Kerry Spokes - 'Blown Off Course'

Wednesday 25 November - Sunday 13 December 2015

As we are all busily and steadily moving forward in our lives, sometimes we are ‘blown off course’. 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.

As a very small child, Kerry Spokes made a conscious decision to learn how to draw. This ‘plan’ came about after seeing a pencil drawing by the eldest brother of another sibling. As a four-year old, she was in awe of him possessing such a talent. Spokes looked up to her older brother in admiration of his incredible ability to produce something so beautiful. This formative experience helped set Spokes on the path of becoming an artist.

Pursuing a creative path throughout my schooling, she was most fortunate to have exceptional art teachers, who are still practicing contemporary artists. They aided in nurturing Spokes' creative path.

Life as an adult has seen a number of deflections from that chosen path of creativity and where she has 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’, 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. Her true passion, however, will always be drawing and printmaking, and is what she returns to for that true immersion into the creative process.

In looking at this notion of being ‘blown off course’, of a deflection from one’s chosen path in life, it has brought together many of the concepts Spokes already explores - 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.

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 Spokes' art has taken. The exhibition comprises of a few suites of work 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 her art practice to follow.

The everyday human condition, memory, humour, the fantastical, politics, my landscape and environment - are just some of the diverse subject matter I work with. The exploration of medium and technique has always been important with drawing and printmaking as my main areas of practice in the past.