Archive of my Art Page as of 24/6/26

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I’m finally updating my website, and my art page needs a LOT of work… but I’m also reluctant to delete what I currently have on there, so I thought I’d copy it into my blog so you can see what it used to be, and then my brain will hopefully allow me to move on and get focused on what I’m actually supposed to be doing! 😀

So here it is! My current art page as it appeared on 24/6/26 before I started rejigging things:

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Update February 2025: Once again I’ve procrastinated on fixing this page up! But here’s the latest:

2025 Artists of Mosman 2088
My artwork “Bushfire Sunset” was accepted and will be on exhibition at Mosman Art Gallery from Saturday 15 February 2025 – Sunday 16 March 2025

“Bushfire Sunset”, acrylic on wood panel, 2025

It’s my first time working in this style on wood panel and I’m really happy with how it came together. Until now I’ve been working on two series, “Disconnect” and “Reconnect” which are all works on paper. I’ve mostly moved away from realism and begun focusing much more on abstraction. For one thing, I realised the process of realistic painting causes me a great deal of stress and I just wasn’t enjoying it. I spent far too much energy worrying about every imperfection and it was putting me off making art. Another issue I’ve had was my horror for cleaning paint brushes. So I’ve come up with an abstract process that solves both! I begin by blobbing paint directly onto my surface and spreading it with disposable paper towel. Once dry, I then come in with a pen or paint marker and begin tracing over lines I find in the underlying texture. I find it very meditative, and with no expectations for the outcome, it’s much more relaxing!

Overall, this style of working reflects the state of my mind to a large degree – there’s chaos here, and yet I still set about trying to impose order on it, resulting in outcomes that are often unpredictable. With “Bushfire Sunset” however, there’s also an interesting effect related to my eyesight. At face value, the composition and shapes resemble a fire burning on a hillside, with the landscape, flames, and sky reflected in the water below. However when I take my glasses off and view it with my uncorrected short-sightedness, it becomes very Monet, the flames disappear, and I end up seeing a sunset instead. This is why I called it “Bushfire Sunset” and the transformation that occurs with different levels of eyesight makes for an interesting metaphor about how we might view the world.

Eventually I’ll update this page to show my “Disconnect” and “Reconnect” collections as well.

In the meantime however, I do still occasionally do more realistic art! Here’s “Triton’s First Christmas”, mixed media, which won the 2024 Cremorne Veterinary Hospital Christmas Portrait Competition:

In hindsight I probably overdid things, but Triton was THRILLED with his tasty prize!

Update October 2024: I REALLY AM GOING TO UPDATE MY WEBSITE I SWEAR HAHAHA. I think I need to redesign my whole art section though, move stuff out of the shop, figure out how to organise it all. Doesn’t help that I still haven’t given names to a lot of my newer works. I also have a puppy keeping me very busy…! But this year has been good for me at least psychologically reconnecting with art, so I really will eventually hopefully soon put in the effort…………!!

Update February 2024: Totally forgot to update this page again, last year turned out to be very difficult, but I’m finally back into my art practise and actually feeling good about it! Mostly I’m working on abstract works, but I recently also did some volunteer portraits for the RSPCA’s Poorly Drawn Pets fundraiser. Here’s a look at them, followed by my older works below 🙂

Update February 2023: I’ve now got my own private studio! Making some changes to my creative processes this year. At some point I plan to rejig this page, but in the meantime here’s some of my past arty shenanigans!

In 2022 I joined Underground ARTspace where I finally had my own studio space to work in, instead of trying to negotiate with the clutter at home. It had a huge impact on my ability to be creative and I shared that journey with my cult over on Patreon. My year at Underground ARTspace really did help me get back into art again, as it makes a big difference to have a dedicated space, and paying rent also motivated me to keep up a weekly art routine. You can see some of my new and old artwork in my shop – this art was displayed at the Underground ARTspace Creative Open weekend 2022!

