Alex Hodge reckons it would be a great story if his first award-winning artwork was inspired by a cricket ball flying through his kitchen window.
Unfortunately, that is not the case.
The 39-year-old Mosgiel artist has won the people’s choice award at the Cleveland National Art Awards, with his artwork titled Fractured.
It was created by painstakingly chipping away special glass with a hammer and chisel — a style of art inspired by Swiss contemporary visual artist Simon Berger.
“It’s a special type of glass that has two layers stuck together.
“I lay it out flat on a table and then I just basically smash it up with a hammer and chisel, as much as I can into the portrait.
“There’s kind of little bits of glass everywhere and I have to wear safety glasses to cover my eyes.
“And then once I’m finished, I’ll flip the whole piece over so that it’s got clean glass on the front and so it’s not dangerous to touch or anything.”
The finished product, once it was framed, was remarkably stable.
He said it took about two years to create this particular artwork, but it was not his first attempt.
“It’s taken this long to get to the point where I’m this good and so this is the first one that I’ve shown publicly.
“But in my house, I have six or seven of these just kind of stored — ones that weren’t as good, because obviously when you’re cracking the glass, if you make one mistake, the whole piece has to be started all over again.
“It’s been a long process to get to the point where I can actually show it publicly.”
Mr Hodge said the portrait was not of anyone he knows. Rather, it was just a drawing of a person.
He said he felt honoured to win the people’s choice award in a prominent national art competition — especially since it was his first time showing in public.
“It’s really good to see recognition like this and proof that there’s some value in me working on this and doing more.”
The self-taught artist is an industrial designer by trade.
“It’s entirely different to the design industry. With design, you spend months and months refining and perfecting something to be the absolute perfect version of what it can be.
“And then this version of art that I’m doing, is kind of the opposite of that, which is why I’m quite enjoying it.
“You only get one go at it. If you screw it up, you have to throw it out and start it again.
“It’s about embracing it when it’s not perfect, and if I get a crack that’s not where I want it to be, I have to kind of live with it and just go with it, and maybe the hair goes this way now since the crack is going that way.
“Sometimes those imperfections are actually what gives it character.”
He said Fractured had been bought by an art collector and was now being sent to Australia.
Exhibition co-ordinator Anne Baldock said more than 1000 votes for the people’s choice award were lodged, and Mr Hodge’s artwork received an overwhelming majority of them.
The exhibition at the Dunedin Railway Station is now closed.
john.lewis@odt.co.nz
