Author: dave urquhart
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Ways of Seeing (water)
Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. … Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water…
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The joy of a bad crowd
Arrival My mother came to Sydney from Auckland, New Zealand, in December 1938. I was born in St Luke’s Hospital in Kings Cross in April 1939. My mother, Anne Urquhart, returned to Auckland leaving me in Sydney to be adopted. It would be sixty years before I located her, but she had died before I…
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Water – without out you I’m nothing
How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean. ~Arthur C. Clarke
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Art and about
I like to walk, I see more that way. If you go by bus, the route you takes determines what you might encounter. If you drive you need to concentrate on what you’re doing. Walking allows the freedom to go where you want, see what interests you. These are chance glances, I hope you…
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Newtown, what’s special about Newtown
In current real estate jargon Newtown is home to a “vibrant, cosmopolitan café society”. When I came to live here with my boyfriend in 1981 it was a Sydney suburb where multiple languages (Greek, Russian, Croatian, Serbian, Turkish and more including English among the long-established Anglo-Celtic working class) were spoken at home and in the…
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A bit about me
I’m a photographer – artist with a Degree and Post Graduate Diploma in visual art from Sydney College of the Arts at University of Sydney. I live in Newtown, Sydney, with lots of other queers. I was born in Kings Cross in 1939 and have lived in Sydney ever since. I read this somewhere and…
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Trashin’ Fashion (a zine)
I worked for a long time in the fashion industry – women’s undergarments, better known now as intimate apparel. I worked in manufacturing, wholesale, retail and marketing. I thought of it as flogging bras and girdles, a rag trade version of being a fitter and turner. I maintain an interest, though possibly a jaundiced view.
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Dead or Alive
Flowers, trees and the huge variety of flora are all around us whether flourishing, ‘dying’, or as cut flowers. I also enjoy their decaying process when their structure and form are often more apparent.
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The phone is my darkroom
When I was a child there was no phone in our home. When I graduated from art college there were no mobile/cell phones. I have always been interested in exploring technological advances and how they might encourage me to broaden my art practice. These advances have been a bonus for me as I have a…
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Walls, doors, windows and such
A friend recently asked me if I was familiar with the photographs of Grant Mudford, an Australian artist working in the US for many years. I first encountered Mudford’s work when I was at art college in the 80s. His photographs appealed to me immediately and still do. I think of Grant Mudford’s art as…
David Urquhart: art and about 