Creative Open Weekend, Artists, Makers Creatives, Sat 13th - Sun 14th August 2022 10am - 4pm, list of artists, Underground ARTspace, 1/294 Sydney Road, Balgowlah NSW 2093

My studio is having an open weekend!

For some older art, please check out my blog post:
https://www.destroyermariko.com/2018/02/09/art-i-made-last-year/

In 2016, I began the Master of Art course at UNSW. I’ve always had an interest in creative endeavours, but after the death of my grandparents in 2015, I found myself thrown back into my worst episode of depression to date. Until this point in my life, I hadn’t considered art to be a real option for me to pursue. It was only through experiencing intense suicidal ideations that I began to realise that I had nothing to lose by following my interests into this field. I don’t know what the future will bring or whether I could some day make a living from my art, but during that crisis, art helped me live. While completing the course, I was able to explore the issues of my mental health, particularly in the artwork above. It examines death and mourning in human cultures, taking into account my half-Japanese Australian background, as well as my immersion in the age of social media. If you would like to read more about this artwork, I’ve shared the full description on the video’s YouTube page.

Below are some more examples of art I’ve produced in the past. For the most part, I used to work on developing my painting skills, and at the time found the process to be calming and meditative when I felt down. However, I’ve since changed the way I work with paint as I began to be frustrated by my tendency towards perfectionism, and this is reflected in the more chaotic painting technique combined with text based elements that I now pursue. I also like to branch out, and have occasionally incorporated sculptural, electronic, and interactive elements in my work as well. Click on the images below to find out more about each.

My FIRST Full-Length DestroyerMariko Show is ALMOST HERE!!!

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Key details

When: October 12th 2025 – doors 4:30pm, I’m on at 5pm!
Where: Crowbar Sydney, 343 Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt NSW
Tickets: https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/f3b6cbef-b21f-4906-aed0-375c5433a67e

Time Space Continuum presents Astrodeath

In just three weeks from now I’ll finally be hitting the stage at Crowbar for my FIRST EVER full-length DestroyerMariko show! That’s right, we’ve graduated from open mics and surprising one-off’s, and jumped straight into the deep end! Not only is it going to be a great night of metal, it’s a HUGE night for me, as I’ll be doing a massive 45 minute set including ALL my songs – released and unreleased!! That’s right, I’ve got two brand new songs to debut. At the time of writing, the only place you can get a preview is behind my Patreon cult paywall.

But WAIT, there’s more…!?

Yup, not only has DestroyerMariko finally broken free of the open mic circuit, WE ARE LEVELLING UP!! This is too big of an opportunity for me not to go all out. Thanks to landing this gig, I’ve gotten myself back into singing lessons, invested in some hardcore wireless gear so I can go all out on stage, and I’ve even hired a photographer for the first time in my gigging life!? So I better look the part too, right? After having my Britney Spears shaved head moment post-Schizoid diagnosis, briefly dabbling in all black, and then returning to my natural brown, I’m FINALLY getting my hair done alt again and this time I’m sticking to DestroyerMariko colours, even more so than when I first started colouring my hair. And then (assuming OPSM finally pulls through), I’ve ordered some red prescription contacts, coz WHY NOT!? Legit I cannot wait to perform and show you how nuts I’ve gone!!

From there, I’m also just going to take my solo project more seriously in general, and it’s now officially my main music project. I’ll never be the perfectly polished and compliant musician that the promotional world wants me to be, eg. I refuse to join Spotify etc. But I’m genuinely looking at doing some proper photo shoots, and possibly even getting on the music video bandwagon for my next release that I’m planning for 2026. That’s right, there’s a new EP coming! And I’ve been in talks to get more gigs going next year too. DestroyerMariko is on the move! And not just in the music space. I’ve emerged from my long-term mental health slump into a fresh creative spurt, without needing to take meds, and having finally learned how to self-motivate my creativity too! It has taken so much work and so much struggle, but it feels good to finally make it this far. I am aware of my past habits and ongoing issues of course, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for the risk of burnout, but I have so much more insight nowadays and have learned a lot about how to work within my limits. So yeah, I feel confident enough that I can say THIS is my comeback!!

