Brian Dean
b.
Most
of my professional life has been involved with teaching in secondary
&
tertiary institutions, where I eventually headed the Visual Arts dept
at
QUT. There, in the former BCAE, I became
addicted to lecturing, and drew much inspiration for my own art work
from the
students I taught – it was very definitely a two-way situation,
and not all
that uncommon. I revived stone
lithography as a studio practice in
The
subjects of my prints (which,
like etchings & engravings, are original works, not reproductions
of works
in another medium – a perennial source of confusion in the use of
the word
“print”) have tended to be natural forms which have impressed me with their intrinsic strength of
form and what I call “ïnevitability”.
By
this I mean the fact that rocks & clouds acquire their wonderful
shapes by
virtue of the monstrous forces acting upon them – rocks are
ground and
weathered over aeons of inexorable geological activity, clouds are
battered by
powerful winds and huge, towering thermal currents in minutes. They are the visible, “inevitable”
results of
these stupendous pressures and tensions; austerely
majestic shapes of great power and beauty – and yet they are
everyday occurrences.
The
practice of lithography itself echoes some of these characteristics :
the use
of stones, the importance of chemistry, the application of great
pressure
provides, in my own case, a fortuitous affinity between subject and
medium –
something to which I respond with relish. Perhaps
others viewing my prints might share this relish; I hope so.
Although I have occasionally
exhibited my work (Grahame Galleries, QUT, UCQ etc)
A triptych of my lithographs based
on clouds won the
Each
print is numbered to indicate its place in the edition; eg : 3/5 shows
that
this print is the third in an edition of five. The
print image on the stone is ground off after each edition is printed
and hence cannot be repeated.
B.Dean
