Fatality

(‘On death’s birth day came
fatal fingers,
Not to nourish;
Not to cherish;
Only to plunder.
Today nature was a majesty;
Tomorrow it will be nothing.)

This was to develop into the first of the ‘message’ type paintings and I spent weeks drawing it only to have to change it at the end due to a mistake in mixing the formulae which was later rectified nearly 6 weeks later due to the muslin and gauze preservatives applied during the initial underpainting.
The introduction of a new range of terrifying and destructive ‘machines’ complete with …‘funnel chains’ and ‘sucker’ nosed entities disturbs us all..” (critique from the ‘GRASS’ exhibition).
The ability to go ..under the landscape remains the greatest challenge of all.
To paint just all those things that are visible only from the surface IS an easy way out for all those precious ‘chocolate box image creators' that have filled gift shops and exhibitions in latter years. To be content with surface dabbling smacks of crass commercialisation and is essentially ONLY scratching the surface.
AFTER NEARLY FORTY YEARS OF PAINTING WHICH INCLUDED JUST ON SIX YEARS OF TERTIARY QUALIFICATIONS I THINK I AM ABLE TO MAKE THOSE ASSERTIONS AND WOULD DECLARE THAT MY “APPRENTICESHIP” IS NOW OVER!
Hokusai once said that.. ”PAINTING IS AN OLD MAN'S GAME!” – My God HE WAS RIGHT! I can now see what he meant – there is just so much to learn and then re learn. There are just so many different times you meet yourself coming back just as you believe you have made giant strides. This creative process is as obsessive as it is exhausting. Whoops I have digressed again!
The poetic title of this painting is really only a description of what is happening below us.
The greedy plundering fingers that reach down from the poppet heads serves to show us the depths of man’s greed and the extent to which he/she will go to exploit the ‘abundance’ below us! The ‘miniaturised’ industrial landscape that accompanies this mining venture sits precariously on the surface. There is nothing permanent about this. Just a shanty town that serves the immediate needs of those who go about the business of maintaining and greasing the machines and ‘fingers’ of destruction.
These house shapes were later used in separate paintings of small towns and villages. Quite a few of these were sold at the ‘Penta’ Exhibition but I only know the situation of one that is left – Glenys Gatto has it. A larger panel of Korumburra entitled -
‘South Gippsland Cow Cowtown -Joe N’Edna Country’ was sold to a family at Korumburra Sth. but in recent years was apparently auctioned in Dandenong for about 4 times it’s original value(?)
The machine shapes that hollow out the riches of the crust are both organic and cog form. The funnels with chains disappearing into their snouts are the opposite to the ‘Horns Of Plenty’ that for years remained symbols of fertility and abundance! But not here – it all goes ‘up the tube’ and is processed – nothing EVER replaces it - only a barren subterranean ‘landscape’ that brings emptiness, but in a more sinister way subsidence and collapse.
The ‘trees’ are withering one side of the ‘valley’ but notice that NONE are able to put down roots to withstand the assault. Apart from this they sit on a mantle that exists of contorted ‘brick’ formations that makes any growth impossible.
These contorted and disturbed substrates influenced me greatly when I came to publish ‘Karmai The Worm’. It made ‘life’ a whole lot easier when it came to drawing what was going on underneath us - only this time it included a big pink earthworm – a direct comparison with the book and these next two paintings makes the influence apparent. It was like having a ready made ‘vocabulary’ of images – and maybe (just maybe) that was meant to be! Further to this – in some of the more commercial type paintings e.g. ‘OUTTRIM’ or ‘Wild Night At Hoary’s Hotel’ the earthworm can usually be seen somewhere around the nearest pile of bottles or rubbish tip – (Now ! What message could there possibly be in that statement?)
With all the destruction that is apparent there are STILL some signs of hope but they are buried deep and if this was to continue there is an inherent warning in the title that tells us literally that this is ..death’s birth day’- that this is only the ‘birth’ of the destruction. Anything that follows will be FATAL(ity) – all that came before was pure and cherished – now nothing is of value and once when nature was it’s own majesty, tomorrow it will all be gone – it will be nothing!
The large trapped areas of ‘blue’/ water (?) in the cavities created by the constant tunnelling and removal gave me inspiration to investigate the possible future effect of this depletion and what would in fact be the physical (and emotional) legacy – in a word subsidence! But could a whole land collapse and subside in some New Age Technological Atlantean way – my next ‘excursion’ would give me the answer?
In this painting I felt I was finding my way with a totally new expressive medium. The most significant event surrounding this painting is that I was fortunate to meet and have a very long talk with John Perceval on colour who to this day remains one of my most admired Australian artists – irrespective of his failing health and his residential status at ‘Larundel’. His freedom and expressive use of colour is legendary and that is why the NEXT PAINTING (‘This Island Continent of Man”) in this series of paintings is generally considered to be the best expressively and from pure use of the technique, possibly the best of it’s kind in this era of my journey – and perhaps that is why it was the LAST of it’s kind!