And I really have to thank Adam of Time Space Continuum SO MUCH for giving me a chance. It’s not easy to get out there as a soloist, especially if you decide not to bring on a live band. You’re on your own, you’re so much more exposed on stage, and even if you get past all that, the heavy scene just doesn’t expect much from you. I’ve been told in the past, by event organisers who were usually so accommodating to newcomers, that unless I had a second person on stage, I was “just doing karaoke” and they refused to have me. It was a really big blow for me at the time, knowing how false it was, not just because I’m doing original material, but because of the energy and choreography and completely sober nuttiness that I bring to every stage, no matter how small. I almost gave up on playing live. I do not fit in at open mics and never have. As fun as it is to mess with that audience, who were expecting chill singer songwriters on their acoustic guitars and keyboards, only to have me with my harsh electronic noise giving them whiplash between my sweet girly cleans and demonic death metal screams… as fun as it is to make those soft ears bleed, I’ve just always wanted to get back to my home in the heavy scene where I belong. To be able to finally do it now, and as my authentic creative self? I am so, SO appreciative!!

Also, to everyone who’s already bought tickets and told me you’re coming… THANK YOU SO MUCH!! It really is uplifting to know I still have an audience after so many years. Thank you so much for being patient with me and my mind. It’s not just that you’re coming that makes the difference either. Having Schizoid Personality Disorder has made it really hard for me to open up and feel certain emotions, but I can honestly say that you’re all making me legitimately feel supported, and I don’t even know how to explain what an important milestone that is for me! My disorder does its best to keep pushing people away, but I am hanging onto this as hard as I can. I may never end up functioning “normally” in this world, but if I can at least give depression the finger, that’s enough of a healing victory for me!!

More details:

If you’d like to know more about the bands I’ll be opening for, you can read more on Time Space Continuum’s page here: https://www.timespacepromo.com/event-astrodeath

Astrodeath are a two-piece sludge-grunge band from Sydney Australia, who sound like the world is ending. Loud, riff-heavy, and brutally tight!
Supported by: The Weight Of Silence, Noveaux, T-Rex Autopsy, and Magma One, plus special guest DestroyerMariko.

You can also RSVP to the Facebook event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1195593419004318/

I can’t wait to perform for you next month! See you there and don’t forget to come early, I’ll be on at 5pm!

Interviewed by FemMetal – Goddesses of Metal

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When Reuel Way, Editor of FemMetal asked to interview me, I was never going to say no! All I did was warn him of my propensity to ramble, and ask whether he wanted to implement a word limit, which he declined to impose. In fact, he was very encouraging and supportive!

You can read the interview here.

It primarily covers my musical and creative life, plus some fun extra questions, as well as my recently released solo project song, “Fade”.

I really appreciate Reuel and FemMetal showing an interest in my work! I’m a very niche artist with a small following, and no desire to pander to exploitative giants like Spotify, so it helps a lot to be noticed by a group dedicated to shining a light on women in metal and heavy music genres.

This also comes after I was invited to present their 2024 Bellona Award for Best Brutal Vocals, which I had a lot of fun dressing up for! In case you missed it:

“Fade” Release Day!!

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My new song “Fade” is finally out today! Listen to it on Bandcamp, along with the original demo I wrote with Henry Decrier! Check them both out, I love how different they are while both exploring and expressing the same pain and defiance in their own ways.

Fade T-shirts and other new merch are also now available in my store 😀

I really hope you like it, I think this is my favourite song I’ve released to date! I’ve written a bit about the meaning on the Bandcamp page, and my cult members have heard even more details, but in short, it’s about struggling to survive, however you need to at the time. The song is cathartic and motivational, but without being unrealistic.

