Let me tell you a story….. 

I left school far earlier than I should have. 

But I had this desire to be financially independent and not a burden on my Mum bringing up 4 boys under the age of 11.  So at 16, after failing dismally at maths and physics, two key subjects in the study of electricity, I began an apprenticeship as an electrician working for the South Australian Government located at the South Australian Museum and Art Gallery. This was the beginning of my fascination with science, art and light. 

Over a short period of time I had the pleasure and privilege to walk through these spaces in the morning, maintaining the exhibition lighting before opening, all at the age of 16. Some days I would walk alone, with a set of keys entrusted to me. I look back on these formative years as one of immense privilege. There is something of a surreal feeling being alone in a space with immortal pieces of art and seeing them up close alone. 

Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Picasso and Indigenous Art I saw everyday during the year of 1990.   

At the same time I developed a passion for light. And lighting design. Highlight projects I have worked on include the Sunshine Coast Urban Lighting Masterplan and working with the Federal Government on Lighting Pollution guidelines with some of Australia's most eminent scientists on marine turtles. In 2012, during the Transit of Venus and the year that was touted to be the end of the world, I was particularly challenged by a Lighting documentary called City Dark. It changed the way I thought about outdoor lighting design. Today I am an active member for the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance, advocating for more environmentally sensitive outdoor lighting.  I have convened panels of rocket scientists, spoken at Astronomy conferences and am regarded in my industry as an outdoor lighting activist. I maintain my MIES credentials as a Member of the Illuminating Engineering Society Australia New Zealand. 

My corporate career has spanned 25 years in lighting. I have been a CEO, an equity shareholder and Director of a company that I founded. Through the power of story and creating a vision bigger than me, I managed to encourage a French Government energy subsidiary to invest nearly $10M AUD into an idea to deliver the service of public lighting in a more environmentally sensitive way. I have met with elected politicians, State Premiers and have been the guest of elected officials at business networking events like the Australian Tennis Open. I reluctantly joined right-wing political parties to get closer to policy makers. It taught me the reality of government from the inside and the fickleness and futility of business and their own self-interests. Which is why now I am aligned politically left of centre with humanity and the care for people and environment. Something that greatly disappointed my parents at the time. And continues to do so.     

At one point in my life I have known what it means to be a paper millionaire.  However the saying, "One day you are the Rooster, the next day you are a feather duster!" became true. And while I was passionate about the creative side of lighting, once you arrive at senior management, that creative side is not attributed to you. I rose to the top of the ladder but was desperately trying to work out how to climb back down. From 2014 onwards, battling anxiety, stress and depression, I started to slip off the ladder. In late 2016 I jumped from the corporate ladder. 

In April 2017, I lost my job, my business and my marriage all in the span of three weeks. I made poor life choices at the time. 

In 2017, I also started painting again and tapping into my creative side as a way of confronting the inner torment I felt inside and some emerging unresolved mental health challenges. While I loved my career, it had become my identity and my entire self-esteem was supported  by it. And bleeding for corporate wasn't giving me the life-returns I had strived and sacrificed for. I had become arrogant and self-centred. I was not the person I had wanted to be, nor imagining to have ever become. 

In late 2018, I was expelled formally from a fundamentalist church for coming out as a bisexual man (he/him) affirming and belonging to the LGBTIQ community. I am fortunate to live in one of the most diverse and Queer places in Melbourne; The Inner West. Artists, Poets, Musicians, Dancers, performers and all types of creators call the place of Footscray home and I live right in the centre of it all. Where I live, where I used to live, what I used to believe, all contribute in their own way and are a part of what I create today.  

In 2019, I held my first solo art exhibition and sold 8/15 works on opening night. 2020 saw my first commission which has taken me down the pathway of cubism after reconciling the deep emotions from losing my father of that year, a relationship breakdown and some challenging parenting situations. In the same year I found cubism was able to reflect the brokenness but the connection at the same time. A tension of sorts. 

Contrast, duality, intertwined complexity of relationships, diversity in thought; perspectives on science and religion has transformed my style and it continues to evolve, depending on my thinking and feeling about life itself. I make mistakes in life, self-sabotage friendships, question myself constantly and these experiences inform my work and my character on a daily basis. My place as a father of two beautiful children who are their own grown people and doing life, temper my ego. This combination of diverse relationships and community help fashion my work and solidify my direction. 

I have loved the idea of secret societies, secret places, thoughts that challenge conventional conservative thinking. The challenge of enlightened thinking against religion and group think. So I conceptualised ELUMENARTi® in 2017 and use it as platform to express my creative outlet. 

Although it's really not that secret. I sign all my works with ELUMENARTi® which is a culmination of all the things that keep me curious and wanting to know more about life. 

• E = Science

• Lumen means Light

• Arti is Creative

I create art because its in me. It always has been. As a child, story and art were my favourite activities. 

I am drawn back to pieces that present strong contrast, depth, shadowing but muted colours. My favourite contemporary artists are Shawn Hunt, Jason Boyd-Kinsella and Hunter Amos. 

There is nothing more satisfying as an artist to set yourself a time-limit, conceptualise an idea, map it out, begin, toil and struggle of whether its going to work, face the moments of self-doubt but then trust in the process and then hit that moment when the work has emerged. Whether I have sold one piece or 100 pieces, I never want to lose that feeling of accomplishment. I'll often let a piece just sit there and I will look at it for days. I will awake in the morning, lie in bed and peer onto the work and get this incredible feeling, knowing I created that. That to me is a feeling that nothing can be replicated unless you are an artist. 

The current series of works I am developing give me a personal satisfaction in a way that I have never felt to date. They embody the contrast, depth and perspective I have been looking for and am forever grateful that I have this creativity within me. The body of work encapsulates the way humanity created its own gods and the images that formulated those hopes and dreams. I love the muted stone colours because it gives these organic life-like shapes permanency. The colours best represent depth and contrast around lighting. 

Oil on Canvas is my preferred medium and I start every piece with a conceptual digital 2D then transpose to canvas. I am still learning and have built a beautiful community of fellow creatives, who gently encourage me and give advice.  

I often wear hats. If you see me knocking around Footscray, reach out and tell me your story.