Nadine Stransen

I recently(late 2017) took a better photo of the finished painting to illustrate a story about Nadine's life for the ABC's upcoming 40th anniversary Mardi Gras magazine

Not quite finished the background, it'll have to wait till I'm back from the North Coast in a week or 2

 

Starting to get somewhere

A beginning of a portrait of Nadine Stransen. We came of age together in Newtown and the art squats of the mid late 80s. Nadine - Andrew then - was one of the founders of the Gunnery, and first of us to set foot in the building, boosted thru a ventilation duct by Norman Eatock, spring 1985.

We went to a national youth conference at the time(Year of da Yoof). Lest we heckle him on camera we 4  were excluded until Bob Hawke left the auditorium, but not as it turned out, the building. Through a mixup we found ourselves face to face with him in a lift. That conference was a lot of fun, one of the delegates mum had a list of vacant properties so with a couple of local punk girls we went down to what would become the Orphanage, and let ourselves in. Yolanda and her friend(name?) stayed on when we went home and with others, actually secured the place.

Later on Nadine was instrumental in making NSW anti-discrimination law apply to tranys and all the other marginalised communities. After the laws had passed, and been copied internationally I was living with Nadine and I painted a 2 x 2 metre portrait of Nadine for the Archibald prize, as a lawgiver, languidly posed in a modular chair, Machiavelli's princess with a anachronistic mashup of Sydney behind. If I can locate an image I'll post it later.  Unfortunately the trust didn't have the guts to hang it, nor did it make the overflow show at SH Ervin. I think it went in the Bald Archy at TAP.

Eventually I gave the painting to Nadine and she had it at her flat in Woolloomooloo. It got a bit damaged over the years, Lance Leopard had repainted the face, a slightly disastrous makeup job, and the bottom bar of stretcher and frame had been broken, but it was still there a week before she died.

There is still no final results from the inquest to support the 'natural causes/accidental' verdict put around verbally by the police. but anyway the police had charge of the flat, and the family had to rely on them to bring Nadine's artwork to the wake. They brought the paintings hanging on the walls and no more, insisted that was everything. The Housing department had used the family's grief to pressure them to sign over control of the flat, giving them the right to dispose of its contents as they saw fit, and they signed - Don't EVER do that, they can't be trusted.

In this case, after the police left I went along to the houso to try to gain access to see what artwork of mine and hers was still there, and a couple of personal effects for Nadine's lovely mum Bev, Nadine's fawn coat - she had drawing books she was working in with  pastels. I could see from the street that the flat hadn't been cleaned, unfortunately I went through official channels - they strung us along and after a couple of weeks cleaned the flat, with the responsible officer Sean Tunnicliff lying to me that there had been no other artwork there. Public tenants are held in contempt

So I want to paint a portrait or 2 to remeber Nadine, this is a start

 

I'm about to start a portrait of Nadine Stransen, activist, artist and friend, sorely missed since her untimely death, earlier this year. These drawings are from photos off her facebok page 

voguing - her face isn't quite right in this one

Martin at the Frisco

Martin Walsh at the Frisco Hotel in Woolloomooloo. I used to go there years ago occasionally when it was an early opener and I lived just around the corner at the Gunnery. In those days everyone went there when the sun came up, and the Taxi Club closed, so it had a bent, mixed clientele, tranys, sailors and squatters

Oxford Art Prize mob

 

As it was raining it was a lot warmer in the Oxford Hotel Lesley Dimmick with Steve and Martin Walsh and some others whos names I didn't manage to keep in my head

 

Martin and Sandy at Martin's

On a train

Bored legs at Jobs Statewide

Janet, and Martin Walsh

 

Janet is a 91 yr old artist who has just returned to Sydney after living for 40 years or so in Rome

 

I went around to draw her at Martin's place in Woolloomooloo

Flight to Concord

 

The bus to Concord, to Robert's to check out some landscape locations

 

I started a portrait of him last night but couldn't take a photo this morning in his garden, fone battery is dead - here's some Frangipani leaves I drew this morning

Waiting

 

On King St early last night, but I was too tired to wait around

 

Waiting at the busstop outside the Mission before sundown

Rough Edges Art Table

Tim etc

AAt the Record Crate

Neville eating and chatting to the brewery guy on a quiet Thursday

At Centrelink, again

 

I wasted another couple of hours yesterday waiting on hold for the participation team. Without actually ever speaking to anyone, so I've been back there again today - at least the telephonic torture service has been patched to my mobile and I can do a little work at home with Vivaldi being murdered in the background between snarky lectures from a female voice especially selected for its annoying quality.

There used to be a periodic estimate of  waiting time but that's not part of the track any more. Designed in consultation with the psychos who years ago drove Noriega from the Vatican Embassy and designed American black site torture chambers, It's our government at work giving us a little inkling of how some other people live, internees on Nauru being psychically tortured by indefinite imprisonment.

 

I went up to Rough Edges for a coffee after having my phone connected to hell.

