Very happy to announce a new show of my masks "Face Palm" will be installed at PATAKA ART+ MUSEUM.

  The dates are from 13th December 2019 'til 26th January 2020 with all of the works on sale. I am continuing the theme of trees as sentient beings. As you may have read, the latest scientific research indicates trees have capabilities well beyond previous reckoning. From having memory and recognising colour to chemical sharing interspecies and long distance warning systems. These are just a few of the practical tools plants implement with efficacy, after all they have been here longer than us. It seems our own predecessors were more aligned to the nature of nature than we currently are today. Druid, Tohunga, Angekok et al have sensibilities that far outdo our collective present-day awareness when it comes to understanding the allies of our realm. The 'Tree of Life' as a guiding principle stems from wisdom garnered in commune with the plant kingdom, a vibrant source of reflection all over the world and abundant throughout human cultures. Representing our interconnectedness to all things the 'Tree of Life' has grown among us as a beacon of respect, humility and wonder. From childhood I have been fascinated endlessly with plants and the way they move in front of us. Since that time I have planted many trees, food plants and flowers too. As a field officer in the conservation department I worked restoring habitat. This lifetime connection with flora stimulates an awe for our world that I translate into art.
  Trees provide our air, our food. We need them.
​  Trees even provide the rubber for our tyres and petrol for our cars. They can only give.
​  I create faces of imagined plant spirits to remind us to give back to the garden we live in. Come to my show.                                                     Plant trees in the Autumn. Spend time in a park.                                                                                                              In Plants We Trust

I had the honour of meeting this great man at his home in mid-winter of 2014. My friend Fabiola Haru and I visited on the solstice so that we could dig his garden together. After a yum cha lunch Guy toured us through his richly appointed home, his studios, his gardens. For many years his eye on the world had intrigued me and overlapped with mine. I experienced a profound connection seeing his work and was always to triggered to slow down and take in the visual messages. His work inhabits many public spaces, he was a prolific artist. He was a genuine man. A year on since his death and five years since meeting him I have come home inspired from an exhibition of his work at The Dowse Art Museum. It is mid-winter again now and time to meditate on the new year ahead, the increasing light and the opportunities to connect life and work together. They are not separate. Guy proved this every day. 

Memory of Trees; an exhibition to enhance our relationship with nature.

Masks have been here since the beginnings of our time so too has an innate knowledge that trees share our world and like us are living beings. I have combined masks and trees and created a cadre of characters connecting us with nature. We see a mask and look upon ourselves. The mask has the ability to suspend the viewer’s sense of reality where questions arise. We might ask “Where do these creatures come from, how do they live, what does it see in me?” 

Venerated by people across the globe, trees have inspired and guided us. The ‘Tree of Life’ grows in almost every culture, is nurtured by shamans and druids, medicine women and angekok, tohunga and healer. 

These tree masks serve to remind us of the healing philosophies that enrich our lives and help us in sharing the world with all our diverse and valuable allies.

In Plants We Trust

Come and enjoy an exhibition opening that celebrates nature. Work is for sale. 

Opening Monday 11 Feb at 5:54pm - 8:45pm 
Open daily for one week only from 10am - 6:30pm. 

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This weekend in Auckland I was stoked to see a show from the students at Mt Roskill Intermediate. They've been putting their minds to making masks with plant materials. Imagination is a fierce energy! Thanks for letting me be a part of your world for a time.                                                                    "In Plants We Trust"

These are the students of Mt Roskill Intermediate and their Nikau Palm masks. This is excellent work from them inspired by the plants or in my words 'the nature of life'. #inplantswetrust. Thank you guys, you have inspired me. James H