My interest in developing a hologram along the lines of what most people expect as the subject of a hologram. . . a little Princess . . . began in 2001 when I painted a self-portrait

for the Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Irvin Gallery,

Sydney, entitled Dr Dawson and Daughter after Forbidden

Planet. The painting (oil on canvas and retroreflective glass beads), depicts me in a pose of the Magdalen by Piero della Francesca (fresco; Duomo, Arezzo) but painted over black so as to be a silhouette somewhat like Casper David Friedrich’sWanderer over the Mist. Instead of the view

beyond the wanderer being of interest, the cape forms the

background to a light-emitting painted image of a hologram

showing my daughter playing with her puppy. The painting

refers directly to the moment in Forbidden Planet when      Dr Edward Morbius demonstrates to the amazement of the onlooking space voyagers his ability to project an image of his daughter Altara from his mind “. . . because my daughter is alive in my brain from microsecond to microsecond, while I manipulate it. . . ”