About Brad |
BIOGRAPHYI was lucky enough to get into woodworking at a young age.Back at school art and woodwork were the only subjects that I approached with any enthusiasm. At 16 I had my first lathe and not long after left school to do an apprenticeship as an engineering patternmaker, for a company that made mining equipment. It was an exacting trade that made you think inside out, upside down,and
back to front in order to make the patterns that would be then molded
in sand, removed from the mold, into which molten metal would be poured
to get the metal castings. It seemed a bit strange to me that once made
the patterns were coated in a grey undercoat and didn't even look like
timber. During this time I went to the night classes at Asquith high school that were run by the legendary Les Miller where I learned woodturning tecniques different to those used in patternmaking. My boss used to let me stay on after work sometimes and use the workshop equipment to make my first bits of furniture,usually out of bits of timber I'd scavenged from local tree falls or the like. This was more enjoyable to the trade work for me as you didn't have to work to elaborate drawings or exacting dimensions, rather you could just think of something and make it in a serendipitous sort of way and enjoy the colours and grains of the timber being used. After 5 years in that job I'd had enough,saved some money and spent a year travelling Australia on my bike with Tasmania the last stop. There was something about the beauty and wildness of the countryside not to mention the abundance of fantastic timbers that appealed to me. I've now got a workshop/studio next to my house south of Hobart in a picturesque bush setting, where I can make a bit of noise and not annoy anyone. In 1995 I enrolled in the Tasmanian Universities School of Art to do the Furniture Design course.Its a great course with a well equipped workshop and very skilled technicians.There was something about the design process however that I found a bit stifling,how you were expected to do initial sketches then a scale model then a life size mock up then the final piece after much discussion and critique.I guess for me it was a bit like the difference between working from drawings and working in the serendipitous fashion back in the apprenticeship days.Sculpture as a subject seemed to suit me better as it seemed to be a much more free way of creating.Also the non functional aspect of it was something that was new to me.So ended up majoring in that. QUALIFICATIONS
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Trade Certificate,
Engineering Pattern Making, S.T.C., N.S.W.1984GROUP EXHIBITIONS
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
AWARDS
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1985
''Christmas Show'' Craftworks Gallery,The Rocks,Sydney
2003
"Island Editions" Arts@ Work, North Hobart.