As well as the meaning though, I’m also really happy with it from a musical perspective too! I love that it uses both extremes of my voice, the semi-classical high cleans vs the gnarly false cord screams, and does it with all the emotional catharsis that I love about singing. On top of that, it’s also the most dynamically complex song I’ve ever written, and I’m really pleased with how I met the challenge of having to rewrite it after the original black metal band didn’t go ahead. It turned out so much better than I thought I could ever do! Before I decided to tackle it myself, I’d actually given my vocals to two other musicians I was trying to collaborate with, but those versions never really hit the mark, and both projects collapsed before anything could come of it. It was actually a good thing though, because if they hadn’t let me down, Fade wouldn’t be what it has become today!

I’m also glad I was able to release it today. As I’ve mentioned before on my socials, today is the first anniversary of saying goodbye to my soul dog Hope. That was such a traumatic time for me. After so many medical issues throughout his life, I’d finally gotten him to the best health he’d ever had and things seemed fine, but he suddenly developed cluster seizures from a suspected brain tumour. Rather than subject him to scans and treatments that would likely be futile and stressful, I had to make the call to let him go, at home, surrounded by people he loved, and free from the anxiety of having to go to the vet. It was the ending I always wanted for him, but I still get emotional thinking about why I had to make that decision, and I’m not exaggerating when I say I almost followed him. But that’s why I needed to do something special today, both in his memory, and to give me something else to focus on. And I can’t think of a better song than one about managing to survive despite so much pain.

I released the song at 1:30pm, around the same time we said goodbye a year ago. 💔

I’ll be doing a livestream listening party on YouTube this evening (8pm Sydney time) where we can talk more about all the things! I can’t guarantee I won’t cry lol.

Thank you so much everyone for all your support, and also your patience! This song has been four years in the making, but after getting through some of the darkest points in my life to date, this is honestly the perfect time for its themes.

🖤❤️‍🩹🖤

In Memory of Hope Mochi Gray 11/5/12 – 23/11/23

Special thanks to Henry Decrier for allowing me to publish our original demo as a bonus track! Without you, this song would not exist.

Thanks also to: Kit Wing Fu who was there for me when I didn’t realise just how much I’d need it that day; my Wise Godmother and my brother Dave who’ve let me vent some seriously distressing stuff; Noctica, whose music, realness, and journey helped provide the spark I needed to get this done; Edmond Thommen forever supporting my wordsmithing; my psychologist now that I finally found the right one; my Cult of Destructionism on Patreon, especially Arn of the Apocalypse, Nervous Neuron, and Schizoid Angst; all my friends, family, and other supporters; and my puppy Triton AKA Orical Hope For Atlantis, who saved my life and got me back into the world again.

Visiting The Other Art Fair Sydney

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The Other Art Fair was actually a lot cooler than I was expecting!

Somehow they found out I’m an artist and have been pestering me to apply for a few years now. This time they gave me a free ticket to check it out, and I’m actually glad I went!

I’m a terrible audience member, especially when it comes to art, so I was expecting to just turn up, do my research, and get the heck out of there. Didn’t help that a lot of things were poorly aligned today, including the government stealing an hour of my sleep, Triton digging up some cuttings that needed urgent rescue when I was already time poor, and protesting in the city messing with bus diversions so I HAD to go in early to beat it. I also didn’t enjoy the location being so far from public transport, and the sunny final walk there making me fear for my vampire skin.

Once I was in though, HELLO ICED CHOCOLATE 😋 and already the coffee cart chatting me up about my shoulder cat lol. Then the framing place with glass that actually looked so invisible that I asked to touch it to make sure it was actually there. AND THEN starting to look at things, and the first artist who approached me for a chat about her work, and she had video of her process, and it was actually interesting! From there I ended up talking to way too many artists (plus a break for some dumplings) that I had to rush towards the end because I was actually running out of time to see it all.

