Stewart Russel is the founder and man behind Spacecraft – a well known Melbourne based art and design studio. As a designer, Stewart is involved in work for clients such as the National Gallery of Victoria, or even internationally in Nagasaki, Japan, and it is through such projects that is artwork takes off.
Stewart creates complex, texturally rich and varied artworks begun from the backing cloths used to print his design projects. A spacecraft backing cloth is the fabric that covers the felt on the large printing tables within the studio. Over a period of around 3 months, this backing cloth becomes so saturated with the bleed through of various projects that it no longer lays flat enough for use – so they're taken off and become the starting point for Stewarts paintings.
These artworks are a complex diary piece and the sum of many parts, overlaid and interacting in new and unexpected ways.
