Q&A at The Art Vault

Helen Healy, Deborah Klein and Shane Jones at the Art Vault

Last night was the opening of our exhibitions at the Art Vault in Mildura. Helen Healy made the introductions and asked Deborah and I questions about our work. She also asked us to comment on the demise of drawing in art schools and why drawing is important. One of my previous blogs goes into depth about the importance of drawing so I won't elaborate again. But I think everyone really liked what Deborah and I had to say!

It was a fun night and best of all was when Helen realised from reading my blog that a good friend of mine, Sue Verney, wrote a poem about one of the paintings in the exhibition. Helen asked me if it would be alright to read it out aloud to the audience and what a pity Sue was not there to hear a reading of her work. This very poem appears in a previous blog and coincidently it happened to be the painting hanging directly behind me in the picture above. Helen was very moved that a writer would compose a poem about an artist's work, and said how special that must make an artist feel. I couldn't agree more! We only wish that next time Sue will be present. Here is Sue's poem again.

RACECOURSE

After the silent gas cloud came

the empty racecourse looked the same.

But if not galloped upon or mown

how soon will it be overgrown?

Or without refreshment slake to dust

with shades of bone and sunburnt rust.