Driven by curiosity
I am interested in a stupid number of things.
People. Places. Nature. History. How we think and why we do what we do. The stories behind ordinary things.
I'm the sort of person who looks things up on Wikipedia for fun and gets genuinely excited about a good Fact of the Day.
Over the years, that curiosity has taken me in all sorts of directions. So, depending on where you've encountered me, you might know a slightly different Alex.
Alex: The Artist
I've been making things for as long as I can remember.
As a kid growing up in Poland, I didn't have many toys, so I made them — dolls from pantyhose, cardboard people with cut-out clothes, animals from chestnuts and whatever else I could find. Later, when my family left Poland and moved across Austria, New Zealand and finally Australia, I didn't have much English. Drawing became a kind of Pictionary: if I couldn't say it, I could draw it.
Art stayed with me, but for a long time it fitted into the gaps around work, children and life. These days, I'm giving it considerably more room. I'm still experimenting and developing my style. I work mostly on paper and like bright colour, loose marks, wonky outlines and enough detail to reward a closer look.
What I make tends to follow what I'm curious about. Sometimes a subject catches my attention and sends me off investigating; other times I learn something and immediately want to make art about it. Either way, the making and the learning tend to feed each other.
Alex: The Writer
I'm much more interested in finding stories than inventing them.
The world already contains enough fascinating material to keep me occupied. I like digging into something real, working out what matters and finding a way to tell it — sometimes by putting myself in the shoes of someone from the past and looking at the world from where they stood.
I've always been drawn to nonfiction. At some point I even developed the rather unusual ambition of writing a textbook. I eventually contributed to some geography textbooks, so I can tick that one off.
I've also written two books of my own. Yagan grew from a conversation with my young foster son; I Hope It's Pretty There began with two tiny crosses beside names on an old ship's passenger list. There may be more books in me yet.
Mostly, I love playing with words — seeing how a different word, phrase or bit of punctuation can change meaning. I do cryptic crosswords and Wordle for fun and can happily fuss over exactly the right turn of phrase.
Oddly, for someone who works with words, ask me to spell an English word aloud and my brain stops cooperating. I need to see it written down, and sometimes sound it out to myself in Polish first!
Alex: The Educator
Once, I was a teacher.
I’ve also been a university tutor, corporate trainer, museum educator, media educator and, briefly, a fisheries educator — which gave me the unusual professional privilege of showing people how to find the gonads of an oyster.
I genuinely love helping people discover things. Teaching has also given me a healthy respect for the difference between knowing something and being able to explain it.
I don't think people should have to fight their way through jargon or specialist language to get to an interesting idea. Whether I'm writing a resource, running a workshop or explaining something face-to-face, I'm usually looking for the way in: How can I make this clear? What will make it interesting? What might make somebody want to know more?
Alex: The Nerd
Not a particularly accomplished nerd. More of the common garden variety.
I don't have a PhD or any savant qualities. Nothing has been named after me and, to date, I have invented nothing more significant than a wicked salad for lunch.
I simply really like learning stuff. There's a word for people like me: philomath — a lover of learning. Importantly, that's not the same as a polymath, who actually knows an impressive amount about lots of things. I forget far too much to qualify.
I'm the person who looks something up because I'm curious, follows three completely unnecessary links, tells someone else what I've just discovered and then, quite possibly, forgets half of it by Tuesday.
That tendency has followed me through university, teaching, museums, writing and now art. And I think that's the bit that connects everything. I don't need to know everything. I just really like finding out.
