Family portrait

Alison Alder asks the questions

Brenda Runnegar is an artist and the Manager of Anyinginyi Arts here in Tennant Creek. Emma Kelly, also an artist and Brenda's daughter, has been visiting and I asked them about their art and the differences between horses and dogs ...
Brenda: I became interested in art when I was 14 or 15 years old. I had a vocational guidance at school who said, "Whatever you do don't do art!". So I did Latin instead, as he suggested! But as soon as I left school I started learning art, mainly from artists. I didn't go to art school until much later.
They used to have these crazy art lessons in Brisbane, back in the sixties, where they would bring along a bottle of sherry and have a life model there. The artist was John Molvig, who was teaching life drawing. That was illegal because you weren't allowed to have live models in those days, so they used to get a prostitute off the street and the price of the class was to pay for the model.
It made a very interesting way to start art and Molvig was a fantastic teacher, the best I have ever had, so that is how I started. Then I learnt oil painting from another artist in Brisbane, I used to go one or two nights a week. I went to London in 1970 and I decided to take up weaving, the fibre business was starting in the 70s. My son, Chad, was born in London and I used to swap babies with someone else and learnt spinning and weaving in a very traditional way. In the 70s it was all a new movement of sculpted fibre works.
I did that for about 10 years probably. I was quite successful, I had solo exhibitions and I was invited to exhibit in Poland. I did really interesting workshops run by artists from overseas and I became quite well known.
In the early 80s I decided that I wanted to switch to painting. I don't know why exactly. I think one of the reasons was that fibre work was so time consuming. I had this big commission to do for the NCDC (National Capital Development Commission) in Canberra, and I did a big work for the Woden Valley Hospital that took six months. I had to spin a bale of wool and dye it all on the barbeque, it was a huge fibre work and I got very little money for it. I decided that I really wanted to do painting which is a much more direct way of working and wasn't so time consuming. In the early 80s I went to the Canberra School of Art, and started painting.
I got a diploma in those days. It was like a metamorphosis. I used to make sculptures that were painted on, out of soft fabrics, like pillows and cover them in plaster, so they were still sculptural but I wasn't painting on canvas.
BNP: What did you think of Brenda's work when you were growing up Emma?
Emma: I was quite impressed with the scale of the weavings, they seemed really big and colourful and tactile. A lot of stuff that she did at art school was pretty disturbing.
Brenda: Just because I collected dead birds.
Emma: I thought it was fine, my Mum has always done her own thing.
BNP: And did you friends think it was odd, a mother collecting dead birds?
Emma: No they just accepted it, no-one said anything about it.
Brenda: At the time I was going through a marriage break up so my work was a bit disturbing. It was a bit therapeutic for me in those days.
I had a solo exhibition at Bitumen River Gallery just after I graduated. I was looking after the exhibition and someone came to the door, looked in and said that whoever did this show needed to see a psychiatrist, I couldn't own up to it at that stage and just said, "Oh I think she's OK".
Over the years my work has become less and less three dimensional and now I am painting on canvas.
I went back to art school in 1995 to upgrade to a degree and that is when I really wanted to do painting and I forced myself to just paint. I am continuing and really enjoying that now.
BNP: What is your work about now?
Brenda: For the first time it is not so distressing - in fact it is quite frivolous. My work is about how disturbing I find all the dogs around Tennant Creek and how gruesome and upsetting it is. But I am doing it in a frivolous way. I have become the opposite to how I was working before, when I was a happy person doing all this distressing work.
BNP: So now you are a distressed person doing all this happy work?
Brenda: Yes it must be! What they taught me at Queensland College of Art is not to be quite so personal. Not to make everything a personal statement - look around and talk about other things.
I also see character in the dogs and I have tried doing other animals but they don't have the same rapport as the dogs. Dogs have such personalities in their faces. When I was in Melbourne I went to Niagara Gallery where they have John Kelly's work, he only paints cows. I realised how far I really can take it.
BNP: So we have a lot more dogs to see yet?
I reckon.
BNP (to Emma): How did you get started in animating?
Emma: I studied graphic design, I did a diploma at the Canberra Institute of Technology and by the end of it I was a bit sick of it. In Canberra I could see what the top graphic design studios were like but it didn't appeal to me. I didn't know where to go. One day Mum found an ad in the paper for an animation course in Melbourne at the Victorian College of Art and said I should apply for that and see what happens. So I did and I got in.
Brenda: It was quite an achievement to get in - they only took twelve people from the whole of Australia.
Emma: I had to do a story board and a proposal of what kind of film I wanted to make. The whole course evolves around making a whole film.
BNP: What was that first story board about for your initial application?
Emma: It was quite tiny, a simple black and white drawing in charcoal pencil with two eyeballs which were asleep. They were quite separate from each other and they both woke up and one of them had a set of wings and it flew off and the other eyeball watched it fly away. It then turned back to the camera and was blinking and crying.
BNP: So, what did that say about your emotional state?
Emma: I don't know, travel? I don't know which eyeball I was supposed to be!
BNP: So you did that course, and it was obviously very good and set you on your path?
Emma: Yes, as soon as I finished it I got a job at Animation Works and have been doing it ever since.
BNP: How long is that?
Emma: About five or six years now.
I incorporate both hand drawn and computer imagery. Initially at Animation Works they would use the computer to composite, to bring together three dimensional backgrounds and two dimensional characters. Or they would use the computer to paint all the drawings. All the animation was done by hand though.
Now I am working for a lady called Sarah Watt who is an independent film-maker. She has funding to make a short film from the AFC (Australian Film Corporation) and SBS. I am privileged enough to work on that with her.
When I was at Animation Works I was very much a hired hand, you just churn it out, slog out the drawings, hundreds a day. More quantity rather than quality.
Sarah's work is more painterly. She hand paints everything and hand renders all the cells. She gives me a scribble and says this is kind of what I want, but you figure it out and do it how you think. It is really good, giving me some input.
It will be released toward the end of 2001 and is in a series called Home Movies on SBS. The title of the one I am working on is Living With Happiness.
BNP: Brenda, how has your work as an artist affected the work you do with Aboriginal artists?
Brenda: The Aboriginal artists have contributed a lot to my art practise. The way for instance that Peggy Jones works really casually and easily, with a lot of colour. Her use of colour has had a big influence on me.
And then on the other hand, because I have worked for a number of years in the art world, and visited many galleries and exhibitions, I can contribute by knowing what will appeal to the gallery scene.
In the past Anyinginyi often haven't bought work because it wouldn't appeal to the tourist market and yet artists in this area are producing work that would appeal to the gallery market. One of the reasons I have managed to get this touring exhibition together is that I want to highlight the strengths of those artists who have been overlooked for a number of years.
BNP: Do you think your mother being an artist made it an easy transition for you to become an artist Emma? A lot of parents might not think that a career in the arts is a good idea, not stable, no money, etc.
Emma: Yes definitely. From the year dot I have been drawing and it has always been there, I never really thought anything about it. I used to wonder what other kids did in their spare time if they didn't draw.
Brenda: Emma started drawing horses when she was three years old and could barely hold a pencil. The first job she had at Animation World was to do a whole series on the Silver Brumby. I couldn't believe that she got a job drawing horses - she had been practising for it since she was three!
Emma: When I went for the interview for the job I didn't have any pictures of horses in my portfolio. I said, "I can really draw horses, trust me, I can draw horses"..