Big, a bit blue and beautiful perhaps best sums up the large mural that now dominates Shellharbour Civic Centre’s customer service area.
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But more importantly, Nowra TAFE art teacher Warwick Keen wanted the work to depict people of the sky and tide, from the perspective of Aboriginal people.
Mr Keen drew on his 21 years of teaching visual art and Aboriginal cultural art to create the mural, which is five metres high and four metres wide.
“I’ve done murals before but this was by far the biggest,” he said.
“The curator had seen some of my abstract work and wanted something similar.
“This gave me a real chance to do something different. I used 20 individual panels to create a work with hard-edged patterns combined with free organic interpretation.”
Project curator Marla Guppy, described Mr Keen’s work as “evoking movement of water and air through the Indigenous landscape”.
Mr Keen considered himself fortunate to be a TAFE art teacher, while still a practicing artist.
“In relation to my work I do consider my students’ observations. Another benefit of me being an active artist and having work commissioned, is that it creates belief in me and what I’m teaching my students.”
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
