Page 148 - Genius
P. 148
tony bowen
lives and works in Melbourn, Australia
SEARCH THE ARTIST ONLINE www.artoteque.com
good fortune can sometimes arrive when its needed most - I was very
lucky to find a uniquely challenging art form, just in time.
Having undertaken a Nyerna Studies teaching degree, I was pleasantly
surprised to find a major art project in the curriculum - an eight panel mural
in mosaic, overseen by a local elder and successful commercial artist,
depicting the big ‘fella’ of Aboriginal mythology -the rainbow Serpent.
With some building trade experience, I was able to make a start. Wow –
what an art form; demanding of total concentration - highly satisfying both
in expression and completion. Hard choices -only hard choices. It is or
it isn’t - no compromise, no intermediate solution – another way must be
found. How to run the lines, what shapes, what color, what combinations
- what do they mean? The lines immutable, shapes defined by the tile
base, no mixing or bleed of colors - the limits imposed mean that further
solutions must be found. One choice leads to another - solutions can be
created - a deeper expression.
Aboriginal lore - ‘everything everywhen’- the dreaming. Everything
connected—place, spirit, the land, all life, through all time - from the bugari
(time before time) until the present, and beyond. This becomes the basis
for a mosaic technique; a technique for getting it right—from the first
piece to the last. Everything connected; move one piece - move them all.
Cyclical not linear—consider all connections to the first piece, and then
their connections - to the final tile.
terra araBana, 2008 FlOOr TIlES 10x33 IN. /26x85 CM.
UntitLeD (stratHBoGie ranGes), 2008 FlOOr TIlES 22x35 IN. /56x90 CM.
DJaLU (DetaiLs), 2008 FlOOr TIlES 35x82,5 IN. /90x210 CM.
on GranDmotHer's CoUntry, 2009 FlOOr TIlES 7x33 IN. /19x85 CM.
sera, 2009 FlOOr TIlES 31,5x59 IN. /80x150 CM.
C-riDer, 2009 FlOOr TIlES 14x23,5 IN. /36x60 CM.
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