I dedicate this chapter to three men in my life. Senior figures whose contribution forever changed my life's prospects. Whose unwavering belief in me most certainly propelled me into who I am now.

The wheatbelt of Western Australia, despite its rampant farming induced salt issues and horrific legacy of genocide against the Aboriginal peoples of this immense nations of nations has the occasional natural wonder.

The sheer desperation of the human condition is no more evident to me than my reflections on experiences engaging with Aboriginal communities in the rural and remote regions of Australia.

All across the Western Australian wheat belt, there are stories of the occupation, alienation, and slaughter of the Aboriginal people of Australia.

The Wellman Street Studios group including artist Doikao Pasilan, paper clay expert Graham Hay, Sofia Scorano, and Wendy McArthur all presented creative work in a joint exhibition held at the Blue Room Gallery in Perth, Western Australia.

Carrying a visual diary around with me over the years has provided what was essentially an analogue camera, a substrate upon which to pitch ideas and jog visual notes around in my minds eye.

In collaboration with author and poet Daniel Oxenburgh, the ‘Quicksilver’ exhibition and book brings illustrations and poetry together in a compelling union.

Inspired by the lucid works of artists and theorist Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky, as well as the contemporary figurative works of artist John Paul, I set about interpreting the writings of Western Australian author Daniel Oxenburgh in late 1997.

In 1997-1998 as a first year Art student at Curtin University, Perth Western Australia  I attended a series of summer tutorial groups led by the renowned artist, Stellarc. 

Taking inspiration from artist David Smith, who produced amazing works of abstract expressionism, resulted in a whole series of works made from found and forged steel.

There are times in everybody's life, well at least those that are honest with themselves where they feel like taking the easy way out.

A satirical yet poignant account by artist Tom Puglisi juxtaposes famous figures in the global art scene against the backdrop of his own worldly and creative experience through dry humor. This short work served to introduce an audience to the art scene of the 1970s in Australia, a component of the completion of the unit VIS 1203, Visual Art Theory 2 in the Associate Degree of Arts (Visual & Performing Arts) at Edith Cowan University, Bunbury Campus, Western Australia.

I am reliably informed that in 2021 the average attention span for a teenager (in fact most people) engaged in videography media viewing is now six (6) seconds on social media platforms such as TikTok or Snapchat. It seems unavoidable that every successive generation of adults observes their own children and other teenagers as they try and navigate through an ever increasingly distraction-rich and screen-enhanced existence.

With an open licence as to how we could present our findings of research into key artists of postmodernity, artist Tom Puglisi and I chose to extend upon our investigation and produce an arts ‘performance’ which we filmed using a thoroughly low-resolution VHS camcorder in the Edith Cowan University, Bunbury Campus main lecture theatre.

With the official invitation from Simon Ambrose, Manager of the Midland Redevelopment Cultural Precinct, Western Australia I embarked on an ambitious plan to combine the outcomes of a ceramics unit with Geoff Lummis, through Edith Cowan University, Bunbury Campus with that of public artworks and supported community event - the Midland Bicentenary Celebrations.

A short 'skit' excerpt from fifteen (15) short films in fifteen (15) hours conducted with Tom Puglisi as part of the Associate Degree (Visual & Performing Arts) at Edith Cowan University, Bunbury Campus, Western Australia. This Art in Education history unit was facilitated by Geoff Lummis who also taught me how to raku kiln fire slumped clay forms built from at-source natural clay gathered in the foothills of Ferguson Valley, Western Australia.

A videography production featuring Tom Puglisi as part of the completion of Art in Education units in the Associate Degree program at Edith Cowan University in 1995. The premise of the production is 'a fireside chat with an expert art historian of the time' and in an exchange of ideas, Alexander hayes and Tom Puglisi explore their understandings and proximal nearness to the heady days of a shift from the 1970s into the heady post-neo-modernism period of the '80s.

A short film/interview that was conducted in 1995 at the Bunbury campus of Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. In this interview, I speak of my appointment as Artist in Residence and inspiration for that particular body of works which featured in a later solo exhibition at Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, curated by Maggie Buchanan.