Post #570099 by tiki beat by marcus thorn on Thu, Dec 23, 2010 3:47 PM

Man I am calling 2010 the year that flew by…it is mind blowing that only 12 months ago I made the decision to give my travelling to Hawaii a break while the US recovers from its financial troubles and concentrate on more adventures closer to home here in Australia and give my workshops a go so here is a recap of 2010.

I carved a piece in collaboration with my good friend James Owen of Car Noir for the The Califonia Screamin Show in California held in April - May 2010. This piece is the Rockabilly Zombie Gear Shifter. One of the first pieces that Jim and I will be working on.

The beginning of the year had me designing a mug for the Wintersun Festival and also organizing two international artists to guest star with me at the Wintersun Festival in June at Coollangatta James Owen of Car Noir and Max Grundy of Fear is the New Beauty. The weekend was a blast we had a great time meeting everyone and selling our art and t-shirts, we really showed the boys from the States how enthusiastic the Australian collectors can be, our stock was quickly depleted.

Then onto my first Workshops in Brisbane, what a great bunch of people, looking back now I was nervous of my ability to teach others how to pull the magic out of logs, and they were so eager to learn, these same students are now showing signs of becoming amongst the best carvers that I have seen in Australia.

My next workshops were in Melbourne and I am always glad to travel to my friends studio at Kustom Lane Gallery and spend time with the people of Melbourne. The demand in Melbourne had me spending two weeks down there for a number of workshops and I look forward to my next one in May 2011.

I have never been to Canberra and was welcomed by the students down there and our hosts David and Mary Maloney were so generous with their home and catering for the weekend.

Then off to Sydney and spend time with my good friend Hewey aka “Andrew Hewson” who hosted the workshop at his home in the West, wow did the weather get hot that weekend but my students were real troupers and carved their way through it. One of the guys travelled three hours each day to get there which is such a huge compliment.

I returned home to the news that I had time for a quick change of clothes, kiss the missus and being flown off to Western Australian by a client to discuss very exciting project that is in the works for next year.

It was also my great privilege to receive an email from the personal Assistant for James Hetfield from Metallica asking if I would have time to come as a VIP guest to one of the gigs being held in Australia. Given my travels at the time I got to choose which town I would go to the concert and I got to take a couple of guests of my choice with me. As it turns out James is a big fan of my work and it was such a surreal experience signing pieces of my work for such a big name. Wow!

I hope you and yours have a great holiday season and see you for more groovy good times and going ons in 2011.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

And the beat goes on…. Marcus