Painting: ‘Harmony’
Painted for First City Advertising, Spring 2001
For Adam & Andy: The Aboriginal art form is complex and steeped in many centuries of history and tradition. There are no simple interpretations of the colours, textures and forms used, as each painting is influenced by the painter’s own history.
I cannot claim to have the background to attribute a real Aboriginal interpretation to this ‘meeting of the hemispheres’ style painting.
I have however, taken some broad aboriginal themes and my favourite visual elements from the paintings that have influenced me, to develop this tribute to First City.
The Serpent is the central focus of this painting. The Rainbow Serpent in Aboriginal culture often represents the Creator, and in this image, represents the Agency as the central theme for the painting. The serpent is divided into two main parts, representing the internal and external agency.
The External Agency – relates to the agency that the outside world sees, represented by the sun and the flowing stripes. The agency sometimes interacts with the flow of the outside world and sometimes against it, but always for the purpose of creating harmony within, as the head and tail of the serpent are anchored in the internal part of the painting.
The Internal Agency is where the ‘guts’ of the creator lies. This is represented by the central part of the Serpent, and the patterns emanating from it. The squiggly black lines coming from the centre of the Serpent actually represent intestines, demonstrating that this is where the important things happen. The background pattern represents the many activities that take place, while retaining an order that allows everything to fit together. The black circle with the two U-shapes on either side, represents a meeting, with the smaller E-shaped forms representing the footprints of those who inhabit the agency.
Finally, the lizard forms represent both life and vitality, and these can be found in your internal and external dealings. The footprints represent your journeys, which affect both the way the agency interacts internally and externally.
First City is an agency that looks to work with the right clients, but is always focused above all on creating the right kind of agency, by ensuring it keeps an eye on how the agency works from the inside. This harmony between the clients you work with and the motivation of your people at the agency is and will always be central to your success. This painting represents your winning philosophy and should help to remind you of it when you are faced with difficult ‘expansion’ decisions.