As you can see I was very pleased to meet up with the cheerfully defiant Bob Brown to discuss a commission for the property Bob gifted to Bush Heritage at Liffey Valley, Oura Oura.

This property was the birth place of environmental activism, Blockading the Franklin River and preventing the daming of it, Wilderness centre, Green party and so much more. Visiting the property now feels very much like visiting a sacred place.

Any one with a love for the amazing diversity of flora and the fauna that that supports can’t help but love Bob and his dedication when keeping up the fight on behalf of nature.

My sculpture will comprise of handmade ceramic tiles which come out of my plaster molds. These ceramic impressions represent the flora which is found in the vicinity and of the bushland that the birds rely on to live and thrive, even ceramic Permian shell fossils like that Bob has seen at the property.

Oura Oura is an indigenous name for the Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo evocative of its call in the Australian bush, I can imagine this haunting call ringing out around Drys Bluff/Taytitikithika and it is below this stunning backdrop my sculpture will rest on the banks of the Liffey River.

I’m pictured here with a 50% scale version of the piece I am making at present for Bob. Better get back to it.