Under The Artist’s Spotlight at View Point handmade Gallery.

So pleased to be put under the artist’s spotlight with Jess at View Point handmade Gallery. Thanks Jess!

Truth, grief, and creativity, with Michael Leunig.

 

In general use of the word, ‘cartoonist’, we think of humour, but Michael Leunig is serious when he says people’s lives are full of grief and sadness.

On the way to see Michael Leunig in conversation with Robyn Annear at Bendigo’s Capital Theatre for a taster of the Bendigo Writers Festival coming in August, I glanced down Bath Lane in central Bendigo, with its new buildings that loom and lengthen the street, and thought, Bath Lane used to be intimate, and secluded, and inviting.

So I was fitly framed to lament change. And even though I sat way back in ‘V’ row, (I thought the receptionist said ‘E’ row, but as grief goes, I’m losing my hearing,) with his tranquil ability to connect, I felt Michael had come to see me, only me.

When he speaks of grief, he refers not only to the passing of a loved one, but grief over the past: going back to places you grew up in to find they’re not there anymore. When asked what we are to do about this, he says, ‘there’s nothing we can do, it’s just the way things are’.

On creativity he quotes the negative talk we’re all familiar with, but in his meditative and quiescent way gives it due process:

‘I can’t do this. This is stupid. I’m stupid. Why do I think I can do this? Why do they think I can do this? Saying these things to the point of giving in, and then not caring, and then becoming childish, and rebellious, and that’s when we go deep, and deeper inside, down, down, down, and that’s where we find all of humanity.

He refers to truth here, and Robyn took this lead to veer him to explore further, ‘talking about getting to the truth, universal truths, the ways that people think and feel about life’s goings on’.

He relates this to a favourite mantra of his: ‘the artist’s job is to express what is repressed’. It’s a short version of his quote from the age: ‘the work of the artist is to express what is repressed, or even to speak the unspoken grief of society.’

       Leunig rambles and weaves, just as he might trample a bush landscape, while he ponders, with what seems to be no direction, answers to questions, and then strikes on gems as though he heads to that conclusion all along. I’m sure we’ll never know if this is the case, as he gazes at his knees and says, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know’. He is Australia’s Woody Allen, in all the good ways.

The Gorgeous Voices Choir closed off our trip with Leunig, and it was a trip, by serenading us with a poem penned by Leunig that has been put to music by various musicians. It’s a poem that sits above my desk, and has done for over twenty years. It’s a photocopy from the age, worn and torn after pulling it down and putting it back up every time I move house. It was a surreal moment to hear it echoing through the Capital Theatre with Michael Leunig in the lights of the hot seat, head bowed, no doubt contemplating the meaning of it all.

 

Gnome door in Bendigo

Always love this gorgeous little gnome door/window at ground level in back lanes of Bendigo.

Bendigo Cathedral By Night

Bendigo Cathedral always looks spectacular at night. Looks great at any time, but night time is super doopery good.

Coffee after Anzac Dawn Service

So great that coffee providers get in the swing of Anzac Day Dawn Service. Obviously there is a bonus in it for them, but it was lovely to hear about the post service coffees that happened around Australia. Brewhouse Coffee Roasters, Bendigo, in picture had a frenzy by the looks.

Bendigo Mayor, Lisa Ruffell, attending Anzac Day march 2013.

Bendigo Mayor, Lisa Ruffell, attending Anzac Day march.

Lucky to have gorgeous weather, and a very worthy cause, but I don’t think I could stand on that podium for that long without wanting to have a stretch. Well done Lisa.

Anzac Day in Bendigo

 

 

I never knew there is a space big enough up there in the Soldier’s memorial for a band. If you look closely you can see the conductor.