Braidwood artist Ray Monde made himself 'vulnerable' by embarking on a six-day trek through the wilderness, what he found next came as a shock

Now a successful artist, Ray has for years carried around what he describes as a shame for "not being man enough for living in the country."

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His experience as a queer man in regional Australia is one not often thrust into the public consciousness, so when Ray decided to embark on an 86-kilometre walk from Goulburn to Braidwood, he admitted he was a little nervous about who he would meet.

"I saw a lot of people," he said of his six day trek along Braidwood Road and the Kings Highway.

"I stopped near the Holy Cross Seminary and there were a group of bikers there. I thought 'oh no here we go' but actually they just asked me what I was doing.

"When I told them I was an artist they were excited and wanted to know more. A lot of them worked in construction and said they'd built galleries but never met an artist.

"I was surprised at how warm they were. In the back of my mind I thought it would be a bit more blokey, a lot more machismo. I wasn't sure how people would react to an artist walking through that landscape."

It's a feeling queer men have had to deal with their entire lives but Ray admitted putting himself out there and confronting a piece of Australia where he has always had to be on guard yielded some promising revelations.

"Because I grew up in the country I always thought there was this innate machismo with being on the land," he explained.

"Part of the walk made me question whether this hyper-masculinity I saw around country men was real or imagined.

"Because everyone was so nice and maybe these pretenses I built up from growing up in the country, and doing what I thought men should do, were completely challenged which was a nice surprise."

Ray undertook his expedition in March 2021 and now, a year later, his work is ready to be enjoyed at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery.

Titled 'What the Wayfarer Saw', the exhibition is the Braidwood-based artist's first major solo display.

One piece Ray feels captures his experience perfectly is 'A Cradle of Yellow Buttons', one of several artworks featuring exposed figures against a backdrop of the wilderness.

"This walk enabled me to discard this facade and show vulnerability and that's expressed through nude figures dotted through the landscapes as part of the exhibition," he explained.

'That's why the works in the exhibition are partially imagined likenesses of actual places; emotional landscapes rather than strict reflections of what I saw."

'What the Wayfarer Saw' is showing at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery until April 30.

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