Francis Alice Bruce
Observe/Learn/Play
Ceramics and other ⚧︎ art
Handmade on my verandah in Meanjin/Brisbane and as a Diploma of Ceramics student in Murwillumbah
[ TRANSIT ] WIP
This work in progress project is a series of stoneware plates thrown with smooth grey clay with thick rounded rims burnished into a sharp internal edge, each faced with a different original screen printed design. These plates are intended to be displayed on a wall or used as functional dinnerware.
These screen printed designs centre trucks and their playful, gutsy composite of a traditionally masculine industry, feminine painterly adornment, and queer projection.
This obsession all stemmed from seeing a tow truck at work hand-painted with an amazing chained-strapped HOOKED ON YOU artwork that lingered in my mind long after the encounter.
Massive, dirty mechanical engines painted with delicate ribbon-like scrollwork and pinstriping, boldly labeled with company names such as TRANS STATE, COOLWAY TRANS etc is something I have projected onto as a non-binary person. Trucks are empowered to take up space, flag their values, and decorate and modify their bodies.
Beside trucks, these designs feature other vehicle and queer cultural imagery including:
✦ the keys dangling from friends’ belt loops
✦ yonic pinstriping and tramp stamps
✦ personal experience with affirming body mods and as a 2006 Subaru Forester driver
✦ inspiration from thumbing through glossaries for cheeky pottery innuendo and from fingering through Tom of Finland and J.D.s-esque truck toilet block reimaginings
✦ EUPHORIA
Catch the debut of this series at LAVA Arts Festival – Opens 4-8 pm Friday 26 June. Free! Come along!
> 26-28 JUN 2026 – LAVA Arts Festival / Diploma of Ceramics Graduate Exhibition – M|Arts Precinct & TAFE Murwillumbah – 1 Brisbane St, Murwillumbah NSW 2484
I just wanna rob all the banks, and burn rubber
Black leather gloves on the wheel, I burn rubber
Roll the windows, hot box, and burn rubber
20,000 pencils in the bin, I burn rubber
I wanna smell the smoke in the air, and burn rubber
People say I’m drab, I don’t care, I burn rubber
Please throw some water on yourself, I burn rubber
Begging me to stay, no thanks, I’ll burn rubber
– SOPHIE & Sarah Bonito
Try your hand at truck spotting! Since this project, I have been chasing and photographing big rigs down industrial side roads, on the M1 with the dashy, and around the Northern NSW truck stops on the search for the Glamorous, the Cheeky, and the Rogue.
“Filthy Habits”
“All night long”
“Lone Wolf”
“Just a Pup”
“Don’t let the world change your smile”
Francis Alice Bruce 