Until 2016, Marty’s art practice was sporadic and largely self-taught, but it built on an interest in art acquired in primary school—he was the teacher’s helper in art lessons. However, his education pathway was dictated by a father who believed a working class boy should “take a trade”. In high school, art lessons were replaced by technical drawing and metalwork. At 17 Marty bought a 35mm camera and set up a home darkroom in his parent’s garage. At university, thanks to a Whitlam scholarship, Marty’s creative streak was channelled into editing the student paper, Honi Soit, and this stimulated a life-long interest in design, layout, documentary photography, and typography.
A chance encounter with an art teacher many years later provided the spark of encouragement Marty needed to pick up a camera, pencil and brush again. Since returning to sustained art practice in 2016, Marty has developed a multidisciplinary approach spanning photography, printmaking, drawing, painting and digital composition. His earlier career in journalism and academic research continues to inform an interest in archives, visual evidence, memory and the ways knowledge is constructed and communicated. Marty’s work explores perspective, composition, colour, shadow and juxtaposition, often combining photographic observation with processes of abstraction and reconstruction.