The American Artist Robert Rauschenberg once said,
“a picture is more like the real world when it is made from the real world”
In my work entitled, Australian Landscape: A Recipe for Living, I reflect on my
identity as a Black American/Australian artist observing and participating in
what it means to be "A New Australian." Included are images from a 1950’s
cookbook (similar to my grandmother’s recipe book); pages from a book of
landscape drawings with a high society woman (Flora): old paintings and objects
found around a local park. a stuffed bird (fauna) and a key chain (Franklin, a
character from Little Rascals) The three central figures all pay key roles in my
understanding of Australia History: The environment, the right of women and
the acceptance of new Australians define me and have become subtle subjects of
my work and understanding of the environment. The landscape is taken from
paintings of Arthur Streeton, photos of the Flinders Ranges and Gibbsland and
pictures of Kakadu National Park.
I identify, as an artist who wants nothing more than to express his practice and
leave the viewer to take from it what they will.
