focus on shaun wake-mazey

Binalup – Middleton Beach by Shaun Wake-Mazey
Photo by Bo Wong

‘I spent months thinking about them – the energy, the shapes. Then I made the colours and flooded them across the surface’.

Twelve years since his lung transplant, Shaun Wake-Mazey has been creating epic works - 3.6 long by 2.4 metres high. They burst out of the darkness as if pulling aside the proscenium curtain in a dark theatre.

The operation transplanted him in a variety of ways.

He talks of an inner energy, feeling like he is part of the future.

His donor’s family told him she was fearless. He feels imbued with his donar’s fearlessness - a profound gift.

‘I am trying to show people there is more than going to f*&&^ing work every day. I want people to see beauty in each other, to be enthralled by nature and see something different in their lives.

We are together on this one little planet, floating in the Universe – we should be celebrating, not fighting each other’.

Nature has always lured him.

Albany in Western Australia’s south is his spiritual home. He grew up there, a free, happy child. After several years away, he knew he must return home to those familiar streets, hills, the sea.

His health is a constant teacher offering his own personal, non-religious spirituality. A distinct vista of life communes through deep contemplation. A survivor’s view of the gifts and challenges.

Colours have changed from blacks and browns to golds, blues – hues not readily visible in vegetation but exquisite in the markings of birds and animals.

Binalup – Middleton Beach was cathartic, emerging just before Christmas after 18 months toil. It has been coveted by many in the Albany community and collected locally.