 

Tina Cheong was doing some painting. Tina is going to show some work at Buzzzbar in a month or two

Centrelink: queueing in hell

 

I had plenty of time to draw as I waited 2 hrs on hold to speak to the participation team - a team of one serving warmed over turdballs to the whole country. I spoke for a while to the operator,  I wasn't pleased and I told him just how corrupt and stupid, not to mention counterproductive the whole work for the dole notion is, in general and as applied to me. In short I want to get off the dole, not be trapped on it for life. He put me on hold, then quietly hung up. I'll be making a formal complaint about this

I'd missed a meeting, my bad I guess, not that I'd received notification.

OK, for a year or so since I chucked my moon boot I've had trouble wearing shoes and have put in the odd medical certificate to that effect. I can work, but can't wear shoes all day, I don't possess a pair that I can wear more than a couple of hours. After being called into Jobs Statewide a couple of weeks ago I put in another so I could hang the next exhibition rather than waste my and other people's time doing some art therapy(gag) with some shysters called Gemology, or Gemconnect or some such.

I spent a couple of years as a volunteer painting a last supper in 2013-5 at Newtown Mission, in lieu of work for the dole, a project that did me a lot of good, which memorialised the volunteers and poor of Newtown, and which should last a hundred years or more. The pastor there, Brian Unterrheiner is keen to have me do more, couldn't I go there and paint some more as well as conduct drawing classes, that would be of benefit to me and the community, and might actually create something of lasting value, rather than doing this useless therapy which only serves to demoralise and thwart, and prove to yourself that your labours are worthless in the eyes of government. Nope, rules has changed and rules is rules. Though the staff is so demoralised, and subject to endless churn(noone with a shred of humanity lasts more than 3 months working in those places) that they probably ignorant of them anyway, apart from their quotas

I'd told them I was making some money since the start of the year, was about to lodge a profit and loss statement. Could my earnings be counted as if they were wages, in which case they are counted at the minimum wage rate, reducing work for the dole obligations by the amount of hours that comes to. Well maybe, if they are signed off on by an accountant. I'm currently netting about $100 a week, how do I pay for that? Does the job network provide any assistance with one? Fat chance. In fact the consultant acted as if I was delusional, despite having seen the mural and being visibly impressed by a recent commission I showed her. So artists are lower than criminals and junkies in government's eyes. "No of course not, but she couldn't look me in the eye as she said it.

Anyway I wrote some waffle to the PM, my local MP, which I'll paste in below

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Hon Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister
member for Wentworth
Locked Bag 1
HAYMARKET NSW 1240

                                                           John O'Driscoll
                                                           xx/x Greenknowe Ave
                               Potts Point
                               NSW 2011
                               0401296478
                               subgeometer@gmail.com
                              
Dear Prime Minister

I'm a 52 year old artist who lives in your electorate in Potts Point. I'm currently on Newstart benefit.

By way of a preamble, 3 years ago I suffered a bad break to my right foot - a section of the third metarsal was shattered etc. I was in a moonboot for close to a year. In the period since I've had full use of my foot at the expense of some pain. I have wide feet and always have had trouble finding shoes that fit, and now find it difficult to wear shoes for extended periods. I have at times had a medical certificate to the effect that I'm fit for work, but can't wear a shoe for more than 3 hours.

I am indeed looking for work, recently finding some. Around the time I broke my foot(2013-4) I painted a 2:3 scale Newtown Last Supper at Newtown Mission, http://newtown-last-supper.blogspot.com/ - the main panel can be seen in all its stages at http://newtown-last-supper.blogspot.com/p/evolution-of-main-panel.html All the parts are played by clients and volunteers at the Mission. This was done in lieu of Work for the Dole, though I continued work when in the moonboot, and Employment Plus were so dysfunctional they never properly authorised it properly, or checked out OHS or anything. Pastor Brian Unterrheiner received absolutely no contact from them in the whole 2 years. This is work that exercises my skills, and is a memorial to people at the margins of society that people will be looking at for 100 yrs or more, something of value - maybe $100000 worth if they ripped out the wall and sold it

I have been exhibiting and sometimes selling canvases since I lived and worked at, co-directed the gallery at the Gunnery in Cowper Wharf Road in Woolloomooloo from 1985-91. In recent months I have had the use of the walls at a cafe in Newtown, I'm about to mount the third show there. I've succeeded in selling a number of my paintings there, as well as a couple of small commissions. Over the past month or so sales have taken me into modest profit so I am about to submit 3 months of accounts to Centrelink.

The medical certificate for my foot recently lapsed and I was called in to Jobs Statewide in Redfern for an interview. These places are utterly inept at placing people in actual paying work, even for more regular clients than me, a career artist. I did a course a year or so ago, at my previous provider, with a private sector job placement specialist, who literally had to show the reluctant staff how to actually connect clints with the interviews he'd arranged for them - I posted a few drawings and reflections on one of my blogs around http://name-of-liberty.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/a-very-tedious-seminar.html

This time, my new case worker - the churn in these agencies is incredible - had only one thing on her mind, work for the dole. I told her about selling paintings at Buzzzbar, said I was about to lodge a statement. She ran for her supervisor.

