"Censored" High Quality Fine Art Print

Digital archival reproduction printed on Epson Cold Pressed White oversized A4 paper stock. Printed locally by fine art printer, Macquarie Editions.

Artists Statement:

Evacuated to an apartment in Jindabyne, NSW , I painted to pass the time while listening to community radio for hour by hour updates of my home town during the 2019/2020 Black Summer Bushfires.

At the time, my home - Braidwood NSW - was completely surrounded. My neighbour had been fighting the bushfire from his property for 7 days straight, saving his and my own in the process. I thought of my loved ones.. My auntie under a 10 day blackout, trapped in South Durras. My bestie, no phone reception, locked in on all sides in Mollymook, and loved ones all the way south near Merimbula who have single access roads into bush on all sides. The fires stretched 300km’s from Eden to Nowra, and 383km’s inland from the coast to the flat farmlands beyond the Snowy Mountains, and for three months straight my mind worried about so many of my friends and loved ones under evacuation notice from fire.

At the time in Australia, our federal government wasn’t sending help that was so desperately needed. At the time, in fact, our prime minister unexpectedly went on holiday to Hawaii. Cool move, bro. I painted this bBue Wren with their face censored out because it felt like all of the natural world around me was invisible to those in power. They had a blind spot there, and were choosing not to see. The Blue Wren was voted Australia’s favourite garden variety bird that year, so it seemed fitting to take a national icon and disfigure it.