Ningen

Indian Ink on Paper - 2016

I’ve drawn humans digitally a few times but I’d never tried on paper with inking. So in 2016 I thought I’d give it a try. For whatever reason that I no longer remember I ended up only drawing heads and hands. The three drawings were all created within 2 weeks and I thought of them as my first little baby steps into drawing more humans – I’ve had a mental block with drawings humans for a long time now, I’m trying to get over it. I’m also trying to get over my fear of producing shit work. I ended up giving them separately to three friends.

The first drawing I tried I focused on the torso and head. The idea behind the drawing was failure. Humans create grand structures and monuments to celebrate the glory of individuals or people that are doomed to crumble to attrition. They’re prolonged sights of celebration, fireworks that last 100’s of years. I wanted to focus on the fading of the firework. It’s also in our nature to recreate what we’ve seen before so I included some newer human monuments on the left, that are more simplified than the detailed man structure. There’s also a hand that has broken off and been washed ashore, eroding away. Human’s also try they’re hardest to keep the past alive so I added some beams to keep the monument alive for a little longer.

I ended up being impatient when it came to erasing the pencil lines because I was angry that the drawing turned out looking like shit. This led to me accidentally making a tiny smudge on the still wet ink, which pissed me off more, so I threw my eraser at the drawing which left a giant black smudge which only added piss to my pissed offness. I thought Failure was a fitting title for it in the end.

I gave this to a friend I met in Japan during my 2016 visit. His name is Vondo. Our meeting was a happy accident. I was in Kochi to see a band called Zay play, and Vondo’s band Povlacion was also playing. My friend Hiro and I met up with the guys from Zay at Hirome Ichiba in Kochi (if you visit Kochi go to Hirome Ichiba and eat all the food). I’m useless when it comes to being social in a big group of people, especially when I don’t speak the language. Fortunately, an incredibly friendly fellow named Vondo started chatting to me. As always in Japan, any English I receive from locals is met with open and very appreciative arms.

Povlacion are a great Spanish style punk band, heaps of frantic raw energy, and listening to their demo is always a good time. I’d be surprised if in the future, they’re not invited to play all over the punk world. Also, I wasn’t drunk when they played so I remember their live set! It was badass.

Vondo is a straight up gentleman. He quickly got introducing himself, his bandmates and everyone around, he was genuinely interested in meeting a person from another country and talking about music. When we were discussing S.D.S. he asked me if I had a copy of the Forever Arrmagedon (a VHS live tape of S.D.S. from 2000). I had only seen the tape once, in my friend Masuda’s collection, Masuda had actually unsealed his copy to play it for me. However, I was drunk and couldn’t remember most of it.

Vondo said he had two copies of Forever Arrmagedon and would send me one when I got back to Australia. This is a pretty huge gift in my world, the tape was something I never thought I would see let alone actually own a copy of. I felt pretty special even having a drunken half-forgotten memory of watching it (about a month after I received the tape some dude uploaded it to YouTube, still stoked to have a copy though). He also sent me the S.D.S. Hong Kong Knife split 7inch as well as some Povlacion badges. As I previously said, Vondo is a straight up gentleman. He’s one of those nice guy punks that always leave fond memories. I feel lucky to have enjoyed his company and I look forward to seeing him in the future. I sent him the drawing as a thank you gift.

I would see Vondo again in 2017 at a gig in Tokyo that Povlacion played. They were even more badass than when I saw them the year before. I was stoked to see all the members again. I saw Gauze play the next night, which was amazing, but honestly, I had way more fun watching Povlacion play. Vondo has incredible stage presence and the whole band drips so much attitude (attitude is a key part of what I look for in a band). When I was leaving the after party he accompanied me to the taxi to give the driver instructions to ensure I got to where I was staying okay. I hope every friend I have gets to enjoy Vondo’s company one day.

The second drawing is a result of me listening to a lot of Black Uniforms. As I remember the idea was to have a melted head that has a waterfall coming from its mouth, flowing towards a lone tree. I ignored the fact that so much water would obviously kill the tree. The hand is moving to grab the tree, or perhaps it’s stuck, I can’t remember. I thought this drawing would look good in real-life as a sculpture in a garden.

I gave the second drawing to my friend Jay, he’s been a fan of my work for a few years. When I first showed him my work I could tell he was really into it and enthusiastic in his own relaxed manner. He wanted to buy one of my larger drawing from me but after I told him the price he dismayed that he didn’t have enough money. It felt nice to have someone respect the drawing for what it was worth to me rather than trying to talk down the price.

