Creative play in The Brickworks

So here they are ladies and gentlemen: the photos from a day of paint and play amongst the rubbled remains and dappled sunbeams that occupy the vast interiors of what was once the Hoffman Patent Brick and Tile Company...

My wonderful friend Lee and I embarked on our day of creative play early(ish) one morning, descending into the cool cavernous space of the factory armed with drumsticks, various pots and pans, paints, an assortment of brushes, a go-pro, a kindly loaned SLR and a smattering of nibbles to sustain us throughout the afternoon.

The painting I designed for Lee was inspired by the creative process itself and two of the major contrasting elements which compose it: the technical skills which must be mastered and practiced relentlessly to gain understanding and control, and the organic flow that takes you in new, exciting, and unexpected directions that you become happily lost in.

This particular project was a way for us to bring together our two very different creative outlets in a building we both love immensely- mine being painting, his being the drumming. We shot the body art in stages throughout the day  - experimenting with segments of stop-motion animation and filming Lee playing on his amazing treasure chest drum kit: a conglomerate of various buckets, pots, tins and bricks that he's collected from around Melbourne and the calm dusty interiors of building itself.

The black line-work and geometric patterning represent the technical aspects of creativity whereas the washes of  colours, the smatterings of splatterings, the flowers that grow from them and the sun represent the organic part of the creative process that grows and takes on is own life. The words are from a message Lee wrote referencing the latter - and end next to a "clock face" with jumbled numerals - this nice little detail thought of by Lee'sy :) Lastly there is the tiny detail of the heartbeat on his left arm - this was in reference to drumming and the need to keep the beat!!!

A MASSIVE thank you to Lee without whom this project wouldn't have been possible!  Video to follow in the hopefully-not-too-distant future :)  xxx