When my son was a little boy he did things that were different to his brothers and sisters. He liked to be organised, he liked order, and he liked knowing that things were always going to happen in a pre-determined order.
He would sit on the floor with his toy cars and line them up in a straight line across the room.
If you gave him a pencil and paper he would draw odd shapes on it. After a while he began to illustrate his sheets with designs that resembled to me the view you got from a plane, you know looking down on the earth from a distance. Each section he would decorate with a separate pattern. So he would end up with sheet of paper covered in a myriad of shapes and within each shape a distinct pattern.
There was never any doubt that he was a different child. At school he studied visual arts and did very well in his end of high school exams. He did far better than he ever thought he would.
So off to Uni he went to study Fine arts. There he was successful as well. He was involved in the art school gallery; he contributed to many exhibitions with his unique art form.
He worked in the Regional Art Gallery and eventually took the advice of his mentors and moved to Melbourne. In Melbourne he has worked hard to establish himself within the art community.
His work attracts criticism from those who see his art form as exploiting the art form of our indigenous people.
Despite all that criticism his work sells rapidly. Gallery owners argue that his work is very popular and so as they are running businesses they have every right to show his work.
In recent years he has moved to create embroidery pieces.
These have been very labour intensive, taking him many hours and even more blisters.
This work has attracted a lot of attention; the Newcastle regional gallery has purchased his first quilt.
This first quilt became the clothing design for a range of women’s and men’s fashion by the Rittenhouse label.
The link below will take you to an article and a video of him and his work.
http://thedesignfiles.net/2012/03/lucas-grogan-x-rittenhouse/
So successful has he become that his work can even be found on the humble tea towel. I have one, which I framed; it looks great upon my wall.
http://www.thirddrawerdown.com/products/tt075t
His work has appeared on the front of a trendy café in Melbourne.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBKXR-ZZggI
He even has his work on a dinner plate. Though maybe not everyone’s ideal design for dinnerware.
http://douglasandhope.bigcartel.com/product/lucas-grogan-plate
The second quilt sold the first night it was displayed and his wedding quilt
is a wonderful piece containing five thousand blue roses.
Over the short course of his life, he will turn 30 next July, he has sold work all round the world. He recently won a contract to supply a public art piece for a new building currently being constructed in Sydney.
To say that I am proud of my son, sometimes is not the word I would use, if there was a better word than pride to express how I feel about his work, I would use it. He has stuck to his belief that art is an evolving process.
He is a genuinely lovely man whom I am very proud to say, will ring his dad with news good and bad, share the moments of success and listen to my counsel when things don’t always work out.
This coming week he is exhibiting in New York.
At Garis and Hahn, 263 Bowery New York.
This is the second time that he has exhibited in New York.
If you are in that part of the world drop by and have a look.
Morpethroad 