Alice Exhibition 2020 Gatakers Artspace and Under the Greenwood Tree Mt Tamborine

My Exploration into “Alice” emerged perhaps by Fortuous Concourse or so I believed.  In fact it was a dear friend of mine, who would most often say to me when looking at my body of  work , “Oh. it’s Alice” !! or, “Your girls so remind me of “Alice”” !! ….  And I’m like, “Oh I wasn’t doing Alice” !! or, “but she isn’t Alice” !! or, “I wasn’t meaning for her to be “Alice”” !!!! …. And yet it had been said by others ??  It was two years ago I had one solo sculpture at an Exhibition that I titled, “The Importance of Eating Your Carrots”.  She wore a large Crinoline skirt covered in carrots.  A woman and her elderly mum came running up to me excitedly declaring. “Your sculpture, she is so,  so Alice !!!!! And I’m like “Oh, but she just isn’t Alice” !!!!!!!!   Confused I still could not, did not, embrace the notion.

My next series of Girls I made, I sat and looked, and looked.  And all by my little self,  I had that moment of recognition, finally ….  I had the Red Queen, I had Alice with a bit of a harlequin skirt, I had a set 3 “Alice” girls, and more …. The two piece Kings and Queens I had made years ago came to mind. And no, I still had not done a Rabbit, nor a Mad Hatter, nor a Dodo Bird.   So out came the Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and the Dodo Bird and a Smiling Cat !!!!

So as I pondered on my dear friend who much lamented “Alice” and figuring childhood imaginings then emerged a series of  Sculptures  “Alice Grows Up”.  And then emerged a series of Paintings that “A Portrait of Alice”