STEPHEN MARR
Stephen Marr was born and raised in a tiny coastal village, Yamba, on the north coast of NSW Australia in the fifties and sixties, an environment he describes as, "saturated with poetic imagery and wonderful characters, half the town was drunk before noon". He vividly remembers drawing with sticks in the sand, barefoot in the one room school and his first teacher encouraging his drawings of trawlers heading out to sea surrounded by sharks:
"It was the age of "do it yourself". Toys were made out of sticks and tin cans. Mum sewing clothes, curtains and furnishing covers, Dad making boats and countless other practical objects".
After graduating from The National Art School Newcastle, Stephen travelled extensively through Asia and was astounded by the living art he encountered there, in the painting and carving that decorated houses and boats, to the most banal of objects.
He returned to Australia inspired to build a simple, alternative energy house in the bush, with his bare hands and one chainsaw. Setting up a kiln and crude pottery and teaching ceramics at the technical college in Grafton, he managed to scrape together the finances he needed to finally make the move to the big smoke.
To support himself whilst continuing to work on his art, Stephen became involved in the film industry. All the years he spent building his own dwellings, while drawing and painting, made him a natural as an art director. He began to work in America as a production designer and was soon directing projects both in Australia and overseas.
The death of his father Marr describes as, "a wake up call, a reminder of how short a life is, I found that I had a very personal story to tell and I began to paint this story using all the skills I had been accumulating through my life".
In 2000, the first major exhibition of Stephen Marr's work was held at Newport Artworks, Newport Beach, Sydney, where he created a fictional setting with a series of lyrical images and objects. The show was a sell out. His story telling style resonated with other peoples' life stories and a steady following grew on the Northern Beaches.
Since then, he has built upon this narrative, incorporating individually carved and painted wooden stages that serve as the canvas and frame for many of his paintings. These stages are integral to the work they carry, and at the same time add a sculptural element to the images.
In 2001, he exhibited at Raglan Gallery in Manly coinciding with the Manly Arts Festival. The images in this show deeply reflected Marr's desire to express time and memory in a narrative style.
In December 2004 his Manly Regional Gallery show entitled, Oceanic Phantascope, drew crowds of people visiting Sydney on holidays from countries all over the world, comments in the visitors book expressing, "the work had the effect of eliciting memories of long forgotten familiar places and events".
In 2006, Stephen's solo show ,"Listening to Cicadas", was shown at Wallspace Gallery. The work in this exhibition built on the themes that have driven Stephen Marr's artistic expression. Joyously infused with light and colour, Marr's paintings tempt us to smell the sea, touch the crumbling walls and listen to the rising chorus of cicadas.
CURRICULUM VITAE
| 1952 | Born Maclean NSW Australia |
| 1957-70 | Yamba Primary School Maclean High School |
| 1971-75 | National Art School Dip. Art Ed. Newcastle NSW |
| 1976 | Travel Asia |
| 1977 | Designed and hand built 1st house Tullimorgan NSW |
| 1978 | Ceramics teacher Grafton Technical College NSW |
| 1979 | Designed and hand built 2nd house Palmer's Island NSW |
| 1980 | Established Pottery at Palmer's Island |
| 1981 | Painting Drawing Pottery /Travel Hong Kong China Europe |
| 1982 | Moved to Sydney / Drawing and pastel drawing Exhibition Oxford Gallery, Paddington |
| 1983 | Assistant Art Director Winners Children Series for television |
| 1984 | General art production for film and television |
| 1985 | Art Director Return to Eden television series |
| 1986 | Production Designer Young Einstein |
| 1987 | Freelance Production Designer |
| 1988-91 | Established Machine Age Art P/L facility for Film Design and Art Production design in USA & Australia |
| 1991 | Began directing TV Commercials in USA |
| 1992-00 | Directing and design TV commercials Australia Design and built 3rd house Newport Beach Sydney Exhibition Painting and Sculpture Artworks Gallery Newport |
| 2000-03 | TV Direction / Continued painting |
| 2003 | Exhibition Painting Raglan Gallery Manly / Affordable Art Show Sydney |
| 2004 | Exhibition Manly Regional Gallery Oceanic Phantascope Expanding clientel Graphic / production |
| 2005 | Supplying galleries and private sales |
| 2006 | Solo Exhibition Listening to Cicadas Wallspace Gallery |
| 2007 | Solo Exhibition On a Wing and a Prayer Wallspace Gallery |
