The Arty Wild Oat was the first magazine of its type then, I mean, things were pretty dull in Sydney, I think, that time. Martin started doing his cartoons and I was still involved in my literary crap, so through Oz I discovered cartoons were a very satisfactory way of expressing social political annoyances of mine. Later on, my paintings tried to do the same thing. I got a bit confused between painting, pure painting, and trying to be a social commentator.
I find cartoons very easy to do, they’re a natural thing for me. I like [the] vulgarity of cartoons – that appeals to one side of me.
I usually do a cartoon when I’ve just been affected by something, some person, who I dislike; I usually vent my anger in a cartoon.
I’m not going to change society, certainly not by cartoons. I know where I am in the structure, in fact I’m not in the structure, except in the way I’ve got to live from society. I don’t believe you should take anything too seriously. Living is more important than art. Art is a reflection of living. People who take art as being everything, or their world living in a fantasy – life is a struggle of survival of the fittest and it’s a place where you are learning, discovering or strengthening individuality, for we lose our bodies and the most important thing is living and doing.