This basically never happens to me!

But I think there were some key elements that made this a really good show for me:
1) no set theme or medium, so it was a lot more varied and interesting than just going to an exhibition at a gallery with all the boredom curation seems to introduce for me, and
2) actually getting to meet the artists, find out about their processes, and get some insight into what’s actually going on in their works!

Too often I find myself at exhibitions just having a quick look at stuff, getting the gist, and moving the fuck on. Even if they have artist statements, there’s just not that same depth, and I might not even bother to read anything.

Here though, there were a lot of really friendly artists who were all too willing to share and discuss. Didn’t matter that I wasn’t looking to buy. They were actually just really nice, gave me some tips, and some even asked about ME and took MY card!! It felt a lot more open than a lot of other experiences I’ve had with the art world in the past.

I’m still nowhere near ready to apply to something like this, but it definitely gave me something to consider and potentially work towards. It was also just a boost for my sense of progress over my mental illness. I’ve gotten a lot better at talking to people over the years, but I tend to feel nothing, and can often only simulate things like interest and excitement. Today though, I think I can actually say the interest was not a simulation?? That’s actually pretty huge!!

Anyway so behold my pile of cards and flyers! This week my task will be to go through them all and follow as many as I can on Instagram. In the past I’ve not really followed anyone unless they weren’t on Facebook, but thanks to the flood of brainless Reels that show up when no one I follow has posted anything new, I’ve realised I need to change that. I’d much rather see art updates than whatever the algorithm is trying to suck me into this time. I’m also thinking of going through my list of followers and seeing who I should follow back, although that’ll be a much bigger project I don’t have time for right now lol.

ALSO I BOUGHT A THING!! Just a small print, and I’m too scared to unwrap it until I figure out how exactly to display it, but it had FIRE and BURNING and was DARK and with a level of Photoshopping skill I can only dream of, but mostly FIRE and BURNING and DARK and since I’m missing a couple of therapy sessions thanks to various absences, well I have a bit of extra money so let’s call this purchase its own sort of therapy!? Thanks to my friend Kit for enabling me lmaooo!!

I’m so tired now though. What a busy freakin’ day! Didn’t even get time to do my usual Sunday cleaning, but since it’s a long weekend, let’s just call tomorrow “Sunday Part 2” haha seems legit!!

Hello Neglected Blog! :D

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Creative Open Weekend, Artists, Makers Creatives, Sat 13th - Sun 14th August 2022 10am - 4pm, list of artists, Underground ARTspace, 1/294 Sydney Road, Balgowlah NSW 2093

My studio is having an open weekend!

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It’s been a while since I updated my website! It’s now 2022 and I’ve joined Underground ARTspace where I finally have my own studio space to work in. It’s already had a huge impact on my ability to be creative and I’ve been sharing that journey with my cult over on Patreon. I’ll be updating my site as time goes on, but in the meantime, you can see some of my new and old artwork in my shop – this art is being displayed at our Creative Open weekend! I’ve also updated my music page and added a bio, check them out! 😀

7 Facebook Tips 2019 (Especially for Bands)

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This post was made available on Patreon 2 days early 🙂

Every now and then on Facebook, I come across a post from a band I follow that basically says some version of the following:

Is anyone seeing our posts? We’re worried Facebook’s algorithm is hiding us from News Feed. Please leave us a comment if you can see this!

Back in May, it happened again, from a band attempting to crowdfund a record, and I responded that their analytics should show them how many people are having it appear in their feeds. Honestly, it’s not that hard. When you’re running a page in 2019, you’ll see at the bottom of each post a number indicating how many people were reached. I dunno why these kinds of people never seem to look at it before asking this type of question. But I digress, because I also mentioned to them that if the reach is unsatisfactory, there are a number of strategies you can use to boost it – aaand they made the mistake of asking me for suggestions. “Mistake?” I hear you say. Well yes. I write a lot. And the result was a 1000 word comment, which I’ve reproduced below, albeit with some edits, and irrelevant chatter removed.

