Short Black at Joe’s Garage : Self-Portrait
It was Julien Centofanti who first suggested to me that I should enter a portrait into the Archibald prize. After deciding to do a selfie — long before the word existed as it does now — I soon chose Joe’s Garage for its location. Joe’s Garage, now an Indian restaurant a few doors away from Kewpie (ex-Bimbos, ex-Punters), used to be one of the most popular cafés in Brunswick Street. Some evenings it would suddenly convert into a real live theatre, with some great plays. Another reason it was popular was its community notice board, which was layered thick with flyers for music gigs, art openings, guitar lessons, local fétes, local services, and “flatmate wanted” signs before they all went online. Figuring that this wall of ever-changing notices was visually rather intriguing, I did my first self-portrait in front of it, soon followed by my first portrait of Julien. I submitted these two artworks at the same time, back in the day when you could submit two paintings into the Archibald in the one year. During the experience of painting and submitting these works, I realised that I’d caught a new bug — I was already pondering who the subject of my painting the following year would be. The rest is history.