The Artist in Residence (AiR Grants Program) is a State and Federal Government sponsored program to bring artists into schools.
I have the good fortune to be chosen as the AiR to work with the Hospital School Services (HSS) at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children (PMH).
My residency started on the 6th of May and will continue until the end of September covering terms 2 and 3 of the school year. The project is being jointly managed by Caleb Jones (Associate Principal HSS) and Rebecca De Rooy (Art Collection Curator PMH).
The initial task was to come up with a theme for the project. Following lengthy discussions we came up with the idea of creating a Future World. A place of inter-galactic travel and new concepts thus providing the scope for exciting and boundless journeys into the imagination!
The next task for me was to do some preliminary work which I hoped would stimulate and encourage the kids to create their own works.
I started off with a series of drawings which I then scanned into my computer and digitally manipulated and coloured:
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| Future World a drawing |
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| Future World where is it?? |
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| Are we there yet?? |
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| Who are they and where are they from?? |
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| Cool Joe Bird and The Blue parakeet Jazz Band play The Tree of Life at the Intergalactic Oasis !! |
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| The Intergalactic Oasis a Stopover on the way to a New World?? |
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| A replacement for the car?? |
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| Maybe we will create our own islands in the sea?? |
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| Maybe we will live under the ocean?? |
If this is starting to look a bit like a trip into a Sci-Fi movie I'm not too surprised! The visual extravagance of Avatar, Star Wars and Star Trek are a great source of inspiration to me, as are the stories of Tolkien!
I went on to create two small sculptures out of recycled materials:
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| This exotic creature holds a pot of mystical material not found on Earth . What is it for? |
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| This strange looking critter comes from a planet where the gravitational pull is much weaker than here on Earth. He needs his heave tail to hold him down. Since his arrival on Earth his tail has become a bit of a burden and has resulted in his somewhat drunken gait!! |
A bizarre pair from who knows where? I was now ready to begin my journey as AiR at PMH!