They didn’t take my advice.

But I hope this is useful to someone out there. A lot of my favourite local bands keep folding, and it sucks, and there’s not a lot I can do about it, but if greater success in social media promotions might help a few more bands survive, hey! It’ll be worth it.

Note: none of this advice is particularly ground-breaking. It’s pretty much just the same stuff you can find from every social media guru out there, collected into one spot, mostly aimed at bands (though it’ll be applicable to other pages too). But since bands prefer to get on with the music instead of trawling through pages of advice, I’ve done that part for you. You will have to put in some effort to make social media work, but at least you don’t have to sit through a bunch of “experts” trying way too hard to sell you their shit.

On with the tips!

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There are all kinds of things you can try to improve your page’s reach on Facebook. It depends on how spammy you wanna get, but since Facebook loves to nerf pages, well sometimes you have little choice 😅 I’ll give you my current top 7! (In no particular order tho, I’m not THAT organised, it’s all off the top of my head lol.)

1. Make sure all band members are sharing things too – share everything the page posts, but also do your own posts NOT directly connected to the page (except maybe through tagging it). Facebook favours personal accounts, so you need to promote there as well, and trick it into not realising you’re promoting something page-related. Preferably do all this with your settings on public, so that any followers who aren’t friends with you can see them. (Make sure your individual profiles also allow followers!)

2. Encourage other people to like, comment, and share as well. Facebook loves when posts are engaging, and this is how you show them that it is. I’m assuming this post [the one asking if anyone can see it] is doing well, because you’ve asked a question and people are responding, which gets more people to see it and respond, etc. Asking a question is a great way to get engagement. You can also run polls, suggest people tag friends, whatever. Even tell people how much these actions help you, for those who can’t afford to support you financially but still want to do something. Mix it up so it doesn’t get boring, but always try to have some call to action designed to lift engagement.

3. Tell your fans about “See first”. If people are upset that they aren’t seeing your posts, tell them that under the “Following” tab, they can select “See First” instead of just “Default” to get more of your posts reliably hitting their news feed.

4. Make use of the Stories feature. Even if people miss you in the news feed, stories stay at the top of Facebook, so it’s much harder to miss. If you have an Instagram account connected to the Facebook one, you could create Instagram Stories there, then share those Stories directly to Facebook instead of having to make them twice. You could also use interactive stickers within Stories to run polls, ask questions, and so on, to help keep your followers interested and invested in what you’re doing. Instagram has better stickers than Facebook, but there’s still potential there! Oh and get the band members individually to post stories too! I generally notice that Stories still puts personal profiles first, and pages last, though I think it depends how often people engage.

5. Share stuff to groups. There are a bunch of Facebook groups dedicated to music, I’m guilty of spamming my old band’s gigs to them ahaha, but hey, more eyeballs! Also Facebook recently announced they want to pivot towards groups rather than newsfeed, annoying, but you have to play their game and if that’s where they wanna focus, then that’s where they’ll eventually end up favouring posts if it all goes ahead.

6. Start a fan group for your band. Sometimes if the page can’t reach people, the group will. Chances are only your superfans will join in, but they’re the ones most likely to send you support for your project, and you can make the group more special like a club. Maybe show them some behind the scenes stuff you’re not ready to show publicly. I dunno, whatever you wanna make it. Also encourage your group members to share as per previous points, they can be part of your team! [Note: this tip will probably work best for larger local bands with a decent following.]

7. Dive into your analytics. You don’t have to do a full on social media audit, but if you look over your posts, you can get an idea for what types of posts work best with your audience. Go to Insights, then Posts, then Post types, and it’ll show you how well your photos vs videos vs links vs “status” posts are doing. If you notice your audience likes one type of post more than some others, that can give you an idea of which to use. You can also look at all kinds of fancy graphs about when your fans are online, their demographics, etc, but there’s a point at which your head just explodes so… just figure out what’s most useful to you and ignore the rest lol.

