Sada-e-Watan Sydney ™
sadaewatan@gmail.com
Famous Australian Artist paints Farhat Abbas Shah's poetry
Gosford Regional
Gallery & Art Centre
36 Webb Street East Gosford, NSW 2250
Kelly Roach
I was asked not so long ago about my family background & its origin. It made me think long & hard at where I came from & the journey it took to get here today. I come from a mix family, which is pretty typically for the average Australian family these days. But my battles with society are completely different from those that my family previously faced. On my fathers side his family roots are Irish & French. On my mothers side is Aboriginal, Chinese, & Indian. My mother's grandmother was born an Albino Aboriginal. You can imagine her mother's shock when she was born as she was a full blood Aboriginal. With her birth led to her been exploited by a circus who charged people to see the Albino Aboriginal. For years both Violet & her mother traveled with the circus until they decided to go walk about one day. It's very fascinating how we can resemble family traits as my sister looks quite Chinese & yet I have the palest skin in my family. From one generation to the next we continued to face & conquer what ever comes our way. From the stolen generation, to the Freedom ride, my family where affect one way or another & yet I think my life seems quite trivial compared to those that have pathed the way for us. I was born & raised in Moree but I have resided on the Central Coast for the last three years. Moree was an interesting town to grow up in. Based on commercial farming to keep the town alive such as cotton, wheat, barley & pecan nuts. Money was very scarce & times are still very hard finically for any farming community. As Kids we would go Cray bobbing or swimming in the river to keep us entertained. It wasn't until I was about ten years old that I begun to realize the impact that came from society. From the people I knew really well & grew up with, they looked upon us as different. Not only did I face the dilemma of been Half Cast but I wasn't accepted by either Black or White people. I was referred to as the up town niggar. But I like to refer to my generation as the Forgotten Generation. Even as an Adult knows I still experience racism & that sense of not quite belonging. My brother is currently writing a book fuelled from this very notion & sense of lost as the forgotten generation. While striving to find my way as a person, I am trying to lead a good example for my two children by encouraging them to be individuals. Also guiding them with our cultural awareness which is extremely important not to forget who we are & where we have come from. Be proud of your roots. And stand firm as an individual & don't let yourself become a victim. My up bringing has influenced a lot of work in the past but for the last three years roughly I tend to be influenced by society's response to everyday matters. The influence & repercussions we suffer from our peers. I listen to my friends, my work colleagues, my family & mostly to my children about their thoughts & ideas on everyday issues & trivial matters that we take to heart that to other people mean very little. I am also alarmed that as an educated society we lack common sense & compassion on issues such as Depression, Disease, Sexual Gender, Drugs, Violence & so on. These hot topics & lack of compassion to the individual influence my style of painting hoping to create an awareness to everybody & anybody .I hear people say quite often that nothing changes but little steps are better than nothing. And when looking back we have come along way. When I paint I tend to play sad songs or a lot of rap & R&B music. The music gets the mood going for me. I listen to their words, really listen & take that on board with my own feelings. I never pre plan a painting or draw it out before hand, I just go with the flow & how it ends up it ends up. I tend to get my ideas from deep sleep & whether I wake at 1 2 or 3 in the morning I begin to paint with such obsession that I don't like to put the brush down until the painting is finished. I never keep a journal as I rely on my inner self for ideas & self expression to continually flow. I am a very spiritual person & dream of my ancestors regularly. I pay particular notice to my dreams & a lot of this is easily recognized in my work. Upon finishing a painting I always write little verses or poems relating to the painting, without giving completely everything away that lies behind the painting. I don't bother to paint pretty, & I believe people in general will make a purchase purely on the color scheme of their home rather than the true feeling from the art work. I also reproduce commercially to retailers through the world trade fairs & have recently signed with Dixon & Hawthorn to reproduce beauty products made from Australian plants. I had my first exhibition at the age of 17 & continue to strive forward always hoping to get my work out their. I never think of the rewards or the possibilities of what might be, I just love to paint. My only desire is to have Aboriginal Art recognized around the world as an Art form. As in many countries we are still not recognized as Artists. I hope to be one of many Aboriginal Artists who say through their art, look at us. Look at our art. They have studied every other sort of art, now is our time. And I desire to be amongst them. Currently you will find my work at Marrickville Addison Rd Gallery, Oz Gallery Pitt St Sydney, Parliament House Sydney, Purple Frog Gallery Mollymook, I have paintings that hang as permanent fixtures at Parliament House & Moree Regional gallery.
