TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Board/Bored Monkey Reflection Large Sticker by TET. Available on Redbubble . Recent reports in the Australian media, of university students creating flag burning kits to sell as a way of protesting government policy, have sparked the debate about whether flag burning should be a criminal offense, and highlighted people's misguided understanding of what the Australian Flag represents. First and foremost, our flag is not a symbol of a specific government. It represents us. No matter how far we travel an Aussie flag helps connect us to other Aussies abroad and it reminds us of home. It is a symbol of the people. Some say that our flag represents freedom. Quite often people who say this will attempt to deny you of your freedom to burn the flag. Australia prides itself on being a tolerant society. It is our ability to tolerate criticism without resorting to violent retaliation that helps makes us strong. It's one of the things that hold us together as a community. I don't want t...

Bored Yeti Poster by TET. Available on RedBubble . The meeting of the School Governing Council threatened to continue into the early hours of the following morning.  Fortunately proceedings were interrupted by the Tactical Response Group, who had been deployed with much urgency, after an anonymous tip off that several upstanding community members were being held against their will within the grounds of the local high school.  Whilst a meeting of the Governing Council was not what the Captain of the TRG was expecting to find, never-the-less, he understood the seriousness of the situation.  Immediately the chairperson was taken into custody along with several committee members who would later be charged with 'stealing time'. A number of others were cautioned about 'taking too long to get to the point'.  The rest of the committee were released from the ordeal, thankful that their fate of 'being bored to death' had been narrowly averted.

Champion Boxer T-Shirt by TET. Available on Redbubble . To understand my previous article ' 'Nothing' on a grand scale ' you need to understand that I'm not trying to convince you my exhibition, 'Unstarted', is 'Art'. It's not a case of 'The Emperor's New Clothes'. I'm not trying to con you into thinking there is 'Art' in a space where there is nothing on display to look at.  In fact, my exhibition is entirely about there being no art on display, and that I did not even think about creating any art at all. It is an honest exhibition that is not trying to deceive you. It is what says it is.  No doubt some Art Critic could give it more credibility by describing it as 'Conceptual minimalism to the extreme' but the average Joe or Jane public would word it better with the simple statement 'That's not art!' While I'm not against conceptual art as such, my criticism is aimed at artists who appear to rely o...

I don't need Therapy I just need to go to the Skatepark T-shirt by TET. Now available on Redbubble . As an artist I would like to leave the world with the legacy of my greatest exhibition of conceptual artwork (or lack of it as this article will reveal). My vision is on such a grand scale that only one of the world's great art museums could house it.  In essence I would like to empty all the art from the walls and rooms of one of the great art museums. I would then like to hang my exhibition entitled 'Unstarted'.  Every room in every gallery will be filled with artworks that I have spent no time at all creating. Not so much as a single empty canvas, just a museum filled with nothing. Unstarted.  Naturally each individual artwork not appearing in the exhibition would be 'Untitled'.  I imagine the souvenir catalogue of artworks to be filled with blank pages. Unprinted.  What a bold statement. Shifting aside all that important art for nothing (literally). Minimalis...

Red Dachshund Wiener Sausage Dog on Skateboard Racerback Tank Top by TET. Available on RedBubble . The title of this post is a line from a song. I can't remember who sings it but the full verse goes something like this:  Out on the patio we sit,  And the humidity we breathe,  We watch the lightening,  Out on the cane fields,  And laugh and think,  This is Australia.   Not that I've ever seen lightening out on the cane fields but the sentiment resonates with me with regards to the weather.  In this country, in Summer, it gets hot - think hot to the point where it doesn't matter if you wander round buck naked you still won't feel cool.  What bugs me about this is not the heat but the people who have lived here all their lives yet, still complain about it.  There's not a lot you can do about the weather except endure it. Stay indoors, crank up your air conditioner and get on with your life.  Don't complain to me that your hot because, ...

Different Stands Out Mug by TET. View on RedBubble . I got to thinking about blogs and the fact that anyone can leave a comment to my posts. When someone comments, the polite thing to do is to respond with a comment under theirs. This may prompt an additional comment but really that person has no real intention of in depth discussion. They're just passing through. It's a lot like walking down the street with a complete stranger approaching from the opposite direction. Your intention is to simply pass them by but as you come within talking distance the stranger says "Hi, nice day isn't it?" Like they needed to share that little highlight of information to brighten your day too. You can smile and nod in agreement, or go so far as to say "Yes isn't it," whilst passing by without so much as a break in stride. It's all that is required to be polite. Sometimes though, you want a bit more from your stranger. Why did they decide to say 'Hi'...

[Note: This post originally had no title and is an incomplete story because it used to be part of a news stream embeded into my website. I'd delete it but, soon to be even more famous person, Rachel Reenstra ( Ms Adventure , The Wildlife Docs ), randomly discovered my blog on Christmas 2005 here and left a comment. She then returned the next evening and left a comment on this post. I think she is still the most high profile person to comment on this blog alongside Boom Crash Opera's Peter Farnan who left a comment here . - TET 2021-05-03 ] If you're a reader of 'The Bunyip', Gawler's local newspaper, and you've found your way here, chances are you've already viewed my 'Sleeping Cats' exhibition. Hope you enjoyed it and I hope you voted for your favourite artwork. If you'd like to see more of my work (even after browsing this site) then sign up to my newsletter to receive updates of future exhibitions, ebay auctions and other site news. Tha...