Shield for unprecedented situations, 2025

Acrylic and charcoal on plywood, approx. 60 x 80 x1.5 cm

Installed in wall-mounted, quick-access wooden box, 80x120 x 10cm

This is a painting with a fanciful aspiration to be a shield. Incorrectly horizontally orientated, it is more specifically a shield for a fool. The design is based on one of my night drawing and the colours are personally emblematic, reoccurring in much of my work. As a utilitarian protective device for a human, it is housed in a wooden, easy-access, wall-mounted box.

This is a seriously playful response to the increasing difficult majesty that is living; realities of body, family, environment, politics, religion and beyond. I anchor in making but with a grin, knowing that such objects are potential artefacts of foolishness in the face of real threat. Curiously during its making, the Wimmera sky went black with smoke from nearby Little Desert fires and the light turned an eerie, Lynchian filmic yellow.