet still invasive enough that in black and white you are entitled to the help. Rewarding bad behaviour I guess. So you end up stressed out dealing with an insane person and on top of that dealing with the stress of not having a problem entertaining enough for actual help and knowing there will be consequences if you stand up for yourself outside the justice system. So the cycle continues, you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place while the system primes you to join the insanity club hoping you’ll just defend yourself. I don’t think I expressed that idea well in this artwork so I’m thinking I’ll redo it, but here’s the first version. This is the system and the lollipop begins whole then melts and is pumped back up to build up the lollipop again. I added a cloud as the environment causing the loop but I definitely regret the lightning added. This artwork is one of my twenty-one artworks in twenty-one days and I ended up rushing it so it’s definitely not my peak performance. This artwork isn't one of my hand-stretched ones, sold with hooks ready to hang and a certificate of authenticity.