Jay is very lovely, a genuinely nice person. He was born in Singapore, used to live in Melbourne then went back to Singapore, then moved to Italy to learn to craft leather and has moved onto crafting metal, his craft work is exceptional. I’m a fan of his creations especially his jewellery and leather craft. We only happened to become friends after he left Australia, but with friends, it’s better meeting them late than never.

It really means a lot to me when someone like Jay gives me heaps of positivity towards my drawings. I’ve shown my work to enough people to gauge whether someone thinks my drawings are rad or not. I’ve noticed a few people are really into them on a truly appreciative level, I try and give those people either a print or an original work if I have one to spare. It’s how I show my appreciation for their appreciation. When a person makes a big deal out of me giving them a drawing, it feels nice, I know that they will look after it and that it means something to them.

Jay is also one of those nice guy punks like Vondo. He’s very open about his life, his stories are interesting, unique, and more importantly he doesn’t have a hint of bullshit about him. He’s a relaxed character who doesn’t have a hint of malice towards a friend, I thoroughly enjoy hanging out with him when I get the chance.

The third drawing. I thought it would be cool to have a mausoleum with a skull that is either having a hand trying to escape or clawing to pull the dead down. I suppose the tomb would be inside the skull that is propped up on an angle by beams. I thought about drapery that had been carved out of stone for the skull, I don’t think it turned out too well, the drawing was rushed, for some reason I didn’t want to spend more than a night to complete it.

I gave that mausoleum drawing to my friend Ippo, a wonderful person and photographer from Italy. I first met Ippo when I was hanging out with some new friends and showing one of them my drawings, she asked to have a look as well, I was heading to go home at that moment so there wasn’t much of a discussion. The next time we met was at a going away party for a friend and she enthusiastically started asking questions about my drawings, I ended up telling some very long stories about what my drawings mean to me – I was drunk and had a little bit too much trucker dust.

Similar to Jay, Ippo is overwhelmingly positive about my drawings. She happily listened to my rants and it became the first of many enjoyable conversations we had about art and friendship (future conversations where I ranted significantly less thankfully). I was caught off guard when she started asking me what the drawings mean, I don’t usually get asked that question, I realised there’s little stories in all of them – even the ones that I initially think have no meaning. I often say my drawings don’t have a meaning, I guess that’s just me being shy about my work.

Shortly after we became friends, she was to permanently leave Australia to return to Italy. As a show of gratitude for the appreciation she showed to my drawings I wanted to give her a print of a swan drawing. I wasn’t sure if I’d see her before she left, so I gave it to my very good friend Russell who lived with her. Unfortunately, Russell and I were very drunk when I gave him the gift to pass along. Russell was also due to leave Australia and took the print back to Montreal with him thinking it was a gift for one of my friends there. This ended up not being a problem because I have many Montreal friends to whom I’d love to give a print to. I was going to do a new print for Ippo, then I thought that was lazy and I should draw an original piece instead.

At the time I was in a slump with my drawings, not from lack ideas, I was very despondent towards drawing, and well, everything around me. I figured a quick bird drawing would lift my spirits and would make for a good gift. The quick bird drawing ended up not being so quick. I was enjoying my time with it so much I was worried that it might not be finished before Ippo left, so I gave her the mausoleum drawing (I had been waiting for someone to gift it to). The kicker was I ended up finishing the bird drawing before she left anyways. Oh well.

The bird drawing did lift my spirits and got me out of my slump. Which only happened due to a new friendship. I recieved as a gift from her a cool skull beaded necklace which is currently added to my collection of bracelets from friends.

Originally, I planned on keeping the three drawings together as a set. I was hesitant to break up the set when I gave away the first drawing. After writing the brief stories on each of the friends, I realised in a serendipitous way the drawings have remained together in a non-physical way. Vondo, Jay and Ippo are incredibly lovely people from other countries, that I’ve only been able to spend a few brief moments with. They all have a similar gentleness that when encountered leaves one smiling. They all create excellent art that I highly enjoy. I feel very fortunate having met each of them, and I’m very happy to have given each one a drawing. I hope they all get to meet each other one day. I’m also grateful they learned English so well that the conversations we had, happened.

In my mind, the drawings remained as a set by ending up with such similarly spirited people from different places in the world, all of whom I got to enjoy a lot of smiles with, and hopefully more in the future.

When I look back on my drawings, I always recall what was going on in my life at the time I was making them. The drawings in an abstract way are time capsules. They’re pieces of my life. I am happy to have given some of those pieces to my friends.

Thanks for reading.