Not Our First Rodeo
Living at the end of the road, far from the hustle of even the nearest village, I am drawn to try and capture faces. I draw and paint many more people than I ever come into contact with. Their smiles make me smile, their pains make me suffer.
My piece, “Not Our First Rodeo”, is a mixed media painting using transparent watercolour, acrylic gouache and paint as well as coloured pencil. My piece is part portrait, part figurative. My penchant for faces had me wanting to try and capture Dr. Nathan Lachowsky and his caring countenance.
Nathan’s presentation was “Making Visible the Impacts of Covid-19 on Our Communities”. The presentation left me hopeful, knowing we have the strengths and resources to get through this time. We have been here before.
The diverse nature of the LGBTQ2+ community facing once again a global pandemic came through to me in Nathan’s words. They formed a round in my mind, “This is not our first rodeo. No one story tells it all. We have strengths and can support each other, after all… this is not our first rodeo.”
The summit’s theme of resistance and responsibility is reflected in my piece. Resistance is defined as the attempt to prevent something by action. The portrait of Dr Nathan Lachowsky is meant to symbolize the knowledge we’ve gained by living through the global Aids pandemic. A divine presence, an overseer, knowledge is God in this presentation. The figurative element shows members of our communities working together and, rather on the nose, supporting each other, after all, ‘this is not our first rodeo’.
Click here to watch the Summit 2020 session that inspired this piece.
Chris Roberts is a mixed media visual artist working primarily in transparent watercolours and acrylic gouache. Chris has focused on portraiture, predominantly men, he fuels his fire with images from the internet. Instagram has become his lifeline connecting him to both models and an encouraging artist community.
Chris is relatively new to visual art having spent the majority of his life as an oyster farmer in Okeover Inlet, on the Upper Sunshine Coast. Introduced to the art of sketchbook keeping and watercolour painting in a few seminars with the illustrious visual artist Prashant Miranda in the summer of 2019, he really only developed his art habit mid-March at the beginning of the COVID-19 lock-down when a friend offered him the challenge of drawing something every day for a month. Drawing became painting and the habit became an obsession.
This past summer Chris participated in his first group show What the Plus (+), a group art exhibition by 17 local LGBTQ2+ (and allied) artists, guest curated by Giovanni Spezzacatena (Rabideye).