Denise James
2002-2006 - Teacher – Painting, Drawing , Koorie Art History, Study Skills (Cert3&4 ) Sunraysia TAFE; Koorie Co-Ordinator.
2001 - Sessional teacher ( Painting , Koorie Drawing, Circuit Breakers), Sunraysia TAFE Registered Tutor, Koorie Students.
2001 - Certificate IV- Workplace Training and Assessment, Sunraysia TAFE
2000 - Bachelor of Visual Arts (with Distinction), Latrobe University (Mildura Campus).
Denise James is an artist who works predominantly in painting and drawing, with forays into installation based works.
'The
empty human shapes in Denise's paintings, though two-dimensional, conveyed
a very strong sense of having just been removed from a warm and sensual
body. Many of the paintings include a person's name, like 'Minnie
Meredith's wedding dress fades away' and 'Winter coast for Auntie Alice'
and this further personalises the paintings and provides food for the
imagination.'
Taken from 'Sunraysia Daily, June 3, 2004'.
'Denise
explores through her work the essence of the garment, its glamour, beauty,
its design and what is left behind once the wearer no longer stands
inside. Pattern pieces, pins and stitches are layered beneath the picture
plane like mini landscapes made to find their way around the contours of
the body. Memories of a mother sewing busily at the kitchen table haunt
and humble beneath the pellicle of pastel and pigment.'
Taken from 'Sunraysia Daily, June 16, 2004'.
"What
people had shed and left - a pair of shoes, a shooting cap, some faded
skirts and coats in wardrobes - those alone kept the human shape and in
the emptiness indicated how once they were filled and animated, how once
hands were busy with hooks and buttons..."
From 'To the LIghthouse' by Virginia Woolf
My
mother was a fine seamstress and made all her own clothes, her children's
clothes, and dresses for special occasions for her friends.
As a child I would arrive home after school to see my mother busy at her
Singer sewing machine set up at the kitchen table, surrounded by a chaos
of fabric, paper patterns, cotton, pins, buttons and of course the 'good
scissors', that were only meant to cut fabric.
I enjoyed my mother's sewing best when she was making a special garment
for herself or a friend to wear to a local function. The fabric would be a
shot silk or chiffon. These garments would often only be worn once or
twice, and then left in the wardrobe for some time, before being altered
or passed onto a friend or discarded to the Op Shop.
Now, as an adult, I frequent Op Shops looking for that special garment
that has been discarded. Op Shops, with their haphazard arrangement of
rack upon rack of seemingly unwanted clothing, the body scents wafting
into the shop space, fires my imagination. As I flick through the racks of
clothing, seeking to discover a special garment that is either homemade or
that speaks to me because of the design, the question 'do clothes maketh
the man or the woman?' appears in my mind. 'Who wore this garment and to
what occasion? Did they enjoy wearing the garment? Were they successful
and happy or are those tear stains on the bodice?'
Garments keep their secrets so I will continue to construct my stories
with which to bring to life in my imagination those empty human shapes.
Artist’s Statement - Lamberts Swamp
Lamberts
Swamp is devastatingly beautiful; once a fresh water lake, now a salt
encrusted expanse with corpses of trees scattered around the lake. Each
tree corpse has a collar of white salt with minerals in the salt giving
the remaining water a pink hue.
The
block of land next to the lake is covered by a large planting of gum trees
which the first owner used to spell out his wife’s name. The trees stand
like a sentinel guarding the lake. Both are now deceased but I feel the
spirit of his wife stays and mourns the dying lake.
2006
Signs and Symbols Gallery 25
Mildura
Palimpsest # 6
Red
group exhibition Mildura Art Centre
Melbourne
Affordable Art Show Gallery 25
2005
Miniature Latrobe Staff Exhibition Latrobe University Bundorra
le
femme rouge Gallery 25 Mildura
Melbourne Affordable Art Show Gallery 25
2004
Monochrome TAFE/Latrobe Staff Exhibition
(keeping) Human Shape Solo Exhibition Mildura Art Gallery June
2003
With A Little Help from My Friends Mildura Gallery Exhibition
Mildura
Palimpsest # 5
2001
‘karabiner – an exhibition about teamwork’ TAFE/Latrobe Staff
Exhibition, August
Beyond the Wire
– A dog’s life’ – Solo exhibition, Mildura Art Gallery
Local Artists Group- Mildura Art Gallery
Mildura Palimpsest #4
2000
Final Years’ Exhibitions, Latrobe University, Mildura and Bendigo
Campuses
1999
“ADO” Combined Visual
Arts students, Mildura TAFE and Latrobe University,
Bendigo/Mildura campuses.
1996
“Countercharge”, Women’s Art Register, Melbourne.
“Save the Night”, Women’s Art Register, Melbourne.
1995
‘6X6
– Art in Isolation’, Mallee Women’s Cooperative, Mildura Regional
Gallery
‘Works
from the kitchen Table’, Swan Hill Regional Gallery
‘Works from the kitchen
Table’, Mildura Regional Gallery
‘Any
Old Boot’, Mildura Regional Gallery
1992
“End of Year Exhibition’, First Year BVA students, Mildura Regional
Gallery
2001 - Visual Arts Graduate Studio Access Grant (VAGSAG) Latrobe University, Mildura
Mildura
Art Gallery Collection
Latrobe University Print Collection, Mildura
Private Collections