
Jo Kucks
Life on the street
Sometimes we find ourselves lost, covered up by all that happens – to us, by us, for us.
Sometimes we find ourselves lost, covered up by all that happens – to us, by us, for us.
This sculpture is carved from a salvaged Budgeroo tree stump that survived a bush fire many years ago.
Sometimes I whisper to myself, “Just take one step, balance, breathe, then take another.”
Australian fire hawks had long been thought of as an Aboriginal myth until recent studies have proven their existence.
The earth may burn but the animals will survive.
The inspiration for my work Reclamation came from an unusual piece of wood destined for the firepit one night.
When darkness surrounds…
Using the story of the Phoenix and how it rose from the ashes into new life as inspiration, I worked intuitively with a limited range of colours.
Like the Phoenix, the Ephemeral Lagoon, also known as a billabong, has its own cycle of life.
The bush fires destroyed so much of our forests and the devastation was catastrophic.
What the frack!? Poor cows and their… bottom burps… have long been blamed for the depletion of the ozone layer leading to the demise of the planet.
Is the sun rising each morning, the journey of the sun? Or is it the journey of your soul?
This house gives me the opportunity to draw straight lines, it makes me feel secure.
The story of this painting is of two jilted lovers that lost all hope of finding passion in another.
I painted this flowering gum as raging bushfires burned across our beautiful country.
This work represents the perspective of a risen phoenix looking from above, using a palate of blue tempest.
As neighbours helped us extinguish flames of a bushfire threatening our farm in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, we feared for Quails nesting under a bush on the edge of the timberline.
Life can be a turmoil, but this painting made me feel calm and relaxed.
Chinchilla Wattle (Acacia Chinchillensis), is one of the 600 plus species of wattle distributed across Australia.
Inspired by the natural shape of a salvaged, bushfire damaged tree stump, this artwork depicts the legendary Phoenix as a graceful fire bird rising from its ashes.
Unfortunately, not all animals survive, but the spirit has risen and travelled on to the spirit world.
The secret garden – you never know what is around the corner.
After fire destroyed the house and garden on this property at Yaraka, this resilient Bougainvillea showed us that there is always a way to start anew.
A few years back while on holiday on Fraser Island, I saw this trawler grounded not far from the Mauhino shipwreck.
For years we have been consumed with fears about terrorism, drought, fire, flood, climate change and now the pandemic.
The body of this piece represents the chaos the world is facing.
This multimedia piece celebrates the rebirth of our community through inclusiveness and acceptance.
The Phoenix is a symbol of the never-ending cycle of life and death.
The calendar year of 2019 saw our part of the Western Downs measure a mere 100 millimetres of rain which sounds much more impressive than the equivalent four inches in old speak.
Out of the ashes, cracked dry earth, remnants of forest and a new virus, a new life emerges.
Rising from the ashes is a difficult process that every person faces.
No person is an island.
I recently visited bushfire areas in various areas including the Snowy Mountains and Gippsland.
As the ashes settled on bushfire devastated land, nature began the long journey of recovery. Darkness and despair were felt by many Australians and is represented in the artwork’s dark depths and layers of background. The Rainbow Lorikeet is the centre of this artwork. Its beauty has been captured in abstract ways to evoke a sense of hope and recovery. The use of bright and bold colours evokes a feeling of a light at the end of the tunnel.
On 18 May 1980, Mount St Helens, in Washington State, USA erupted, decimating everything in its path.
Beyond the yesterdays is my interpretation of this year’s theme, ‘Phoenix’.
This painting is a patriotic picture sending a message that we as Australians will arise despite what confronts us.
This work explores fragility.
Water in our waterways changes and goes through different cycles depending on what is happening around it.
The world we recognise seems to be crumbling and burning down around us.
The Australian Landscape is often subjected to extremes of flood and fire, but plants have evolved to survive these catastrophises.
I was shattered…
‘Deep History’ is a time warp about the darker past of the Tara Shire.
I have always found the mythology of the Phoenix intriguing.
2020 has been difficult with lockdowns because of the Covid pandemic.
The gardener is a self-portrait that retells the Greek myth of the Phoenix through a personal lens.
As humans we are a single strand of fibre, we are delicate, fragile and weak; but when we are spun together or gathered in groups our strength increases.
My husband enjoys telling the story of the Box trees which dot the flat around our home.