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More useful information Check List for entry to TYPP Email to Tasmanian Regional Arts – info@tasregionalarts.org.au:
Some key points to consider when writing an artist's statement
Examples of good artist statements from previous entrants Alex Davern I chose Tobias as one of my selected Tasmanians to paint, as he is an inspiring individual to me. Over the past few years he has committed to and worked hard at his musical abilities and is now on what looks to be a fruitful path to a musical life. Although before now in his earlier years he was a crazy rebel punk-rock kid listening to a small variety of short/fast/loud artists, I’m now impressed to know that he opened up his ears to some of the best and most influential music ever, this being represented by his blue T-shirt (Sonic-Youth, Confusion is Sex) and the attachment of a trout head and tail (Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica). I have represented Tobias’ musical change through a large abstract growth of skin passing through his cigarettes and out to his brain. A segment of his brain is painted red to symbolise damage, but also life. Abbey MacDonald Kindled by my passion for further research into the transient nature of identity came this portrait of my father, Alex MacDonald. I have a photograph of my father, his passport photo, which was taken just before he immigrated to Australia from Scotland in 1968. This grainy image of my father always has, and continues to perplex me. The photograph itself held many fascinating images for me when I was younger. I imagined a spy, an adventurer, a gangster, or sometimes I could catch the fleeting glimpse of a suave criminal in the photo. But as I grew and began to ask questions, the photograph began to conjure different meanings and images for me. A lost boy. Bravado. Fear of the unknown. The need for a clean slate. Based upon a 39-year-old image which shows my father the very age I am now, I considered the perceptions of my own identity as I represented his. I could see a clean slate within my father’s image, ready and eager to be coloured, marked and shaped by the experiences of a new life in a new place. 1968, Here and Now portrays Alex MacDonald’s image as it has been perceived and shaped by my own experience of being his daughter, influenced by the allure of a tiny, 39-year-old, ragged black and white photograph and the curiousness and understanding of 23 years of living and learning from a man that I have come to see so much of myself in. A man who has guided me safely to here and now, having now reached the very age at which he made a life-changing decision to move away from everything he knew. Do I feel compelled to do the same? Marion Abraham Bill Mollison is seen as the ‘father of permaculture’; a concept based on the conscious design and maintenance of productive eco systems. Bill was born in 1928 in the small fishing township of Stanley, northern Tasmania. His first wife, Margaret Andrews, is my grandmother. I have chosen Bill as my subject in an attempt to connect his public and private identity. The Bill Mollison I know is very different from the ‘guru’ identity he generates in environmental circles. The main symbolism portrayed in the painting is that of Buddha; embodied by the blue tones of Krishna, Tibetan incense dispenser and red orb. Although far from being Buddha himself, Bill Mollison does nevertheless exemplify the characteristics of a passionate, visionary and driven man. My grandfather’s token animal is the goose – many of which he has always had around him in his gardens. This goose, however, has a golden egg – symbolic of the success the permaculture movement has been for Bill and the diverse profits it has delivered to him. Finally, in my mind my grandfather is a great storyteller. I have painted him in the position of the raconteur, always ready to talk for hours about past travels, gardens and geese.
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