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).

My Rearview Mirror posts are a remembrance of things I did in the past, which have come full circle to bite us. The exponential exposion of AI, and the launch of ChatGPT, has made everyone aware that AI has made a gigantic leap and left the test tube. Those of us in the margins of creative thinking who tried to warn policy makers over a decade ago perhaps feel less awful about that today. After all, they have ignored bigger fish like Stephen Hawking…

This is a digitised visual diary entry I made in 2005 and later used in my paintings for a solo exhibition called The Assassination of Judy Garland back in 2013. I have a lot of sketches and studies which never seen to see the light of day, and I’m turning them into prints in some cases, or adding them into my studies of the present. This one was scribbled Energize Mr Ellis on a print I found in one of my files. It was about fragmenting materiality, or disintegration such as dropping something in an acid bath, in this case, myths of American exceptionalism…

“William Blake’s character Orc and I did a metaphorical bar hop and imagined our way into a bar in Richmond on a typically cold, wet winter Melbourne evening. The windows were steamed up from the kitchen and after many whisky shots we were both worse for wear. Back in my real-time studio of course, it was gin & tonics…So, in my imaginary studio conversations, Orc was in verbal stream-of-consciousness about how men saw their violence as crucial to their hero’s journey…

This is a new drypoint print about my ‘imaginary’ meeting with William Blake’s Orc from his poem America a Prophecy (1793). In my process of painting Australia a Prophecy in 2021, I engaged with William Blake’s poem America a Prophecy and that poem’s main character Orc. The following is a transcript from my 2023 talk to The Blake Society in January 2023. I used the term “imaginary conversation” in a performative way to bring my process alive in that talk and to walk the audience through the concept of a focused imagination as a ‘doorway’ into the visionary processes…

This print was created as a visual prayer to my God (but choose your own with my blessing:) to prevent the architects of the AUKUS agreement from completing their frightening visions - for visionary power can be used for any ends. I hope it assists you to create your own navigational tool that doesn’t break too easily in rough storms…As we witness Blake’s Lions and Wolves (Australian & US &UK governments, military and supporting journalists) converge to show their true identity in their attacks and silencing of those opposing AUKUS …