I am self taught. I don’t want to sound arrogant but I don’t believe painting art is something you study to become. I am familiar with the University style of prosthesis and cross correlation of taking 3-4 works, examining and then rehashing to create something that is in my opinion just a bit of all that was studied. It doesn’t work for me. I actually don’t believe in the education system. My High School Principal threw a year 10 certificate at me side of stage at the end of year graduation and said “you won’t be going on stage mate but you may as well have this because you’re going nowhere without it..” it upset me at the age of 15. The curriculum just made no sense to me.. I don’t want to sound like the big shot but we were studying history books in year 9 that had pictures of Captain Cook launching at Sydney Harbour in 1788, peacefully coming to land and giving the Australian First Nations people hand shakes, gifts and cuddles. I smelt bullshit. As it turns out, The atrocious Genocide inflicted on the Australian Aboriginal people was hell on earth and history has disproved this colonial primary lie. When I was 14 I couldn’t concentrate in class. My English teacher used to come to school off his head and the teachers waffled on about bullshit that seemed arbitrary and ridiculously banal. I used to race home and read, Chomsky, Orwell, Huxley and was inspired for hours. I remember my first year of applied business as a self taught Commercial Photographer in my own start up company. I remember doing the maths and realising I made in that one year about 8 years of my old high school teachers salary. They didn’t believe in me and I didn’t and still don’t believe in them or institutional learning. I believe in life, you carve out your own path. I see no competition between myself and other artists. It is just a discipline I am inspired to better against myself.
I don’t lie, cheat or steal and I don’t believe just because you hold a badge and a gun you can harass me or give me an order to do something that I don’t agree with. I believe in self liberation and don’t believe in authority for authorities sake. I question things. I think this is a very important human resource and way of living that most seem to be oblivious too. “To thine own self be true “…