My personal thoughts on the importance of process orientation in the creative act have come about largely through artistic accidents on my part. I am a firm believer in process orientation in the creation of artwork.
There is a need for exploration and this includes discovery through accidents that occur in the creative process. Such an accident happened to me during the mid-nineteen nineties that had such an impact that I embarked upon a whole new way of working as a result.
Stumbling across vast amounts of ocean letter washing up on the beaches of Australia opened my eyes to a number of things simultaneously.
Firstly, I saw that there were tons upon tons of these plastic objects washing up on our beaches.
Secondly, I noticed that I was amazed as to the beauty of these objects that were being washed and sun-bleached and rounded off by the constant banging against the rocks and rubbing against the sand.
Thirdly, I was awakened as to the possibility of using these objects, these recycled materials in my art creations. This latest thing was a real surprise to me, because I had never thought of or had the occasion to work with recycled materials ever before in the process of my creating art.
My philosophy as a result, has deepened and expanded somewhat over the years as I have worked with these materials and gone on to develop a significant varied body of work. This body of work has extended to include not only, but also, assemblage, sculpture, public art, installations, and paintings, prints and even books and DVDs. Recycled materials for me, have been a great source of inspiration. I keep seeing various possibilities as to how I can use recycled materials in my artworks all the time. It never ceases to amaze me how many ways that we can recycle and it’s a great thing that recycling has become so topical nowadays. I remember when I first started working with the found plastics that I discovered when I was walking the beaches collecting driftwood, to make my furniture. Given the fact that I wanted to use recycled driftwood to make my furniture, it was indicative that I had it in my system to want to reuse objects. It began for me with driftwood, well before it became fashionable to make furniture from this material. I first had the intention of making furniture from driftwood when I was around nineteen years old and was at art school at the end of the seventies.
