Artist and movement inspiration for this work were the same for 'Pub' so for this blog post I will cover the process, images I drew and a bit of other inspiration a long the way.
Due to the fact that Canberra has very little live music venues, there is a big house party scene, in particular 'house shows', where bands play at in peoples living rooms and garages and you pay your $10 unofficially at the front door. Honestly a lot more fun than going to the bar, but it's a niche scene you have to know about to be able to go.
Here is an article that explains the scene: https://www.redbull.com/au-en/canberra-house-parties-music-scene
Moving to Melbourne was really hard for me because I had to let go of this little scene full of musicians, art students and other students from ANU which is very dear to my heart. Though I loved Melbourne, coming back to Canberra was a nice little way to reconnect with the city I call home. Since covid this scene has been pretty quiet, though I have been to a few house parties recent. I wanted to capture this scene in a time where we're all missing out on it. I wanted to reminisce and capture scenes we all know too well. Most of these images are images I have taken myself, also containing inside jokes and friends. I have also incorporated automatism, creating a balanced composition as I go.
This was just last weekend for Halloween. Last minute inspo.
Heather and random man.
Me and my mate on the couch at a house rave.
Cowboy boots. Going through a huge country phase at the moment.
Me hungover after said house rave. Toast.
I used multiple images from online too, and a few others of my own. These ideas came from automatic sparks of ideas and inspiration, and ideas friends and family gave me. These are just a few examples.
Here are my tea towels drying on the print table at megalo. The tea towels turned out way better on this print as the dimensions are slightly smaller so the borders still looked strong. Still printed on the 50cm x 70cm dimensions though. There was also no mistakes or trail and error to document in this process as all my mistakes and frustrations came from the first work. Yay.
Overall I am really happy with how this print turned out. I think like 'Pub', 'House Party' also captures a narrative of events and leaves it to the viewer to determine the narrative. I also think it is relatable to a wide variety of audiences and captures the absurdity and weirdness of a house party. It also demonstrates my strong personal connection to the work through my depictions of inside jokes, events and stories, which can be related to anyone. The prints were seamless due to my trial and error with the first print and came out bold, graphic and strong, just as I had intended. I can't wait to make more works like this in the future, I think these works have been an important point into developing my own style and developing as an artist. I want to do more exploration into the absurdities of the mundane.
Here are my resolved works:
Resolved paper screen print:
Resolved handmade tea towel:
Close up images:
