Photographer, driftwood picture framing and sculpture using nature as art, which is inspired by `place`. I live on the South Coast of N.S.W. Australia.

Ran Photography and Driftwood picture framing business in Burrill Lake called `Lakewood Framing and Photography` since 1998, framing my own surf, landscape and abstract images of the tide line in Driftwood collected here in the local beaches and coves.

Since 2010 i have focused on making art/sculpture using nature, both ephemeral and more permanent...ephemeral, meaning change, flux, time, weather, seasons, growth and decay...natural material, plants, tree, leaf, grass, fern, vine, bark, seed, stone, sand, mud, clay, ochre, charcoal, water, kelp, driftwood...inspired by place, the spirit of place, environment, connection, Mother Earth.

Artworks mainly made on the South Coast and also in Victoria along the Croajingolong Wilderness coast. To make this style of art requires a lot of walking, looking at nature, feeling material, learning about the structure of plants and how they change through the seasons, and through different environments, and how they can be used to create ephemeral art or more permanent sculptures. There is a lot of experimenting, successes and failures, which you need, to learn and progress.

Most of my work is unplanned, walking and acting instinctively from what i find, and other times i work from places i know and that i return too, knowing that the material i need is available.

After working on an ephemeral piece, sometimes for many hours, knowing it will, over time, be erased either by the weather or animals, can be hard, especially if it is a nice work. You have to let it go, which is where the photograph becomes very important, to document the work and the change, with the image becoming the only proof of the art`s existence.

My art relates to symbols, circle, sphere, line, curve, square, triangle, space and form. Minimalist and abstract, contrasts, light and dark, dry and wet, colour, flow, hidden energy`s, as what you find in nature.

It is a very rewarding and pure art form, it`s very challenging to progress and to deal with the weather, you are at nature`s mercy, and you cant cheat, because nature does not lie. There`s no glue, nails or wire, just knowledge and enjoyment.

And the name Driftfoot, comes from a life of drifting the coast, barefoot, feeling the earth, connected to nature...connected to place and to the spirit of all living things.

After 21 years living in Burrill Lake i moved further south to Mystery Bay in October 2013...a small coastal village on the N.S.W. South Coast, a couple of hours south, overlooked by the spirit of Gulaga (Mount Dromedary) and Tilba...

Please contact me in person through my Facebook page `Driftfoot Dean Ware`, canvas prints ready to hang and my art/sculptures made from nature as well as Driftwood mirrors for sale. Please message me for sales or to make an appointment to visit my work space/home.

And i have moved back up the coast to Burrill Lake, as of September 2024.