And now for one thing NOT to do! Don’t private message people about it unless they’re people you’d be messaging for normal friend reasons anyway. And definitely don’t create a random massive group to send one generic message to people. I hate this, especially from people asking for money, it’s my pet peeve, I even did a top 10 hierarchy of annoying friend-based interactions once, and this was my #1 hate lol. (I should turn that into a blog post as well haha!)

Anyway, I hope this helps! I’m a nobody, with qualifications in all the wrong stuff, but hopefully my obsessiveness and fascination with social media can produce some results for you! Been teaching myself for a while, but I don’t claim to be an authority, so there might be other things worth doing that I haven’t thought of. But hey, my tips are free!

P.S. when people say not to use video, they’re half right. Facebook HATES YouTube links. But they generally love when you upload directly, so do that! But avoid the YouTube. If you do need to post a YouTube link, create an image or sample clip to upload instead, and just link to the video in the description. (And if you post the link again in the comments, it’ll generally come up playable, yay!)

Test Fire – An Experiment

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This is my latest experiment on the road to developing a possible art style and conceptual framework that I might pursue in the future. Completed in April, it follows on from January’s Silence artwork, and breaks out of the all-pencil mould to play around with different mediums and colour.

I’ve written more about this experiment over on Patreon, but overall it was an interesting exercise and has given me plenty to think about going forward. Honestly, it’s so difficult to make decisions here! There’s a lot of potential in pursuing so many different aspects.

Perhaps the one thing I definitely dislike is the way the standard blue texta looks, undoubtedly due to its obvious lower quality, but otherwise I’m quite happy with how this test turned out. I can always switch to better materials once I begin to pursue this style and concept more seriously.

It’s also been interesting to hear a suggestion via my Facebook page that links this work to the previous Silence work. Connecting stories between different works is definitely a worthwhile idea and something I’ll be considering more seriously as the greater project takes shape. This also potentially works well with my general plan to incorporate an increasing amount of more meaningful text into my style, as per the suggestions of my teachers back in art school.

I will admit that it’s been hard to stay focused over the last little while, however it’s still exciting to see some progress in this idea. I just need to find a little more self-discipline to help it all pick up a little bit of steam. Improving my time management also wouldn’t go astray – I have too many interests and too many projects to be allowing myself to stay as distracted as I have been!

Thanks for reading, and to keep up with my shenanigans, please consider following me on social media – search for DestroyerMariko on your preferred platform, or check out the links under my Contact tab. x

Artists of Mosman: 2088, 2019

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For the third year in a row, my art made it into the Artists of Mosman: 2088 exhibition! Of the works I submitted, this time my portrait of my brother’s dog titled “Playful Marley Rolling” was the one to get in! I think it’s kinda nice that I’ve now had portraits of myself, Hope, and Marley shown at the local gallery, that’s pretty much a whole set!

So once again, I attended opening night, this time on March 29th. Being later in the year, this meant cooler weather, so I was able to wear my new lolita fusion kimono from Punk Rave Australia! It’s always fun dressing up in this relatively conservative area, though I looked a lot cuter this time so the reaction was less disapproving and much more curious. Twice I was approached by members of the public, asking if I was an artist and which painting was mine (#73 in this year’s catalogue). Most surprisingly, both people later followed up with me to compliment me on my artwork and further appreciate my outfit. As an interesting side note, I think the outfit also really highlighted some of the more Japanese aspects of my personality, as it seems I subconsciously default to receiving compliments with a slight bow and other mannerisms associated with Japanese modesty, but this was the first time anyone had ever seemed to notice and remark on it. It’s easy for me to forget I’m half-Japanese sometimes, but every now and then something like this happens haha!

