What if an artist faced every sense of limitation about himself head on, only to dispel it?
In recent years, Australian artist Warren J Fox returned from the UK to explore this premise. Photo-realistic illustrations based on detailed photography was his current style. Illustrating portraits quickly moved to Jazz photographs. This link between photography and illustration became a foundation of his craft. As he captured ever increasing detail, Warren felt something was missing. Call it a void or the creative process, it would leave him wanting to destroy his art, and start in other mediums?

In doing so, the story of "Two Originals' emerged - a foundation that ripped into his belief systems. It gave birth to a new idea, a bridge to new mediums. "Rip up your illustration and see how you feel when you do it"! was a ballsy idea, yet he wasn’t sure if I was willing to follow through? How could he explore his own artistic expression, if he was willing to let go. Could it be the worst idea... or more sore, what was he trying to prove?

Ripping up the illustration alone was a crazy idea yet the concept kept growing. Overlaying his referenced photography could bring the two mediums together. Merging illustration and photography into one, would cross boundaries he hadn't explored, yet he was left with an aching question... Why rip up an original? He still didn’t know. He had to give it a go to see what happened.

In doing so, Warren was drawn to the photography of Gary Heery. Gary's latest photographic collection ‘BIRD’ provided a perfect start, with an illustration of an Owl with a captivating gaze. Contacting Gary gave the green light to start. Filming the illustration process added magic to the creative process. Filming the moment he'd rip up his illustration with give people a sense of what he experienced and achieving through the process. "Tearing it up is where the magic is. It don't think it had been done to an illustration with this level of detail. When the rip was finished, transformation would happened. Fear and anxiety knocked me sideways, but when you rip up an illustration you’ve put energy and focus into, the end result becomes extremely rewarding. A sublime high for days. You learn to let go. A completely new creation emerges".