It’s not very often you walk into a storm and come out dry. This project started out to be the perfect storm according to the man Chris Rowlands. Jason from Newlook International called me up and told me he had a job that was right up my ally. The city of Swan Hill in Victoria had consulted with the local indigenous groups to create a meeting area in an underused park. This consisted of a 200 square meter circle with poles and seating. Our task was to take a painting done by a local indigenous artist named Jack Atkinson and recreate it onto concrete.
We delivered the mural in typical Victorian weather. Freezing cold, windy and wet from one hour to the next. Although there was a couple of beautiful days thrown in just to mess with our heads a bit.This is a space I’ve been playing in for a while know, but to pull this off there was some planning needed. Enter my brother Lucas at Sarra Industries. Lucas is very strategic and adept at creating solutions in a way I never could. He was able to dissect and plan out the whole thing to scale which saved me so much time on the back end.
It took us as planned, one week to complete.
Chris stated that it was actually the smoothest part of the whole project from start to finish.
I found this to be one of those jobs that doesn’t come along very often. It was such a cool experience because i was able to travel somewhere I hadn’t been, catch up with an old friend and make new ones. Our little team was a great one. Thanks boys for the laughs and the opportunity.
It’s also worth noting that Chris a dedicated town planner, is in fact a brilliant photographer in his spare time. If you get a chance, check out his work on Facebook under Chris Rowland Photography.
His approach to subject matter is similar to the way I approach art. There’s always something interesting to capture and share. I personally think he has a great sense of colour and subject balance, and I know nothing about photography. But I understand what it takes to get people appreciate your chosen art form.
We talked a lot during our time together and found we had a good chemistry in understanding each other’s craft and therefore will be working on something exciting together, possibly for the new year.
Looking forward to it Chris, and thanks again to Jason, Lucas and Jack for setting up a great job.
