Portfolio
Fusion - Exhibition Series
Fuse Art Collective
This exhibition introduces the innovative fusion style of collaborative art work that is cross cultural and multidisciplinary. It fuses patterns and meanings of the contemporary Aboriginal painting of Bonni Ingram, with the aerial photography and digital art of Anton Blume; it is focused on role-modeling innovation in art through ‘connection to Country’ in and around the land and seascapes of the two adjacent World Heritage areas of Shark Bay and the Ningaloo Reef.
Each art work is intense with multiple layers of meaning, visual elements and colours. The connecting theme in every piece is the presence of water – from the rivers, the pools or the coast of the Gascoyne Region. So the medium selected to literally reflect this element - water - is a high gloss acrylic that allows an interdependence between the surface of the art works and ambient light. Aiming for a liquid look, any movement by the viewer bounces back as a reflection, connecting the art work to the space in which the audience stands.
Ocean Flower
Lightning over Desert Country
Bush Seed Infusion
3000 feet - Exhibition Series
Anton Felix Blume
As a documentary photographer I observe a wide range of human society and nature related subject matter, approached holistically down to the finest details. In contrast, my art practice as a designer & fine-art photographer allows me to interpret & express those observations. These interests paired with a background in Communication Design form the base of my work in which exploration of the differences and commonalities between Art & Design take place.
3000 feet carefully places a frame around selections of endless structures, fractal patterns, shapes and colours of some of Australia’s pristine and remote regions, Shark Bay, Lake McLeod, The Gascoyne River, Ningaloo Reef & the Kennedy Ranges. This project is a personal journey from ranges into river beds, from red soils to turquoise waters, white salt lakes to vivid explosions of colour. Artistic interpretations of aerial landscapes inspired by raw nature and indigenous art & culture.
"Greenland"
Universe in a Salt Lake
Water Colour
Colour Explosion
Glass Artist - Exhibition Series
Sabrina Dowling Giudici
Sabrina is a transcultural Italo-Australian creative who has been telling stories of the Gascoyne region in Western Australia, since 1993, and particularly of the Gascoyne River since 2013. A Social Justice Geographer, her professional work as a Regional Development practitioner has focused on the settlements and land and sea environments. It is connection to this area that is her lived experience. Growing up between mostly Carnarvon and Rome (her birthplace), Sabrina finally chose to make the North West of WA her home.
Her initial PhD research focussed on describing the elements of a model to support tertiary education in remote areas, using participatory research action methodology. At every opportunity, Sabrina has sought to support and encourage tertiary studies in and about the Gascoyne region. This evolving commitment has allowed Sabrina to further her appreciation of the research by science students and academics. Her view of their work morphed into a desire to communicate their mostly hidden work, to Gascoyne residents and others.
Using visual art projects, Sabrina has a clear commitment to facilitating and influencing better decision making about land use in the Gascoyne environs. Translating her cultural lacemaking and textiles heritage using the medium of kiln-formed glass, is the platform through which Sabrina believes she can innovatively contribute to discourse that can advance local knowledge and action.
Living with traditional Elders on various Countries in the region has shown Sabrina some basic interrelationships between elements of the environment. She has been clearly shown that the health of the Sea is determined from way inland. So, despite most of the population living on the coast, it is the commitment to Country of the inland peoples that contribute to Sea health. For this reason, Sabrina has chosen river gum and seagrass leaves as the motifs of her glass art to create engaging objects of meaning making to symbolise the interaction of these habitats and raise awareness of better conservation and related social practices. Delving into the botany and the marine, river and wetland habitats, is the basis of the nexus between her art and relevant local research.
Personal statement: “The dualism between Art and Science is unnatural to me as I was traditionally raised as a central Italian with an Artisan family culture. Visually and tactilely expressing natural sciences in 3D is an instinctive practice. Delving into the flora and fauna of the Gascoyne’s marine, river and wetland habitats, is the basis of the nexus between my art and related science research.”
Current art works
"My transcultural creative practice centres on how artisanal crafts can blend with science and Cultural understandings as a vehicle for advocating social improvements through the disciplinary lenses of social justice geography together with Franciscan spirituality.
