AURALDYNAMICS: The Story of How I Got My First Drill or Why My Dad Is A Legend

I got a call from the Sydney Central Mag to organise a photo shoot with me and my ears for a write up they wanted to do. They asked if I could have my work mounted for them to shoot.

I took to the streets with ideas in my mind about how I would go about mounting them. Usually the finished paintings of ears end up sitting in a box reminiscent of Dexter's bloodslides in the show Dexter. At other times the ears the ears are scattered around my desk like in the manner of a mad genius.

I had this crappy wooden door hanging around my studio space that I decided I could use. It weighed about 600kg and so I lifted it easily into position. I primed it with the only acrylic sealant I had - Gesso, and took to lining up the pencil grid that would form the arrangement of my ear paintings.

The Church Bells rang - it was my dad calling me on my phone which I had personalised "church bells" as the ring tone for when he calls me. "Hi Dad," I said.

"I'm downstairs."

"I'll let you in."

I walked down stairs two levels to get the door for my Dad. Little did I know there was more I would have to get.

Dad pulled out of the boot of his car more tools than I'd ever seen. A drill that he declared "It's for you I picked one up for you," he said, "I'll have to get one for (my brother) too."

My first drill. Complete with a hundred thousand or so drill bits for masonary, timbre and other sorts of building stuff. For the next half hour it was like, "Dad what does this do?" and "Dad can this drill into that?" We felt like family again.

But the answer to the "Does this drill into that?" turned out to be no. So Dad drove us both to his place to get a "hammer" drill and I drilled into the "Limestone mortar brick" and arranged my ear paintings for the first time EVER. I just needed magnets and the stage would be set.

I went to a shop and discovered magnets cost about 1.85. I needed 24 and paid through the nose for it. I have since found magnets for significantly cheaper for the same type ($0.10 each).

And that is the story of how I got my first drill.

THE PHOTO SHOOT

A photographer and a journalist from the Central Mag came along and modeled their ears and interviewed me and took photos of me with the ears, and the ears themselves and me lying down seductively with ears. I had never modeled like this before. It was weird and funny and I was nervous. In the end they printed a story that didn't feature the two days' work that I spent installing the six ears on the wall. But since then I've been inundated with emails from people wanting to schedule their ear with me. There are still places for ears so let me know if you haven't modeled and would like to. I've changed the rewards for models from getting a print of your ear to actually getting a finished painting of it. To read the write up in the Central Mag, click the image and it will aggrandize.