INTERVIEWS by Nathan David Kelly

The Big Issue No. XXX, October 28 - November 12, 2002

Ken Done

The hot seat: Ken Done

What achievement are you most proud of?

Mate I think the best achievement are my children and I am still struggling to be good at what I do, so really my family and the desire to continue to work.

What makes you happy?

Working basically.

What makes you angry?

Narrow-mindedness, shortsightedness people having a narrow view of their own lives and not trying to take some responsibility for the wider community

When was the last time you made a fool of yourself?

Pretty regular as a painter it teaches you more about failure than success every time you make a painting at some point in time there a few stupid things you do within it, fortunately if you have any brains you can blot them out and start again. Which is a good life lesson to that of learning from mistakes.

Name your least favorite cliché and why?

She'll be right mate in some ways its positive but in other words it kind of suggests you don't have to do anything to make things right.

What was the last movie you saw?

And what did you think of it? The Bourne Identity fantastic car chase great piece of escapism it teaches you that movies in most cases aren't about reality that even stylized violence in movies can be a bit of fun but that real violence ins horrific.

What are you reading? Is it any good?

A book about Matisse's early life and the struggle that he went through like a lot of really famous painters it took half a life time to get some real understanding of what their about and its comforting to look back on that struggle that you go through.

Describe the last dream you remember having?

I dreamt a couple of nights ago of a girl who I knew a long time ago who died, it was a sad dream but yet its comforting sometimes that you can still within your mind have a part that dreams about people who aren't here anymore.

What's the biggest issue facing this country at the moment? Why is it so important?

Is to understand that we are part of the world and that we do have a responsibility to other countries, and that even though by and large we are an affluent society all of that should come with some respect and appreciation of what that is and the ability to help people who are not as fortunate as people in Australia

If you were prime minister, what are the first things you would put in place to improve Australia?

I think we should have a new flag, whether its my design or not it doesn't matter but simply that it is a symbol of the maturity that the country had arrived at. I also think we need to solve the problem of water in this country. Even though it would take huge amounts of money we do have the ability to start to irrigate the centre of Australia if we could find ways of more irrigation there would be more work for people and Australia could take a much bigger role in feeding other less well off countries.

Any gratuitous plugs?

Well it's the first book that been done on my life and paintings, I hate to use the word serious but lets say it's the first serious art book and it plots the fact that I was born in Belmore and when my father was away at the war so when we lived in a little country town, I didn't think of it as poor but we didn't have any money and so its about that kind of family life and how my art has developed over that period of time.

I would like to ask you a little bit about your art practice, like do you paint every day?

Every day, like I think if you want to be a great painter there are two things, one you have to have the drive to do it and it doesn't matter if you have a big studio like I have or if your working on the kitchen table or in the dunny you have to have the drive to want to do it and I think good art comes from work in other words I don't think good art comes from working, in other words I don't think getting stoned makes for better pictures, I don't think getting drunk makes for better pictures. I am not against either of those things mind you, but I just think if you want to be a great tennis player or a great footballer or a great golfer or a great lawyer or a great plumber you have got to actually work at it and actually accept in art that a lot of people probably wont really understand what your doing and that always art is like half a conversation so you need the other person to look at it and take something from it but in my case look around I work every day and I guess I don't have to I guess I could probably afford now to lie around but that doesn't interest me. I am working harder.

When you started off you painted because you love it and you wouldn't do it now if you still didn't love it?

yes that right, I was forty when I had my first exhibition so for a lot of people reading you magazine who might think Fuck what am I going to do with my life I think you have got to consider that you may not have one single career, some people do but more than likely within a given life you will do a number of things and almost inevitably one thing will lead to another like your photography and your journalism will lead you to other magazines might lead to film, television advertising who knows… but because your doing it, it opens the doors to other particular things.

How many works do you produce a year on average?

Mate I would have no idea but lets say roughly couple of hundred a year.

Bryce Courtenay treats his writing as a job - he goes into his office, writes and goes home...

Bryce is a good bloke and both he and I have that work ethic and strangely enough we both used to work together in the advertising business. Like I was up at 5.30 this morning and I was on the beach for a while I got here about 9.30 ill do the interview with you and then I work, ill work till lunchtime I stop for an hour and then ill work till 5.30 ill work tomorrow( Saturday) and ill work on Sunday because that's what I like to do

You had bit of a negative experience at art school can you tell me a bit about it?

Well it wasn't so much negative when I think about it now I suppose it was a bit negative at the time in the sense that the art school you are supposed to be there for five years and after four years four and a half years the teachers up there recommended that I should take a job because there was a great job a studio wanted the best young students and they thought I should leave and get the job which meant that at the end of that period for my final exams when I was supposed to show a whole series of works I just didn't have the time, what I showed was what I had been doing for the past six months like I did the opening titles for bandstand which was like the first rock and roll program here on TV I showed the ads and I showed the posters so I was really out working and the education department decided that because I hadn't done the set exam pieces that they couldn't mark me, I got no mark at all.

But at the end of the day how did that effect your life?

Well I was more angry about the fact you know I used to work on Saturday mornings to get enough money and my parents supported me for that 5 years and it was hard to explain to them because obviously I was good and it was hard to explain why I was there for 5 years and not come away with a piece of paper however I guess it taught me that ever since that time I've never looked for anybody's bit of paper I have only looked for what they can do.