​

The past + present:

I  have a long history of collecting the words, phrases and objects of our consumer culture.

In 1991, I majored in Printmaking and completed a suite of etchings and lithographs. This was inspired by car and panty liner advertising and chockas full of related text and lingo.

My acest-best first job was as a ticket writer, writing little signs for a chocolate company... and I fell in love with type, layout and the 'look' and rhythm of words.

I kept making art and wondering how it all sat with my graphic, illustrative tendency and love of advertising and consumerism...but I could never work myself out...who ever does?

​

I have a First Class Honors degree in Fine Arts from Victorian College of the Arts anda Masters in Fine Art from Monash University where I completed a  3 metre square drawing called Power Moai Buns 'n' Thighs (shown at Nellie Castan Gallery in 2008) and a dissertation titled 'Love my Leafblower, Worship my Spartan Sports Power Tower: The Art of Synthetic Ecologies'  ...

Given that my Honours year thesis was titled 'Too much Stuff: Where does it come from and What to do with it', I have realised after many years of fluffy business that I love long silly titles and words as much as images.

From  1999-2009, I immersed myself in tight ink drawings of chinoiserie and suburban motifs (for which I was lucky enough to get several art prizes).

 

Recently I won The National Works On Paper Art Award for 1800BIOSEKURE , and was shortlisted into the Geelong contemporary Art Prize for my painting  Fish Roe Aktiv.

​

In 2015 I was invited to  create a work for the 50K  National Artist's Self Portraiture Exhibition at the University of Queensland, The University of Queensland, you can listen to Michael Desmond talking about this work...

​

Currently I am painting useless self help books and  other text based works which are part of my current PhD project at VCA, The University of Melbourne.

 

My work is in the following collections: The National Gallery of Australia, Artbank, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Grafton Regional Gallery, Melbourne University,

La Trobe University, SBS at Federation Square, City of Yarra, City of Banyule, MLC, and Kedumba Contemporary Drawing collection, NSW, The University of Queensland

​

​

 

​