Dark Thoughts Manifesto

Dark Thoughts Manifesto. I know, a stupid name for a blog…but here it is anyway. 

Get over it.

I have been wanting to write about my art practice for a while now. It has been a decade or so when I wrote my Master’s Exegeses when I was 50, and since then things have changed. For one I’m now a decade older, grumpier, jaded, more cynical. Back then I was an (not so young) idealistic artist with grand aspirations with my art practice in process and hopes of further academic study (PHD, whatever), et al. Those were the heady days of pre Covid, pre employment upheavals, pre life being upended by things beyond my control.  

As I said, I have been thinking about writing about my art practice, but also my thoughts about art in general…warts and all if necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I am not going to present myself as some sort of expert or Svengali, far from it, although I do have a couple of degrees (ok, one 1st class Honours and two Masters, but who's counting), and spent over 20 years in art academia dealing and galleries with academics, students (under and postgrad), artists, curators, administrators and the like. I have seen many come and go, the humble, the confident, the overconfident, the clueless – some very talented, some not so much. This over the years has put my own practice into some perspective that I thought I may have something worth sharing…only if in the end to myself. Perhaps this writing may be a start of something bigger, or merely words treated for what they are, uttered by a mad old man shouting at the incoming tide.

My hope is that my writing will fall somewhere between the style, wisdom, and cynicism of Robert Hughes, art critic and historian whom I greatly admired and the absurdist humour of Douglas Adams whose words I consumed with such joy.

For anyone following my words has any questions about my art or anything art related, please ask. Send a message through my Facebook or Instagram pages and I would be happy to share any insights about my practice be it technical, philosophical, or just plain interested in what I do and why I do it. As I said above, I’m no expert, but do have opinions and thoughts (no matter how dark) that could start future conversations.

More to come…