Art Love Spirit Oneness
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I first met Ray Coffey at Jugglers around 2011. He was a finalist in the Marie Ellis OAM Prize for Drawing – the second year of the prize. He was a finalist at least once more – a significant achievement in our drawing prize that at its end in 2019 had a highly respected and national following. But where we developed our friendship was through the time he spent with us as a drawing coach for the Jugglers’ Emerging Artist Development Program [ EADP] a program developed by Randal Breen in the early 2000’s for young men who were grattifi artists and in some situations in court for a range of “misdemeanours.” Ray’s art, drawing and painting career started out in the gaming machine industry as an illustrator/designer in the UK – my knowledge of this aspect of his career in “sketchy” – and he has progresssed as illustrators and sign writers often do, moving into to a less commissioned and more intutive and creative career. Vernon Ah Kee, Keith Burt and David Bromley come to mind who have similar early career choices. Vernon was on the judging panel for the first and last Marie Ellis OAM Prize for Drawing and is a significant aboriginal artist in Australia and Keith Burt, winner of the MEPD in 2011, has been a finalist in the Archibald Portrait Prize a number of times. My own first career idea at 15 was sign writing but I ended up in Medical Imaging.
This body of work at the Wooloongabba Art Gallery – WAG that opened last weekend is sensational work. I have included Ray’s own essay from his printed artist statement at WAG to provide context and history around his work. This essay has opened up some new understandings of why he may have connected so well – and he did – with what we were doing at Jugglers in the EADP Workshops.
Congratulations Ray.
Peter Breen.
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