‘Maquette for The Ferryman and the Churches’ 2015, What Makes it Go series.

This work was in my head for many years.
This piece is a ‘maquette’ or a trial run, as I wanted to make the work in a fine white Australian porcelain. This is a reference to the Ferryman of the Styx taking souls to hell, which seems to me to be the state of the churches at the moment.

IN CONVERSATION WITH JOHN O’LOUGHLIN

I went through my schooling with virtually no art classes at all. It was when I was a seminary student that I began to make art and really enjoyed it and I continued to paint even after the seminary. When we lived in Kerang I joined the local branch of the Australian Arts Council and was immediately elected president. We organised exhibitions and musical events and a long time member began to tutor me in the craft of pottery. For many years I made utilitarian pottery decorated with painted motifs drawn from my travels and life.

These are the things that kept alive, and developed, my growing passion to become an artist. When we moved to Ballarat I found the people and the infrastructure were ideally suited to inflaming the passion of an aspiring artist, and when the time was right, children finished university, I retired from work and began to study at the university. I was 58 years of age then and I felt very privileged.

It was probably in my fourth year of studies that I felt I had a level of skill that allowed me to think of myself as an ‘artist’, a person making art at a level of quality and excellence in my own and my viewers and critics eyes. I was gaining understanding about the expression of ideas in art making and felt that I was truly ‘making art’.

One of my great interests, as an older student, was observing the young people who came through the studio during their arts degree. Many floundered through, gaining little understanding of their medium and making limited progress over three years. Others appeared inspired by their opportunity and made great work, clearly advancing during the course. The difference seemed to me to be in their self-belief, recognising the value in what they did, not comparing themselves to other students so much as to their own vision of what they wanted to do. My advice to them, and to anyone, is to believe in the value of what you are doing and making, and in the goals that you have set yourself. Many people say to me that they are definitely no good at artwork, they can’t draw to save themselves. These people probably mean that they can’t paint like Van Gogh and so they place themselves outside the art field of interest. I believe that any mark (pen, pencil, stitch, paint, letter) one makes deliberately has its own beauty. It can be added to as art and can be tackled by anyone with a passion.

If you have a creative idea, it is germinating within you and the older you get the more developed is the idea and content. Your current experience is value adding all the time, and when the moment arrives you begin the plan and the work. My fellow students used to say that I was so lucky that I had my religious and life experiences behind me to draw on for ideas. They, in their youth, had not had “any” real experiences to foment their artwork. To me this was an excuse for not grabbing at the thing in their life that stood out as most interesting, believing in it as a subject, and working the idea. Not easy, but doable.

I think emotion has something to do with starting a project as it drives the importance of the idea. If I feel strongly about something I am focused on it. It seems to me that it is at this point that I can grab the idea and run with it or I can put it aside as not relevant to art. I think this is what the young students did. The idea was there but they said to themselves ‘oh this is not something I can work on in the studio’. Maybe it was too personal or not fashionable or something.

I guess I came from a very working class background. In some ways art comes from ones determination to express oneself in this way. If being from a “lower” class background limits your opportunities that may affect your goals, but I think that if you want to do it you will. This discussion reminds me of my days as a careers advisor to high school students. Same advice. Want something then do it, regardless. Once that is set as your goal you do it. Overcoming the difficulties is part of the journey. I see myself as very fortunate because our financial position at age 55 looked manageable and so I went for the art career I always wanted. While I waited I did all I could to build my skill in pottery.

I think self-belief does play a role. It is a mysterious element, self-confidence. But somehow you know what you really want. I have said that I was always a naive type but looking back I am amazed that I stuck at it.

People pay good money for my work. One lady said, ‘I can’t afford this but I have to have it!’ The artwork spoke to them and, perhaps relayed my message, or another message, but it was important to that person. I believe that if I have helped to benefit the life of one person then I have done something good. Art allows the viewer to perceive life from a different perspective and opens up new ways of thinking.

And last but not least, one thing I have not said but which is critical to my life as an artist, is the support and acceptance of my wife Judi.  For many creative people, partner support is make or break. I couldn’t have done this without her.