It is my desire to influence a better care of the place and people linked to the Shark Bay district of the Gascoyne Region. My passion for the nature of my home place includes the connection between the land and the sea where the Gascoyne River – and its sister the Wooramel, flow into.
Through my creative work with kiln-formed glass, I consistently seek ways to increase the value of my contribution toward healing and regrowth and I am fully committed to the hypothesis that higher education activity is a transformative key to achieving these goals. I believe when old wisdom and contemporary understandings are shared together, new and useful meanings can emerge and influence better decisions about how to improve our lives."
Sabrina uses photomicrography to observe and record patterns at the cellular level. She aesthetically translates them into kiln-formed glass objects of art, while also referencing her family’s heritage lace-making patterns.
Here, Sabrina has interpreted the cellular patterns from work in the Edith Cowan University marine lab with researcher Sam Billinghurst. Using crushed glass, this art process helps her interpret the multi-directional movements of chloroplasts in the seagrass cells of Halodule uninervis (Exmouth Gulf).
Halophila ovalis seagrass leaf dish in the colours of Shark Bay waters. 270mm x 100mm x 20mm, kiln-formed glass. Open series; collector enquiries welcome.
STEAM Community Education
Sabrina volunteered to craft the first astro-tour in Carnarvon in 1993 as part of the TourismWA initiative to bring international flights direct to Learmonth from Singapore. Together with NASA Tracking Station pioneer, Mr John Fletcher RIP, they took bus tours around the former OTC and NASA sites in Carnarvon, giving first hand accounts of life and work during the 1960s-70s, including of the first moon landing. Sabrina’s space science passion lead to her producing the first regional Astrofest event in 2011, which she continued to direct and produce for a further three years. The aim was to express Astronomy through the visual and performing arts. This included an inaugural Astrophotography exhibtion in 2012 hosted and co-curated by Sabrina in collaboration with creatives Anton Blume, Vic & Ben Levis, Peter Morse and Rick Tonello.
In 2013, Sabrina attended community training in public art with Maggie Baxter, and has gone on to produce a series of public art works in collaboration with local Gascoyne Artists, for institutions including in Aged Care, Education, Health, Law Courts, Museum. Each one of her public art contributions is deeply rooted in a sense of the natural environment of places, from inland desert to the marine environments - all within the Gascoyne and also the Midwest region. Her current glass art practice is focused on the marine environments of Shark Bay and Ningaloo World Heritage Areas, with regular artist floor talks and community-group yarning days. Her main community engagement tool is both formal and informal art residencies.
Colour - Exhibition Series
Anton Felix Blume
Watery blues, turquoises, greens; beachy whites, yellows & creams; rusty reds, hazy purples & dry greens. Harsh light and strong contrasts shape a unique Gascoyne colour palette. Abstraction and the reduction of shapes allows for pure colour impact. Part of this series won the photography section of the Gascoyne Bienniel Art Awards, 2014. Most of these artworks have been created completely in camera without further editing.
Exhibition Series
Bonni Ingram
I acknowledge the first people of this Country - I pay my respects to the Elders past and present, for they hold the stories and history of this Country. It is a privilege to be here as an Indigenous Artist.
As a contemporary Aboriginal artist what really grabs me is how the water is captured, and the land, and how my Indigenous art and its meaning are shared. My Yamatji Dad was always painting and carving culturally - inspiring me to follow him and interpret my grandmother’s country which is Badimia.
This influences me to use colours more profusely due to the local botany that is extraordinarily infused with the colours of the native flowers. My preference is to move colours on a huge scale. It is the optimal expression of my work because it’s the only way I myself can bring out the meaning for my audiences - pushing my expression to the limits; challenging the viewer to enter deeper appreciation of the meaning of my country - a cultural gift to be shared; luring them through the boldness of colour and scale - these are intertwined and essential together.
I say to other artists coming up - don’t be afraid to experiment, see what others are doing - push your boundaries. You keep changing and that’s important - don’t give up. Art is a part of me - it brings out of me Culture, my knowledge for sharing. The key to your art career is collaboration like I enjoy with Anton Blume and I am grateful for this. Find who you can work with professionally; get the business part right.
Country I
Bush Medicine Harmony
Bird Flower Flowing