Her lack of curiosity about what I was doing would be breathtaking to the uninitiated. Rather than try to find out if the thing was real she didn't want to know about my business whatsoever. She'd seen my Last Supper, and was visibly impressed by work I showed her, and I sensed a certain amount of personal sympathy but her professional position seemed to be that art and business were unmentionable together, and since I was artist I'd be thrilled to go down to Gemology, or Gemconnect or whatever it's called and get my creative urges out there! Like art is some therapy, totally interchangeable. If I had nothing better to do I'd have no objections. I'm a portrait and landscape painter, I'm selling work, most everything I paint recently, and what's more I have an opening the day after I'm supposed to commence this, er, therapy.

I told her that Pastor Brian Unterrheiner had asked me to come back to the Mission and make a few additions in the periphery of the Last Supper, and that I'd suggested to him that I lead a course of drawing classes. Why couldn't I do that, that's actually of some benefit both to me and the community. Rules apparently, stupid ones.

I asked if earnings from business as declared to Centrelink would be counted in the same way as wages in determining if I needed to do work for the dole and how many hours. Catch-22 - would my accounts be signed off by an accountant? haha, nice one, how am I supposed to afford that at this early stage? So you guys love me so much you want me to stay on the dole forever. I cannot allow any distractions to prevent me from attaining a measure of success for my work an myself which I can see ahead after many years of work and struggle. I might remind you that the economic life of an artwork does not cease when sold by the artist, in fact it has barely begun, anything half-good can go on being traded, realising tax revenue, for centuries

By this time I was so frustrated by the counterproductive lunacy of this dialogue that I neglected to ask if there was a program to pay for accountancy services for small businesses starting up. Or for example why they don't match me up with a job seeker who's keen to get into marketing and online sales, I already have considerable online presence and post all my work, not that the agency cares about that, or even knows, it was one thing I didn't manage to communicate to my current incurious case worker

What assistance is available to someone like me? What is the point of this endless sabotage? It's obviously not to save taxpayers money, judging by effects, rather than pious hopes.



Thankyou

Sincerely

John O'Driscoll

An addendum:

After this debacle I went and got another medical certicate covering 3 months from mid-April. Since thenI have hung another show, got deposits on a couple more painting sales-about $1000 but I will be waiting months for final settlement and obtained a couple of commissions which are mostly completed but I have not received anything for them yet, here is one, an Opera hHouse view from the Botanic Gardens - http://name-of-liberty.blogspot.com/2016/05/sydney-opera-house-from-botanic-gardens.html . I've completed a 3 month profit and loss statement showing me netting just over $100 weekly, but not yet lodged it as I am currently breached. The next period, if I don't throw in the towel, and I won't, should show an incremental increase at least.

Centrelink accepted my medical certificate, I wasn't penalised for not attending my first session of work for the dole(20 April), and received my next payment as normal, but then was breached the next fortnight. I rang the participation line yesterday, waiting 2 hours before I spoke to an operator. According to him the medical certificate has been logged as covering the period from mid-January to mid-April. I find it impossible to believe that my doctor has given me a certificate for the period that had passed, a period mostly covered by another certificate from January, so someone in Centrelink has either made a convenient error or is playing silly buggers. Either way it's unacceptable. I intend to find out what has transpired.

After this I was put on hold, and then the connection was broken. I did not hang up, so the other end must have, barring an unlikely technical problem. I had made no bones about my view of the system, but was not insulting to the operator, in any case isn't there a procedure for informing the caller that what they say is abusive, and that the operator is hanging up? The calls are logged and recorded, so again, I want to know what has occurred, and I'd like to make a formal complaint about the participation team member I dealt with.

Here's a drawing I did while waiting on the phone - queueing in hell http://name-of-liberty.blogspot.com/2016/05/centrelink-queueing-in-hell.html - demonstrating that I will make good use of my time no matter how much anyone attempts to waste it, is a drawing of the scene in Centrekink

 

Self-immolating potato

 

Peter Dutton - when this is finished I'll stick a copy on the Political Geometry blog

Newtown Station

It's looking more finished than the version below, I'm not sure how much more I'll do. I'll do a bit more to the Townie roof, and maybe a person or two halfway across the crossing. There was a cyclist in green lycra I thought of adding from a photo but I couldn't get the camera activated in time...

A painting I started today, but I want to add some people

Grace Bros

I should get there  earlier, the days are so short now

With a blue sky and a bus and car, - another couple of hours in a few days and this will be finished, I hope

One of the pair of old Grace Brothers buildings on Broadway as well as the Lansdowne Hotel seen from Victoria Park. With the days getting shorter, I keep getting to the spot too late so it's taken a couple of sessions to get this far

Sydney Opera House from the Botanic Gardens

 

finished

 Coming together, foreground trees need work and maybe a few tiny people.

 

I started this painting this morning at @AdamandLeon's request. I should be able to finish it with one more visit to the location - a nice spot under a tree

Some of the colours will end up being something like the complement of the ones there now, pink will have some blue, and purple will have green overpainting