I have two articles in Radical Commons! (or Radco! as it is known by the student body) this month. Radco! is a new left student zine started by students at the University of Michigan Law School which was formed to create a safe space for left students in what is recognised as a fairly conservative profession…They also published my 27th February blog post on the death of Aaron Bushnell, may he rest in peace.

Artists paint especially when there are no words left…

My visual essay in VALA, the journal of The Blake Society in London, is called "A Field Manual for A Lost Soldier: William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell as a Course in Complexity". Their theme is War & Peace. Marriage can help us unravel the complexity of our times. Military leaders also need reminding that limiting their creativity to technologies to kill blinds them to the shape-shifting qualities of Blake’s God and Satan.

A watercolour unique state version of my drypoint print The Mental State/Lamb of God (2023). A unique state is a one-off art piece because the artist changes the print by applying other media such as paint or gold leaf. As with the print, the theme is the same, and I did a post about this a while ago. The colour changes the meaning for me. I uploaded this print because the colours felt unworldly, like a prayer.

I have new artwork in the most recent Issue 5 of The Australian Fabians Review 2023. Their editor invited me to share my painting ‘Australia a Prophecy’ under their topic of AUKUS in a large issue with many writers expressing themes shared by the Australian wing of the Fabian Society, an international labour movement think tank which has its origins in the UK in 1884.

I was reminded with all the stories around the Indo-Pacific and naval activities of some artworks from my 1992 solo exhibition Dualities. I was 24 and they have that graphic style from the era as I was doing graphic design back then before I discovered paint and canvas. It is the same theme, starting with dry pastel on paper in very vivid colours (1). All titled the same, Ship of Fools. This first image was actually the last incarnation. I started off with some pen and ink cross hatch drawings (3), the theme then evolved into an etching/aquatint on cotton rag (2).