Here are some photos of my outfit on the night:

I also have some photos with the speakers who opened the exhibition! My friend Judy came as well, and after we’d taken selfies with my painting, we headed downstairs to listen to the speeches by Mosman Mayor Carolyn Corrigan, who recently ran as an independent in the NSW state election, and Wendy Whiteley, former wife of artist Brett Whiteley. I had planned to leave after speeches were over, but with Judy’s encouragement and enthusiasm, ended up at the front getting photos taken and talking about my outfit. I was even asked if I was a fashion designer, haha I wish I could have said yes, I really love this kimono!

  • Me, my painting, and other artists’ works
  • Selfie with Judy
  • Me, Carolyn Corrigan, and Judy
  • Talking with Wendy Whiteley
  • Me and Carolyn Corrigan

As always, there’s a lot of art on show this year! Nearly 200 local artists across various mediums, even including video. If you’d like to check it out, Artists of Mosman: 2088 is on display at Mosman Art Gallery until Sunday 28 April.

Thanks for reading! And if you’d like to see more of what I do, you can find me on any of the links below!

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Playful Marley Rolling

Art 1 Comment
Playful Marley Rolling
Acrylic on wood panel
8″x8″ (20cm x 20cm)

Here we are with another puppy painting, but this time it’s my brother’s Labrador, Marley. We’re not entirely sure how old he is, we got him back in 2013 from a rescue shelter when he was around two years old, but no one knows for certain. In any case, he’s now at least 7 years old, yet his playfulness has only increased over time! We suspect he was abused by his previous owners, so as he settled into our family and then became increasingly confident of his place in a loving environment, he’s continually opened up to expressing more of his playful puppy self, a self that may have been suppressed or even punished in his past. We don’t know for sure, but it’s been an incredible journey with him – when we first met, he would flinch if anyone made a sudden move, apparently afraid someone would hit him… whereas now he will actively seek out our hands to pat him, even nudging under them and leaning into us to maximise that connection!

Another thing he likes to do is roll about on his back, asking for tummy rubs, or sometimes just for the fun of it, and that’s what I’ve depicted in this painting. The inspiration came just after we’d installed a new vinyl floor, one which looks like wood, but is noticeably softer to walk on compared to what we had previously. I cannot pretend I know what Marley thought of the whole thing, only that he took to it immediately, happily rolling about, glancing up at me like this was the best thing ever! It’s at this point that I snapped the reference photo that eventually lead to this composition.

This was a particularly challenging painting for me to complete however. When I painted my portrait of Hope last year, well he was in the sun, so his white fur was even whiter and brighter than usual – relatively easy to handle – and the rest of his features were pretty well defined in patches of black, brown, and grey. Marley, on the other hand, is in theory a single-coloured “yellow” Labrador, but in practice, his fur features different shades of orange-brown, without any very clear points of distinction separating different sections, not helped by the layers of undercoat that seem to vary in shades as well. On top of that, I was painting him upside-down, exposing the rolls of his neck which create their own odd areas of light and shadow. But beyond the difficult colours, I also just had a huge struggle even drawing him in the first place. Hope, in his portrait, is essentially just an oval with ears. Whereas Marley was a whole lotta shapes all put together.

I had to take a different approach to this painting. You can read about my process and see some “making of” photos here.

In any case, I’m both surprised and happy with the results on this one! There seriously was a point about halfway through where I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. But as with my previous Hope painting process, I just persisted, adding layer after layer and refining it each time, until suddenly I took a step back and realised it was actually improving, and soon after, finally done! It feels like such an achievement to me, to be able to complete a painting like this, so far out of my perceived set of skills. An intimidating challenge, but you have to step out of your comfort zone in order to improve.

So now I’ll be pairing this painting with Sunny Hope Dreaming, and taking it up to enter them in the local gallery show. Cross fingers they like what I’ve done! These paintings are not for sale however – I’m too attached to them! Not just because they’re my family, but also because of what they represent to me as an artist, overcoming my doubts to paint better than ever before.