Tuesday at gallery...
with the girls...
with the girls...
And while Nina paints...
Tessa poses for me...
In front of the new prints...
Of the paintings...
Of Tessa when she was nearly 4...
Now she is nearly 8...
Her Chinese grandmother and I...
Live quite close in Cairns...
And are friends...
We share the same grandchildren...
40+ years ago she was really struggling in China...
Secretly studying medicine at night...
Working during the day...
Only allowed one child...
She longed for more...
I was at university in Australia and ignorant...
Secretly bought cheap Chinese pamphlets...
From an exotic bookshop in Rundle St...
Little Red school book...
Peasant paintings fron Huhsien county...
etc...
1978...
I loved these paintings...
I loved their idealism...
I loved the design and draughtmanship...
I have painted them in the background of Tessa...
I now know a little more of Wang Jing's (Tessa's grandmother) country...
Only a little...
She now knows a lot more of mine...
She now knows I could unashamedly have 3 children...
She watches me have 6 grandchildren...
She adores them all...
She finds it hard to manage her envy...
The past is being pushed under...
Like a cork...
Now she is nearly 8...
Her Chinese grandmother and I...
Live quite close in Cairns...
And are friends...
We share the same grandchildren...
40+ years ago she was really struggling in China...
Secretly studying medicine at night...
Working during the day...
Only allowed one child...
She longed for more...
I was at university in Australia and ignorant...
Secretly bought cheap Chinese pamphlets...
From an exotic bookshop in Rundle St...
Little Red school book...
Peasant paintings fron Huhsien county...
etc...
1978...
I loved these paintings...
I loved their idealism...
I loved the design and draughtmanship...
I have painted them in the background of Tessa...
I now know a little more of Wang Jing's (Tessa's grandmother) country...
Only a little...
She now knows a lot more of mine...
She now knows I could unashamedly have 3 children...
She watches me have 6 grandchildren...
She adores them all...
She finds it hard to manage her envy...
The past is being pushed under...
Like a cork...