The gesture of a gesture

Studio portrait taken by Nikole Ramsay in 2020.

I’ve been telling myself lately that my forties will be my decade. And time is running out, I turn forty soon.
In the spirit of this I’m going back to art school. I want to fill gaps in my knowledge, learn how to write and talk about my work with intention and confidence, but mostly I want to leave the house and be among artists again. Today I accepted the formal offer to study a Master of Philosophy at the Australian National University (majoring in visual arts). Successful completion of the MPhil will also qualify me as a teacher which is a happy bonus and a possible pathway for me too.

 My proposed study is a practice-based enquiry into the sensory aspects of Gestural Abstraction as a resistance to relentless digital exchange. It will re-evaluate Gestural Abstraction, or Action Painting, by building on early notions of abstraction as they first emerged in the late twentieth century. I will research modernist ideas and decide which of these have relevance in a contemporary context. Are there connections that can be made between the worlds of the first action painters and our own? How do technological changes such as new media and AI affect our world view, and how we view art? Does this affect the essence of Gestural Abstraction?

These are all questions to mark the beginning, I’m excited to know where they will lead.