Description
Artifacts of electricity tug at my heartstrings, reminders of my much-missed Dad, John Kempson Bates, who worked on these very poles for years. This was a natural subject for me, if a little odd for many. I had always found power poles beautiful, but it took a wee while for my painting skills to be up this intricate task. The collage-based paintings of Mike Bernard were instrumental in my understanding of how to work successfully with built environment subjects.
2009, Brisbane. New city, new life, new lover, new name… and new views from the window. These gorgeous old timber power poles seemed an apt icon, the crows that roost on them a constant, audible reminder that I was not stuck in Woop-woop, far north Queensland any more.
This particular pole is at the bottom of Chester Road, Annerley, where my daughter Ali lived for a year. She was also finding her feet in a new life, and so for me our two stories that had been so far apart in Ingham and Melbourne were brought together in this particularly Queensland sight.
I’m so glad, 15 years later, that we are both still in this same city, growing and making art in different ways together.
Original artwork – 122 x 91cm Stretched canvas
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