Michael Bell interview by Jim Kellar

Newcastle Herald

Newcastle artist Michael Bell talks about his upcoming show, Parade, a survey of 30 years of his selected artworks, with Jim Kellar.

Transcript

00:00 Hello, Michael Bell. We're sitting in your backyard with your studio up behind the house.

00:05 You've got an art show coming up, yes?

00:06 I have indeed, yes. It opens on April 23rd up at the brand new, relatively brand new,

00:15 Cessnock Regional Gallery attached to the Performing Arts Space in Vincent Street. It

00:20 opens on the 23rd of February between 5 and 7pm if you're free to come along. And it's

00:26 until April 14th, so on for about seven weeks.

00:29 You'll have some new work and some old work?

00:31 Yeah, yeah. It's a 30-year survey show, they call it, of 30 years of artwork that I've

00:39 made. Having said that, it's not comprehensive. I'm not showing everything I've made in 30

00:46 years. It's quite selective. So there are mainly paintings and drawings. I'm not showing

00:51 any ceramics this year or in this exhibition or any of the archival portraits. It's pretty

00:59 selective of what I've chosen. Probably all around about 40 to 50 artworks I'm showing

01:07 for this exhibition.

01:08 There is a work of the infamous Dog Beach as well?

01:12 There is, yes. It's a subject that I keep returning to and I've been working on that

01:16 subject probably for about 25 years now. So I'm showing three different versions of the

01:21 Dog Beach over that 30-year period.

01:27 Michael, you do mostly work in your studio here at home, yes?

01:30 I do, yeah. I'm very lucky to have a nice big studio in the back of my property here.

01:38 I love working in that space. I work in it almost every day.

01:43 When's your most productive time?

01:46 Mostly of an evening. Just at the end of the day when things are quietened down a little

01:52 bit and the weather's cooling off a little bit, I tend to work for about three hours

01:57 of an evening in my studio. That's the time I like when things are a bit quieter than

02:03 usual during the day.

02:04 And there's a bit of music going on usually in Michael's life?

02:07 For sure, yeah. Usually I have sometimes the ABC Evening Quiz on for about an hour and

02:17 other times I've got Spotify going. So I listen to all sorts of Discover Weekly songs on Spotify.

02:25 But it's quite random what I listen to. Sometimes it's just noise I listen to in the studio.

02:29 I don't really know what bands are playing, it's just background noise. But other times

02:33 there's bands I like to play and work to, like Old Talking Heads. Albums I play on Spotify,

02:41 but also current bands too that I'm quite interested in. Bands like Big Thief I've been

02:46 playing a bit in the studio. But yeah, pretty random.

02:50 You've even got a couple of music works in the show, yes?

02:52 I have, yes I have. Inspired by one of the great Australian songwriters and rock musicians

03:00 and author, Dave Graney, who I've been following probably for about 30 years. So I've made

03:06 a few artworks based on Dave's performances over the years. They've been very enjoyable

03:13 works to make. Dave hasn't seen them yet, I'll send him some photos of the works once

03:18 they're in the exhibition.

03:20 And one of your famous friends is opening the show for you, yes?

03:23 Yeah, very lucky. My good friend from art school and university days, an author called

03:31 Mark Mordew, a rock writer really, and a poet. His most recent claim to fame is written Boy

03:40 on Fire, Young Nick Cave. So it's become an international bestseller for Mark, I'm glad

03:45 to say. And he's very kindly making a trip up the M1 from Sydney and coming to Cessnock

03:51 to open the exhibition for me. So yeah, very grateful to Mark for doing that for me.

03:55 Great. Now all the paint is dried, show is ready to go, yes?

03:58 It just needs to be all wrapped up now. Yep, the truck's coming next week. So fingers crossed

04:02 that it'll get there safely and go on the wall without any problems.

04:06 Great, thank you.

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