Milestone show reflects on life

GECKO Studio Gallery opened its doors on January 8, 2007.
This Sunday, April 19, the Fish Creek gallery will open its one hundredth monthly exhibition.
The show is titled Blown Off Course – recent drawings, paintings and prints by Kerry Spokes and runs until May 24.
The official opening will be on Sunday between 2pm and 5pm.
“We know there are lots of things happening on Sunday, being the first weekend of the Prom Coast Seachange Festival, but why not ‘do the rounds’ and time your visit to Fish Creek so you can take in Kerry’s exhibition opening, as well as all the other interesting and satisfying things you can do in Fish Creek,” the gallery’s Michael Lester said.
Spokes, who also runs the gallery with Lester, said the exhibition explores the ways of modern life.
“As we are all busily and steadily moving forward in our lives, sometimes we are ‘blown off course’,” she said.
“A disruption by circumstance to plans, a deflection from one’s chosen path, or of being in a state of motion.
“Our lives all take on a course where we make plans for our future, even if just for tomorrow, even if they are just dreams.”
Spokes said that as a small child, she made a conscious decision to learn how to draw.
“This ‘plan’ came about after seeing a pencil drawing by my eldest brother of another sibling,” she said.
“I remember as a four year old being in awe of him possessing such a talent.
“I looked up to my older brother in admiration of his incredible ability to produce something so beautiful. This formative experience helped set me on my ‘path’ of becoming an artist.”
Pursuing a creative path throughout her schooling, Spokes was most fortunate to have exceptional art teachers, who are still practicing contemporary artists.
“They aided in nurturing my creative ‘path’,” she said.
“Life as an adult has seen a number of deflections from my chosen path of creativity where I have been ‘blown off course’ so to speak, in various ways.  The everyday business of life can really get in the way of a creative.”
Spokes has always seen her artistic practice as in a ‘state of motion’ where she is always looking for new mediums to express herself creatively.
“The use of digital collage and iphoneography has been such an exploration in the last few years for me,” she said.
“My true passion however, will always be drawing and printmaking, and is what I return to for that true immersion into the creative process.”
In looking at the notion of being ‘blown of course’, of a deflection from one’s chosen path in life, Spokes has brought together many of the concepts she already explores in her art: her environment, social comment, humour, the human condition of being human.
“Personal triumph or tragedy, good or ill health, war or peace, decisions made by powerful national leaders and big business, all of which affect our lives in ways that can have minimal or maximal impact,” she said.
“The motif of the falling man, used in a number of the drawing and monoprint works in this exhibition, alludes to a sense of being ‘out of control’ of our own chosen path in life because of any number of factors which can intervene to alter our life course.
“The works in this exhibition represent a number of directions and divergences my art has taken. The exhibition comprises of a few suites of work I started in the last few years but had not been completed.
“Bringing these works to fruition of course leads onto new directions or ‘courses’ for my art practice to follow.”
The everyday human condition, memory, humour, the fantastical, politics, her landscape and environment are just some of the diverse subject matter Spokes works with.
“The exploration of medium and technique has always been important with drawing and printmaking as my main areas of practice in the past,” she said.

South Gippsland scene: Falling Man, a carbon pencil drawing by Kerry Spokes.

Reviewing journey: artist Kerry Spokes is presenting the one hundredth exhibition at Fish Creek’s Gecko Studio Gallery.

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Posted by brad on Apr 14 2015. Filed under Arts & Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry