#michael leunig

[geopsych]

Cartoon by Michael Leunig.

[unfug-bilder]

(C) Michael Leunig

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The Embrace, 1923, Diego Rivera :: Medium: fresco

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We give thanks for our friends. Our dear friends. We anger each other; We fail each other. We share this sad earth, this tender life, this precious time. Such richness. Such wildness. Together we are blown about. Together we are dragged along. All this delight. All this suffering. All this forgiving life. We hold it together. ~ Michael Leunig

[innervoiceartblog]

[dk-thrive]

there are only two feelings

There are only two feelings.  Love and fear.  There are only two languages.  Love and fear.  There are only two activities.  Love and fear.  There are only two motives, two procedures, two frameworks, two results.  Love and fear.  Love and fear.

— Michael Leunig, from “Prayers” (leunig.com)

[teledyn]

[cycas]

I like this a lot

[infiniterichesinalittleroom]

There was a bunch of Australians that had a huge influence on me as a young man growing up in Melbourne, who were certainly non-conformists. Germaine Greer, in particular, Barry Humphries, Norman Gunston, Brett Whiteley, the wonderful cartoonist, Michael Leunig, the playwright, David Williamson. It was not that I agreed with their opinions on things, or their politics, as people’s politics and opinions have never concerned me that much, it was rather that they were there as a cultural irritant, chaos-makers, scallywags, tricksters, a source of vexation within the culture, as it stood, not against the political system as such, although there was that, but rather an affront to Australian culture itself. They stirred things up, in their own singular way, shocked us, outraged us, made us laugh. I loved these people. I still do. I carried something of them with me when I left Australia. They gave me permission to remain outside of things, be my own person, to rub things the wrong way. They showed me that there was a solemn duty as an artist, to challenge, to offend, to piss people off, in particular my peers. That impulse was absorbed into my bloodstream, as an Australian growing up in Melbourne in the ’70s. I felt proud to be an Australian as I travelled around the world, because I saw that my Australianness, in and of itself, was a kind of agitating agent. We Aussies were just too loud, our gestures too big, our ideas too perverse, we were too funny. I still naturally respond to people who have that dissonant spirit, although they are of course a dying breed. You mentioned Morrissey. He made an enormous amount of exceptionally beautiful music, lest we forget, but he remains forever a thorn in the side of the prevailing cultural mood. Morrissey has the audacity, the courage, not to be boring. I admire that. Thank God there are some people like that still kicking around. As for advice, I’m not sure I have any, other than to say, don’t spend too much of your precious time trying to please people. Most people, in the end, respond to authenticity, they yearn for it, and they will seek you out if they recognise in you that genuineness. It is the artist’s way to be at least that. Authentic. Genuine. Real. So be true to yourself, and what will come will come.

NICK CAVE